Dive Brief:

• Tuft & Needle on Friday debuted a new mattress, the "Nod," which is exclusive to Amazon, the company said in a press release emailed to Retail Dive.

• The Nod by Tuft & Needle is made in the U.S. of domestic and foreign components and has a smaller but comparable composition to the original T&N Mattress, according to the release. The twin size is priced at $275, twin XL size at $295, full size $350, queen size $395, and king and Cal king $495.

• The exclusive from the mattress brand is the latest offering in the space from Amazon, which last month launched its own private label mattresses, including budget versions through its AmazonBasics private label and premium ones through its Rivet furniture line.

Dive Insight:

As with Tuft & Needle's original T&N and Mint mattresses, the Nod works with most bed frames and is backed by its 100-night trial and 10-year limited warranty, per the company.

The new mattress fits comfortably in Amazon's line-up, according to Tuft & Needle co-founder J.T. Marino. "The Nod by Tuft & Needle fulfills a product demand within Amazon's already low-priced selection, allowing us to have an array of options to suit every customer," he said in a statement. "Our aim is to fill in gaps in the industry so we can offer quality products at every price point."

The brand and its rivals have seized on such gaps. The newcomers to the sector, which include online players Casper, Leesa, Yogabed and Purple, among others, tout material innovations that they say make their mattresses superior to traditional ones and have also simplified assortments and sales pitches, creating fresh competition for more traditional players in the space, including Mattress Firm, which filed for bankruptcy in October.

But several of those online players, including Tuft & Needle, which has stores in Arizona, Washington and Missouri, and merged with Serta Simmons in August, are increasingly turning to brick and mortar to ease try-out, augmenting the generous trial periods that have become standard. In June, Purple expanded its partnership with Mattress Firm. Target recently began selling bedding from Casper, and invested in the company after reportedly almost buying it outright for $1 billion. Williams-Sonoma brands West Elm and Pottery Barn have also partnered up with Leesa Sleep.

In February, Casper opened its own first standalone store and it now has plans for 200 locations across the country, all of which will let customers try out beds by using one of the small bedrooms the retailer has become famous for. Casper's CMO Jeff Brooks told Retail Dive in October that in addition to helping make sales, the miniature houses are meant to keep the "approachability and playfulness" of the brand in physical stores.

The investments and partnership with legacy players demonstrate how thorough the disruption is in the $17 billion mattress industry.