It all started, as so many things do, with a big idea. Jerry Gershaw was thinking big when he founded a bedding company named Therapedic in 1957. Today, Therapedic is a Top 10 bedding brand, and Gershaw enjoys the unique honor of watching as his creation prepares to celebrate a milestone anniversary next year.

Those 50 years flashed by faster than he ever imagined they would, Gershaw admitted.

His bold idea: Launching a brand that would offer an alternative to the two big “S” brands of that era, Simmons and Sealy. Gershaw, who had some experience in the bedding industry as a manufacturer, believed there was room for another brand.

The marketplace has proven him correct. Therapedic moved into the Top 10 many years ago, and continues to occupy that exalted territory today. And now there are several more “S” brands to contend with, with Serta, Spring Air and Select Comfort all Top 10 producers.

Gershaw, an energetic 82 today, proclaims himself “in great health.” He began his brand-building quest in a beat-up automobile, crisscrossing the country recruiting licensees. He also took to the skies, flying around the world to sign up licensees. His hard work paid off. Today, Therapedic has 17 domestic licensees and more than 30 international partners, the latter accounting for a significant portion of revenues.

“When I started the group, I didn’t have much more than an idea and some smoke and mirrors to offer,” recalled Gershaw. “But we grew it from there, and along the way I added some very good business people and aggressive entrepreneurs.”

Current Therapedic President Gerry Borreggine says Gershaw deserves credit for making U.S. brands a worldwide force. “He invented the international template that we, and many other bedding companies, use today,” Borreggine said. “He was the quintessential traveling salesman. In the case of Therapedic, he was selling himself across the country and around the globe.”

Borreggine said Gershaw looked beyond the regional nature of bedding in those early days to envision a national bedding platform. That platform was attractive to several of the entrepreneurs Gershaw courted.
Gershaw has many good memories of his 50-plus years in the bedding industry. He is particularly proud of signing a Therapedic licensee in China in the 1970s, which he said was a first for the industry. “Everyone said it couldn’t be done,” he said. “But I won their confidence and they won mine.”

He says Therapedic is in good hands today. “Gerry is a bright guy and he’s doing a great job. I hate to admit it, but he’s doing a better job than I did.”