Our family heritage and how we pay it forward
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This is our first mattress.
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Even then we were trying to help our customers feel rested when they got up.
You may have noticed the horse featured prominently in the Hastens logo. That's not only a tribute to the horsetail hair used in our beds, bur also a nod to our origins as saddle makers in 1852. At the time, master saddlers doubled as upholsterers, applying their craft to make highly sought cushions and mattresses from horsetail hair.
It was around this same time that Europe's second industrial revolution had taken Sweden by storm. A zeal for mass production changed many business owners' focus from pride in craftsmanship to pride in volume, even among saddlers. But master craftsman Pehr Adolf Janson wasn't ready to cede his life's passion to a sewing machine. He chose a different path.
His small factory near the village of Koping served the demanding requirements of local farm owners who were loyal to him. It is almost impossible for people today to understand just how demanding these customers were or the importance that they placed on their saddler. That could only be appreciated fully by someone who has made the 150-kilometer trek from Koping to the Swedish capital Stockholm on horseback.
Pehr Adolf and his craftsmen became known for hand-stitched, sprung saddles and coachman's cushions filled with high-quality horsetail hair that were hardwearing and comfortable. He maintained a brisk business even without automation, until progress stepped in again.
At the dawn of the 20th century, the automobile had begun to eliminate the need for both horses and saddlers. It was only natural that Hastens' craftsmen, now under the direction of Pehr Adolf’s son Per Thure, would apply their expertise with stitching, springs, and horsetail hair to develop the company's bed business.
Pehr Adolf wanted his mattresses to be every bit as good as his saddles. So, he set Ol!lt to learn how the very best beds were being built. Nothing was left to chance. After all, he wasn't just crafting his first bed, he-was also crafting hiB" family's future.
At the time, European connoisseurs in the art of sleeping turned to purveyors in France and England for their beds. Pehr Adolf was inspired by those who built beds for opera stars and royalty on the continent. He studied the craft and gathered knowledge, determined to give the sources of his inspiration a match for the champion title.
The bed that wanted to be the best in the world would be manufactured from this day in a small town that is practically unknown to anyone living outside Koping.
French and English beds were considered to be the finest in Europe. But Pehr Adolf's purpose was not to copy their work, but co give chem a run for their money by improving upon it. That he did.
The idea behind the first Hastens bed was simple: to produce a bed chat is in complete harmony with the sleeper. No tricks, no shortcuts - just honest, natural materials such as wool, cotton, flax, horsetail hair and durable northern Swedish pine, assembled by hand.
The idea for the second Hastens bed was simpler still: not to be satisfied with the first bed. Nothing is so good chat it can't be improved, if cmly by one small detail.
That mentality has guided the development of every bed we've created since. Using a combination of design, craftsmanship and materials, each version of the Hastens bed is better than the one that preceded it - if only by one small derail.
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Without horses there would be no Hastens.
When you consider the contribution horses have made to civilization you may picture statuesque emperors on horseback or covered wagons traversing vast plains. But the noble steed has been serving more domestic needs for over a thousand years - with its hair. Once used in everything from wallpaper and wigs to women's lingerie, horsetail hair was most covered by upholsterers to whom it was as valuable as spun gold.
Horsetail hair has been the red (actually almost black) thread running through Hastens' long history. We have relied on this amazing natural material from our first days as saddle
makers in Koping. The horsetail hair is our ally in striving to provide you with more restful nights and wakeful days. There are several reasons for this.
First, each horsetail hair in a Hastens bed is naturally converted into an amazingly resilient curled strand that works as a tiny spring. Together, hundreds of thousands of these soft springs cushion your body, complementing the work of our internal spring systems.
Horsetail hair is an organic material, just like your skin, which means it can breathe and helps to transport moisture away. This is important because as you sleep, your body will give off anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5 liters of water. Our horsetail hair can absorb 30% of its own weight and still feel completely dry to the touch. That keeps you cool and composed under the covers. It's a minor miracle that happens every night.
Beds that use oil-based synthetic materials in their design or bed linen can block ventilation. Without the proper ventilation, these beds trap hear so that the temperature rises under the blanket. It can increase the time it takes to fall asleep and lead to restless sleep at night. You might lose important time for recovery and face the next day drained and with decreased productivity.
We use our specific arrangement of natural materials such as horsetail hair, cotton, wool and flax because they can breathe - but also because they all belong to nature's family and can cooperate as a unit. Together, they secure your sleep quality by creating a comfortable sleeping environment.
Finally, horsetail hair is a natural, renewable resource. Therefore it's putting less strain on the environment. That, in itself, should help you sleep a little better at night.
