A BEDTIME STORY
Mattress firm spins ‘mind-control’ suit as good news
This bizarre New Age saga of a Swedish mattress-maker just got weirder.
Staffers at a swanky retail chain that sells Hästens luxury beds and mattresses put a positive spin on an explosive lawsuit that accused the mattress maker’s kooky CEO of subjecting underlings to “mind control” and grading them based on their “vibrations and frequencies,” The Post has learned.
Honchos at The Sleep Spa — the US franchise that sells Hästens’ pricey beds, which can run into the six figures and boasts clientele like Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Vladimir Putin — all but celebrated a report of a scathing federal lawsuit against the company and its chief executive, according to internal messages obtained by The Post.
In the suit, former executive recruiter Lizandra Vega accused CEO Jan Ryde of ruling over Hästens’ corporate office with an iron fist, pelting staffers with F-bombs and subjecting them to an obscene training video — while imposing touchy-feely job metrics on employees such as “enlightenment levels” and “intentional mapping.” Hästens disputes the claims.
Despite the disturbing allegations, Sleep Spa founder Linus Adolfsson appeared to cast publicity generated by the complaint as a p.r. opportunity as he sent his staff a link to The Post’s story about the case late last month.
“We are famous,” Adolfsson rejoiced in an internal Slack channel on March 31, adding a half-dozen emoji with hearts for eyes.
The next morning, two lower-level staffers in New York — where The Sleep Spa runs four Hästens boutiques — piggybacked on his message, with one writing, “all news is good news” and another calling The Post’s story “Amazing!!!”
It’s not clear if the enthusiasm was an April Fool’s joke, but a few hours later Carl Larsson, the franchise’s managing partner in Los Angeles, also merrily chimed in.
“That article is epic pr,” he wrote in the “#dream-team” Slack channel, adding a crown emoji and two others with hearts and stars for eyes.
Adolfsson — the public face of The Sleep Spa, which also runs three Hästens stores in LA and one in Connecticut — even tried to rally his troops after his underlings hailed The Post’s report. “We are on a mission that will echo for generations to come,” he wrote on April 1. “We are updating popular culture and we are on a mission that is the bigest [sic] healthy initiative of modern time.”
In a December Instagram photo, Adolfsson wears a mask with Hästens’ signature blue-and-white checkerboard print in front of a car with a Hästens paint job.
“In Sweden, it is not uncommon for the bed to be the most expensive piece of furniture in the house,” Adolfsson told Cultured magazine last year. “Sleep is understood to be a sacred, magical time.”
Neither Adolfsson nor Larsson responded to calls seeking comment.
Hästens managing director Timothy Dillon declined to comment on the Slack statements. “Regarding the related litigation, Hästens strongly disputes the allegations,” he said.