About Ken
My name is Ken Eyjolfson. Embr started because my wife developed an autoimmune condition, and I started paying close attention to what we were exposed to at home — what was in the air, in our food, and in the surfaces we spent the most time on. The mattress was where I spent the most time in closest contact with the most porous surface in the house, and the more I looked into what was in it, the more I realized I was thinking about it from a particular vantage point: someone who's sensitive, who has every reason to want safer sleep, who's trying to make a decision and feel okay about it. That's the perspective Embr is built for.
I'm a 19-year career firefighter. I'm also an entrepreneur — I own Mr. Liquidator, a mattress retail outlet in British Columbia. I run both businesses, and I'm naming the second one here because the only honest version of where this work comes from has me inside the industry I'm researching. The retail outlet is what gave me visibility into the parts of the category consumers can't see from the outside — the foam chemistry side, the fiberglass tier, the line between what manufacturers disclose and what they don't. Embr is structurally separate from Mr. Liquidator. No commissions, no affiliate links, no recommendations driven by inventory.
Why I'm doing this is harder to make sound official, so I'll just say it plainly: I care. My adult life has been spent in jobs where caring is the work — running into fires, talking with customers, listening to people's stories. I'll also tell you that I live with harm-based OCD — a condition that makes me unusually careful about not causing harm to others, which I've come to think is part of why I take this work seriously. I genuinely like the work of looking at a problem someone else has decided is solved and asking whether there's another way through. I don't think foam mattresses are evil. Most people can't afford a four-thousand-dollar organic mattress, the value engineering that makes a foam mattress affordable is real, and I sell them. What I want is for the people who choose a foam mattress — for budget, for back support, for any of the legitimate reasons — to be able to do so with their eyes open about what's inside, and the option to do something about the chemistry they're sleeping on if they need to.
That's what Embr is. It is not medical advice. It does not treat or prevent disease. It is independent research, openly published, with citations included so anyone can check the work. If I've gotten something wrong, tell me — hello@embrsleep.com — and I read everything that comes in.
Find me on Ken Eyjolfson on LinkedIn.