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Do you think the TM8 looks a little too fluffy? No worries, you can get our firstborn horsetail hair mattress as TM4, that is, four centimeters high. We believe in offering our customers choices and have done so since we started in 1852.
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On this mattress rests a worldwide company.
What you see to the left is our first born: Hastens very first mattress. It existed in the 1850s. And it's still manufactured today.
As you can imagine, this mattress has a special place in our hearts. Exactly the same craftsmanship performed by our colleagues almost two hundred years ago is still performed daily. Ideal for anyone who wants to sleep on a lovely, firm and airy horsetail hair mattress backed by 166 years of bedmaking know-how.
Its name may seem insignificant, TM8. (TM stands for "tagelmadrass", which is Swedish for horsetail hair mattress, and the number stands for the height in centimeters.)
But if you can appreciate a top mattress that is hand-filled, sewn and tassel-tied by our experienced bed masters, then you'll agree TM8 is the crown of our work. It lies on top, closest to you. Horsetail hair of our very best quality is embedded in the middle of the mattress, creating an airy layer of millions of springy horsetail hair spirals. Each breathes and transports humidity away as only high-quality horsetail hair can. Above and beneath the horsetail hair, a thin layer of clean, bright cotton is placed. This outermost cotton fabric provides a comforting embrace.
If you sleep on a TM8, then you rest on a piece of history.
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Back to square one.
Close your eyes and think of Hastens. You see a blue-check pattern, don't you? It wasn't always this way though. This iconic pattern arrived on the scene 126 years after the company was founded. And the reasons why may surprise you.
After four generations of nonstop sleep innovation, our founder's granddaughter married Jack
Ryde, who joined the family business as CEO. Jack wanted to continue the tradition of improving on the Hastens legacy with innovations that would
take the bed into the future. To answer this challenge Jack returned to Hastens' founding belief that there was always room for improvement, if only in the details. After looking deep inside himself and the bed, he arrived at the humble quadrangle that has become Hastens' standard bearer.
The year is 1978. There is unrest in the world, riots in Africa and the Vietnam war is just over. Humanity needs a good night's sleep now more than it has in years. Jack had the soul of an artist. As he saw it, a Hastens bed shouldn't be a silent fixture in a darkened room. He felt a Hastens bed should play a less apologetic role in the home. He wanted to give the bed a bold voice and to do that he turned to the language of design. The dark times of 1978 had a color palette of brown and orange longing for freshness, so Jack drew inspiration from blue skies and white clouds arranged in a neat grid that has become an inseparable part of Hastens' identity.
Blue and white. That was the signal for a new time. The old was cleaned out - onto the stage came a feeling of freshness, freedom and a timeless, commercial form that distinguished Hastens from its competitors.
And so it was with the four corners of the square. A numerologist would tell you that the square, represented by the number four, relates to the four seasons, the four points of the compass, the four elements, and therefore has a particularly close association with the Earth. Even more telling,
it's the number most associated with building a secure foundation for the future. The square has its opposite in sight at all times. Therefore, fours often see things from a different viewpoint than others and are able to think both in an innovative and unconventional way.
Making the bed bolder on the outside was only half of Jack's idea. Making it better on the inside was the other half. That's because the real beauty of Jack's blue grid is best known to the men and women who build each Hastens bed by hand with fanatic precision. You see, Hastens' famous check pattern also serves as a work template for our craftsmen.
Its precise right angles and straight lines create a topography across the structure, providing familiar landmarks to guide the master craftsman's needle and hammer. This blue-and-white grid system ensures consistent handcrafting, bed after bed. A perfect example of form and function working in harmony.
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Welcome to the Silicon Valley of bed builders.
Any visitor to Ko ping might wonder how such a disproportionate number of master craftsmen came to populate this small town in central Sweden. Natural selection, of course.
Crafting beds has long been a valued profession in Koping. Parents are proud to pass it on to their children, with each generation making its contribution to the craft. Outside our town, this type of generational knowledge has become a scarce commodity. But here, we work with what we have. And in Koping, we make beds.
Nature never admits to perfection, it just relentlessly refines through the process of evolution, one generation to the next. It's the same for Hastens: Good enough is never good enough. Our town provides an environment where the single-minded pursuit of perfection, persistently executed step by step, refining itself over the course of centuries, lives on.
Ac Hastens we have craftsmen who have been with us for generations. In face, chat's how it's been since we started building mattresses seven years before Charles Darwin wrote his treatise on evolution in 1859. That continuity, quite literally, has kept us at the forefront of change.
