You probably thought those high-end mattresses people pay thousands of dollars for are hand-made. As it turns out, they’re also foot made, as someone is actually getting paid to jump on them hundreds of times in order to compress no fewer than 28 layers of cotton batting.

Growing up, you probably dreamed you would one day find a job that would require nothing else than jumping on beds. Well, it turns out such a job actually exists, only those doing it insist it’s not child’s play. “It’s work,” professional mattress jumper Reuben Reynoso says. “It’s not for everybody. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it.” It’s not about achieving a great height or doing back flips and somersaults, but using his soles to compress the mattress layers and detecting any pea-size lumps in the filling. To do that, Reynolds uses a very precise, grid jumping pattern, making sure he covers the entire surface. “This is not a game,” he says. “Not to me.” And I’m inclined to believe him. After all, we’re talking about $2,700 mattresses, here, not trampolines.

Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

Working at the McRoskey mattress factory on San Francisco’s Potrero Hill, Reuben Reynoso  starts his job by placing a thick protective mat goes over the mattress, to prevent the scent of his feet from being absorbed into the fabric. Then he steps onto the middle of one edge and jumps five steps forward and five steps back. He has set up a jumping pattern that allows hims to cover the entire mattress and at the same time make sure he doesn’t jump on it too much. Moderation is key in a job like this, as too many jumps will either puncture the mattress or make it too compressed, while too few will cause it not to fit in the giant stitching machine for the final sewing. So although he enjoys his job more than anything he’s been involved in the past, Reuben tries not to go overboard with the jumping. Because the jumper has to be careful and thorough with his jumps, he can only prepare three mattresses per day.

It might seem like a job fit for an energetic child, but Reuben Reynoso says it suits him just fine. “It just feels good to make one of these,” he said. “Sleep is so important. Everybody in the world has to do it. I like being a part of that.”

Source: San Francisco Chronicle