About Re Pillow Co.
We originally planned to rewrite this page because it’s a bit overly-chatty, not written in a formal and professional tone, which seems not to quite fit in the style of the whole website (you can disagree). But then so many customers commented that that’s actually the best part of the whole web so yeah I’m keeping it exactly as it is. (P.S. This page is written mid-2021)
Hi there, I’m Ryan Leung, just an ordinary 24-year-old.
A bit of background: My family's been in the bedding industry since my grandad's days back in the 1950s. Duvets, pillows, you name it – we've done it all.
Check out some old-school pics of our shop back in the day:
Shopfront: Left side stacked with duvets, pillows, covers, sheets and even traditional chinese wedding gowns for renting.
60+ years in HK’s bedding game—I’m the third-gen in this ‘industry’. (Let’s keep it real though, we’re not a big company that you might imagine - just a small shop trying to survive.)
The funny thing is, I never planned to join the gang… until something happened and I started a ‘’Finding my perfect pillow’’ project.
Now let’s rewind to January last year, when I still knew nothing about pillows…
Prologue: Time to get a new pillow...but which?
My old pillow was trying to murder me - I wake up every morning with neck pain like I’ve been wrestling an alligator for the whole night. Pandemic hits and I’m stuck at home - I tell myself that’s the perfect time to upgrade my pillow. Walking into those bedding stores, I stood in pure shock - different fillings, heights and so on. Even the same brand has like 101 versions, and the sales assistance was like ‘try them out!’ - you mean trying them for just 10 secs? I’ll need at least few hours of sleep to properly judge this.
After weeks of research (yes, that’s me if I can’t find sth I like), I found two "maybe" options - but one was too soft and the other was understuffed.
Hey, btw thanks for reading this far. Our web analytics show that barely anyone clicks on this page. Guess no one loves reading long stuff these days.
At that point, I kinda knew what I liked in a pillow, but nothing out there checked all the boxes. If you’ve ever shopped for pillows, you know the struggle.
Every pillow on the market claims to be "the most comfy". Yeah, but they’re not.
I could’ve just picked one within my budget and hoped I’d get used to it. But I didn’t want to settle for something I only kind of liked - you’ll be spending 1/3 time a day with it, it’s a long term investment.
So what happened?
I gave up.
You know how sometimes you are obsessed with buying something, researching it to death, and then… just drop it?
In the end? I stacked two old flattened pillows together - very posh.
I thought that's the end of the story, yet this is just the start.
Why was Re Pillow born?
To be honest those few months of stacking pillows were some of the worst sleep of my life.
I still remember waking up at 2 AM, staring at the ceiling and ended up turning on the light and started working.
Thus, Re Pillow was born - not from some grand business plan, but from desperation for a decent sleep.
Waking up at random hours - sometimes 1 AM, sometimes 4 AM. Forgive me for my messy handwriting… (yeah I blame it on sleep deprivation).
But what made it worse was - I started to get frustrated easily. Little things just set me off without a reason.
Turns out a bad pillow does more than hurting your neck - it ruins your sleep quality, your energy, your mood. I know how hopeless it is to stare at the ceiling for the whole night thinking about how many hours left could I sleep for? Should I just stay up for the whole night and go straight to work the next day?
I’ve lived in pain like this and that’s why I don’t want you to fall into the same trap.
I get how hard it is to find a good pillow out there.
(Honestly, if I'd just bought some random pillow that January, this would be the end of the story.)
So I started the "Pillow Project" - using my family's generations of bedding knowledge, we're rebuilding something different: A comfy, durable pillow. Made in Hong Kong. No rubbish marketing, just real quality.
Would it have been easier to just buy a random pillow that January? Absolutely. But easy never fixes what's broken.
Finding that perfect pillow...
I started investigating pillows - buying and dissecting every type I could find.
If pillows could talk, they’d probably sue me. I’ve brutally dissected 34 innocent pillows from all over the world - memory foam, latex, down, pearl fiber, cooling gel, bamboo-charcoal, neck-support… you name it, I’ve murdered it.
I didn’t just stop at cutting them open, I tested them, researched other brands, interviewed sleep experts… (at some point I thought I finished a degree in material science)
Let’s be real—I’ve tried 90% of the pillows out there. The expensive ones ($1000+)? Some were decent. The affordable ones? None could balance comfort and durability.