Over the years, our small community has grown into a unique knowledge center in the art and craft of inducing wakefulness. In the same way that residents of Silicon Valley live and breathe ones and zeros, our locals talk mattresses and frames, enhancing each other's craft with the constant exchange of thoughts and ideas.
As you might guess, we have no plans to move. Our birthplace is Koping. And here our beds and craftsmen will continue their evolution.
Image with copy below
His Majesty, the King of Sweden Gustav VI Adolf, appointed Hastens as the official supplier to the royal court. Here seen on a visit to the factory in Koping 1953.
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"BEFORE EDISON INVENTED THE LIGHT BULB, BEFORE BELL MADE HIS FIRST
TELEPHONE CALL, AND BEFORE FORD PUT THE WORLD ON WHEELS, MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDFATHER FOUNDED HASTENS."
JAN RYDE, OWNER AND CEO
Necessity is the mother of invention. In the very north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle, the sun sets at 11:38 a.m. on November 30 and does not peep over the horizon again until January II. That one night lasts forty-three days. But even as far south as Stockholm, winter nights can span up to 18 hours.
In a country like ours, you develop a very special relationship with your bed.
All these days in the dark also provide abundant time to ponder how your life might be made better. Perhaps this is why Sweden has produced so many famous inventions like dynamite, the refrigerator, and the zipper.
For 166 years Hastens has been striving to provide Swedes with the energy to make great dreams happen. With several worldwide patents to its credit, Hastens is proud to join the ranks of prolific inventors. Today our beds are sold in 37 countries - promoting wakefulness.
Just imagine what you could dream up on a Hastens bed.
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These inspired words, passed from father to son at the beginning of the 19th century, were taken to heart by Pehr Adolf Janson. He would grow up to follow his father's advice, become a master craftsman and Hastens' founder.
As Pehr Adolf would soon learn, guiding a family business from one generation to the next can be a rough ride even in the best of times. But how do you take craftsmanship into an age of artificial intelligence, virtual worlds, and industrial robots? The words that inspired our founder have been the key. Never being satisfied. Attending to details. Embracing progress without forgetting our heritage. These lessons taught over five generations have guided our company to where it is today.
The importance of craftsmanship to our family can't be overstated. Mastery ensures the relevance of our product. It also provides the confidence to try new things, although we still maintain that running your thumb over planed pinewood can tell you more than the best laser scanner. Pehr Adolf imprinted these lessons on his three
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“I WANT YOU TO BE BETTER THAN I AM.
I WANT YOU TO LEARN AND MASTER A PROFESSION WHERE YOU CAN GIVE PEOPLE WHAT THEY NEED.
AND IN SO DOING SUPPORT THOSE YOU LOVE.”
Johan Janson, Father to Pehr Adolf Janson, Hastens Founder
children. One of whom, Per Toure, took over the family business in 1885, and his other son Pehr Adolf Jr. trained as a master craftsman.
Pehr Adolf Jr. also developed strong convictions about giving people what they needed that went beyond the family business. He became an innovative politician, who at the end of the 19th century fought for equal rights between men and women.
If Hastens beds are the platform for a better tomorrow, Pehr Adolf Jr.'s struggle for equal rights was a platform for today’s egalitarian Sweden and the standard of living it provides out country. Pehr Adolf Jr.’s work, in part, paved the way for his brother's granddaughter Solveig to assume leadership of Hastens in the 1960s. This was a very controversial role for a woman at that time. There you have the path chartered by Hastens over the centuries. As we say in Sweden, "We know from where we come. But we never walk in old footsteps.”
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The year the world woke up on the right side.
Ir's 1988, and the winds of change are afoot. Nelson Mandela is being cheered Wembley Stadium, England, Gorbachev is pushing to reinvent Eastern Europe, Sweden is welcoming
the DaIai Lama, and at home, here in Koping, the fifth generation is taking over at Hastens.
Jan Ryde is the new link .in the chain. The great-great-grandchild of our founder took over the family business, together with his wife Anne-Lie, in a world that had finally abandoned the short-term thinking of previous decades.
By this time, the orange shag carpets and plastic fixtures of the Seventies were beginning to make their exit. It was a new world that was rediscovering the beauty of genuine craftsmanship and new possibilities for nature's ancient materials. The polymers were out and wool, cotton, flax, horsetail hair and wood were moving back into our homes.
We see 1988 as the year the world woke up on the right side and began making better decisions. Jan was quick to pick up on the currents of the time. He saw the world around him unifying and wanted Hastens to be part of it. At that.point, his beds were well respected in Sweden. Bur would a bed from Koping be equally well received in Shanghai or Chicago? Was the world ready for Hastens beds?
Jan took the leap.
