MindsInSync revs up

HTT Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/5/2012 1:57:53 PM

New York - MindsInSync - whose memory foam bath mat construction turned the category on its ear - will make its second New York Home Fashions Market showing this month from a new permanent showroom at 1350 Broadway between 34th and 35th Streets.
The company has also bolstered its executive team and is broadening the product categories in which it does business.
"There is very much a focus on R&D and product development here," said Charles Gaenslen, who joined the company in May 2011 as chief strategy officer. He was most recently chief operating officer and executive vp, Welspun USA and prior to that was Bardwil Linens' cfo.
Industry vet Jeff Kambak came on board in August 2011 as vp of national sales for the U.S. market.
The original business may have been built around a single mat, but at market MindsInSync will show kitchen textiles, bath accessories, area rugs, decorative pillows, outdoor cushions, pet accessories, back-to-school items and infant and children's products.
Its inaugural brand remains an exclusive at a big box specialty retailer. But MindsInSync is pushing forward with its own brands: Habitude for home textiles, Aquatopia for children's goods and Buddy & Friends for pet accessories.
"Our R&D team has a mandate not to work on a product unless it is innovative," Gaenslen told HTT. The differentiator for pursuing a product design, he added, "is that it should justify a patent application."