After months of murdering countless pillows, I finally found a suitable material - by blending them in specific proportions, I’ve made the first gen of CloudPok™ filling, which was the foundation of Re Pillow.
And something came into mind, my friends and I love to eat, drink, scroll through phones till midnight in bed. Even if you don’t, sweat happens, all these could easily make our pillows dirty. I need something that could protect the pillow a bit more.
Then I found something ——— NANOTEX®.
NANOTEX® is a cutting-edge fabric tech company, developed by Dr. David Soane and his team at UC Berkeley in 1998. Their mission is to investigate the technology of how plants in nature could stay dry yet breathable and all sorts of nanotechnology in fabric.
Today, their patented tech is trusted by all top brands—Nike, Hermès, Lululemon…
So when choosing NANOTEX® for Re Pillow, it’s not random picking, it’s sticking to the gold standard.
The cost? It’s “might as well sell a kidney” expensive for me at the time and the headache of signing all those contracts… Worth it? After all the testing with different food and liquids, the answer was clear.
So here’s the thing: If I’m doing it, I do the best.
I even did an experiment with my friends: (might consider including a spilling ramen on Re Pillow version if anyone's interested...)
As I researched, produced, and tested my final products, my friends became my unofficial product testers. What started as casual feedback soon turned into genuine demand.
That's how Re Pillow Co. began - not through fancy marketing, but through real people genuinely loving our product.
After hitting the 100th pillow. I knew this was something worth pursuing seriously.
About the future...
In August 2021, I launched Re Pillow 2 - an upgraded, refined version that improved on our first model. My goal? To build a premium local bedding brand - which I would describe as the ‘wildest dream’.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, I hope Re Pillow Co. can leave something meaningful for this city and the next generation.
Hong Kong is special. Behind the shiny skyscrapers, hundreds struggle daily. Our wealth inequality is mad, partly because the system heavily favors academic success - leaving others with fewer opportunities. But local manufacturing brands can help. They create job roles (production, R&D, sales, creative roles) that value hard work, creativity, and social skills over degrees - offering them a career chance. Plus, Hong Kong’s global insight and IP protection mean a well-made product can go international, balancing our finance-dominated economy.
If you’re a young Hong Konger, let me tell you something straight from the heart: The future belongs to us. I know things might feel kinda meh right now, but keep going and you’ll find the way. I know it might feel a bit cliché, (I might probably roll my eyes at that too) but here's what I've learned: when we actually believe in something - like, really believe - crazy good things can happen. This is our time. Maybe not this exact second, but soon. One day, we’ll pass the baton to the next generation - that’s how progress works. " Re" means rebuilding. Together, we can reshape things.
So don't quit. Not today. Not ever.
And to my family, if you’re reading this: I don’t say it enough, but love you guys. :)
Founder Ryan Leung
02/08/2021
I've put my whole soul into making Re Pillow, if you're interested, click here to check out Re Pillow 2.
What Re Pillow Co. stands for
- Community:
Re Pillow Co. is not just about selling pillows - it's about building a community of people who are united by the belief in dreams. - Integrity
We use our own products every night. If we wouldn't sleep on it, we wouldn't sell it. Simple as that. - Vision
Stay true to your mission. Respect every voice. We exist to turn ideas into reality - where no dream is too big to pursue, nor too small to matter.
Epilogue: You’ve made it this far - so you already know Re Pillow Co. isn’t a typical bedding brand. Let’s be honest: We never wanted to be.
I’ve suffered from so many overpriced, underperforming pillows. I’ve heard your stories, too - countless customers stuck with expensive yet disappointing pillows. That’s not right. There’s nothing wrong with making a profit, but charge what you must and deliver what you promise. To you, it might be just a transaction, a chance to earn more. But to your customers, it’s their sleep - one-third of their life. That deserves more than cutting corners.
To other companies reading this: Do better.
To you: Thanks for believing in something different.
To be honest, I’m really lucky. Lucky to see this unreasonable market for what it is.
Lucky to have the chance to build something actually good - from a user's perspective. Whether you try Re Pillow or not, thank you for being part of this “Wild Hong Kong Entrepreneurial Dream”. Thank you for Re-imagining sleep with Re Pillow Co.