The results were immediate.1he first challenge in transitioning to a global producer was figuring out how to increase production volume without compromising on quality. SoJan and Anne-Lie spent time on the factorytloor working with their manufacturing, storage and delivery teams.
'fois process would be repeated as the Hastens factory went through a series of expansions to meet the increased demand from many new countries.
The handmade bed that set out to be the best in the world, now wanted to make its dream a reality. \XTord of mouth spread as orders arrived from around the globe. Our first inret11ational cusJomers included everyone from rock stars to registered nurses, professional athletes to chartered accountants, ballerinas to bakers in fact, anyone who understood the value of wakefulness invested in our beds to face each day as the best versions of themselves.
In 1995, we received further evidence that Hastens was maintaining exceptional quality. We were appointed by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf as the purveyor of beds to the royal court. Being sticklers for detail, we should mention that this was actually the second time we had received this honor from the court. Each m9narch appoints their purveyor of sleep. King Carl XVI Gustaf's predecessor on the throne made the same choice.
These days, we prefer to think of ourselves as purveyors of sleep - for everyone who appreciates the value of more wakeful days.
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Did you know that even artificial intelligence needs to rest? Experts have discovered that an Al-system that sleeps (i.e. is shut off from its surroundings) and dreams (i.e. replays experiences) learns more and performs better over time.
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Proud owners of a dream.
You could say we've had the good fortune to be the owners of a rare bed factory for five generations. And you'd be right. But what, actually, is ownership? You build upon the roil and dreams of your ancestors and feel proud if your own children do the same.
The need for a good night's sleep shall last for many, many generations. Therefore, we patiently refine what we have. There's a connection to the farmer's industriousness as he turns a few more square meters of stony ground co arable land -year after year. To make his field grow, slowly but decisively.
Take our bed 2000T for example. It's built to be the bed of the future. To be the bed of the future forever it has to be constantly rebuilt, so it will become even better and not get stuck in the past.
But still, it's a 2000T.
You may have dreams as a private person and as a businessperson (especially if you are a bed manufacturer). Ours is for everyone on Earth to sleep on a Hastens bed. That's a dream we hope to impart on the next generation of bed builders from Ki:iping as they prepare themselves to rake sleep and awakening to a whole new level.
We are convinced this would make the world a better place. More alert, happier, more open, friendlier, more harmonious, and more satisfied. That's the kind of effect a good night's sleep can have on your days.
Achieving chat dream would really make us genuinely proud.
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Hastens from the cradle to today
1852
PEHR ADOLF JANSON
On March 22, 1852,
Pehr Adolf Janson, the first generation in the family business, becomes a certified master saddler. At that time, the master saddler test required making a horsetail hair bed mattress.
Late 1800s
The family moves to Hed, right outside Koping and Pehr Adolf's sons, Per Thure and Adolf Fredrik Janson, become saddlers and, thus, second generation bedmakers.
1917
Per Thure's son, David Janson, realizes that the heyday of saddle-making is over. With the intention of becoming a master of beds, he and his father refocus the business on the manufacture of bed mattresses. David thus becomes the third generation of family bedmakers. But a little horse designed by David's cousin Paul is still permitted to stand as a symbol next to the company's name.
1924
The small village of Hed is getting too small for the expanding family business. Together with his wife Astrid, David moves 24 kilometers to nearby Koping to establish a new factory. The next year, their eldest daughter Solveig is born.
1950
Hastens' new factory, designed by architect Ralph Erskine in 1948, is completed.
1952
For the first time, Hastens appointed as a royal court supplier for King Gustav VI Adolf.
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1963
Solveig Ryde, David's oldest daughter, takes the reins at Hastens along with her husband Jack Ryde. This is the fourth generation of family bedmakers.
1978
Jack Ryde designs what has become Hastens' iconic bluecheck design.
1988
Jan Ryde, the fifth generation of family bedmakers, takes over the management of Hastens and proudly continues the tradition into the 21st century.
1995
King Carl XIV Gustaf is the second monarch in a row that designates Hastens as a royal court supplier.
1998
The factory's extension is finished. This was also designed by architect Erskine.
2006
Hastens is awarded the Swedish Trade Council's Grand Export Prize and launches its crown jewel, Vividus.
2013
Hastens receives the Signum Award for having succeeded in making the word mark Hastens and the blue check into two aspects of the same brand, and yet being strong on their own.
2017
Marwari and Appaloosa, designed in collaboration with Bernadotte & Kylberg, are launched.
2018
The blue check celebrates its 40th anniversary and Hastens is now sold in 37 countries. Our exciting journey from a small family-run company has been taking place for over 166 years, and it's still only the beginning.
