Nobody Knows Futons Like Futon Life

When we say "Nobody knows futons like Futon Life" we ain't just whistlin' Dixie. We've been covering this market since the very beginning. Hey, Chet Stoler wasn't even in the business when I started, and that's saying something. Along the way I have been very blessed to be able to meet and work with people like Pranji Lodhia of Shamiana and Mitch Wapen of Lofa Sales, two gentlemen who were instrumental to this publication's early success and who, by the way, are still advertising nine years later. When I started my futon career I was into both manufacturing and retailing with a small company called XHAXHI (that's Jha-Gee), and in 1985 I went to the first ever meeting of the futon industry-at-large in, upstate New York (I still have my nametag to prove it). This meeting was also the place where the Futon Association was formed.

In 1986 the second meeting/expo took place on Cape Cod. I was elected to the board for a one year term along with Pranji Lodhia, Pauline Normand, Ron Bazzar, Karla Marie and Jean Marclay. To my knowledge Pranji is the only person from that board who is still active in the industry. During the following year we planned our next EXPO in San Francisco and I became the Editor of The Futon News, the Association's newsletter. (Just to let you know the Association is about to seal a deal for the 1999 EXPO in Seattle, with deals all set for next year in Phoenix and New Orleans in 1998.)

The Expo in San Francisco, in 1987, was almost a disaster. We were in a small ballroom in the Chinatown Holiday Inn on Kearny Street. New companies, some of whom were used to larger shows (like the Waterbed Show), didn't seem impressed with our effort. We all survived and enjoyed San Francisco, and I got to cruise Marin County with Eric Sherman, a true futon pioneer, who showed us some of his "secrets" which included a densified cotton futon with a tape edge like a conventional mattress. In 1987 an entire new association board was elected. Seven new people, each with their own plans and goals for their fledgling industry.

The following year saw the EXPO move to Montréal. I rode from Providence to Montréal, and back, on my motorcycle (a sunny eight hour trip). In Montréal I stayed with Bill Shaffield of From The Source. During the show Bill became very ill and I had to rush him to the hospital. He missed most of the show but was a tower of wisdom at the annual meeting, where he was elected to the Board. The show itself took place at the Shangri-La Hotel (can you believe it) in a series of rooms on the fourth or fifth floor. Sig Gordon of At Home Furnishings was a guest speaker. Nobody knew who he was, but he had (and still has) a great voice. I can still remember Sig telling us about his "food town" experience and the lack of any knowledge at the consumer level about futon furniture (that sure has changed). The best part of the Montréal EXPO was watching Shigeki Nakazawa, a champion futon maker from Japan, create a traditional (Japanese) futon before a crowd of admiring onlookers. My part in all of this was to mediate and facilitate a seminar called "Dynamics of the Manufacturer/Retailer Relationship." I almost needed a bouncer to help keep the warring parties separated. At that time a very small group of companies were making most of the goods. With super growth came quality and delivery shortfalls, a problem that still exists today at some levels. New Moon, a booming company that would crumble only a year later (see V1N3 Fall 1989), introduced its new CEO, Norman Klass. Due to time constraints I had to leave before the annual meeting. As I pulled out on to the street, in the pouring rain, I came face to face with Japhy Ryder who was in his van. I said "see you next year," and began an eleven hour ride home. I still tell people about this trip home, and how it made a man out of me. As I entered southern New Hampshire, eight hours and three thunder storms later, the clouds began to clear, and I took the plastic bags off my feet when I got to Boston an hour later.

I never made it to the 1989 EXPO in New Orleans. Lets just say I was in transition towards a new and better life. 1989 was also the year FUTON LIFE was born.

Enough with all this nostalgia. Let's talk about today. We are about to reach into cyberspace and achieve another milestone in our publishing history. If you have a computer and a modem you will now be able to see Futon Life on-line. Our URL is www.futonlife.com (how appropriate). We will be compiling all the important text from all the past issues and will also have an archive of photos you will be able to download. Unlike the printed page, which we produce quarterly, the web page will be a living document with perhaps even daily additions and updates. We will be "hot linked" to the FAI web page (www.futon.org), and we will also be listed with all the appropriate search engines (AltaVista, Yahoo, Web Crawler, etc.). Futon Life will be covering other futon furniture related web sites in the printed page and we will be demonstrating our technology prowess, on the web, with a leading edge VRML virtual futon furniture demo room. Oh yea, by the way, we have two other URL's www.rtppub.com and www.specialtybed.com. I guess all I can say is see you in cyberspace futon heads.