Harris Pillow Supply has made soft pillows for 3 generations

Mar 24, 2025

Tony Kukulich is an editor/reporter working in the BeaufortCounty bureau. Turning to journalism as a second career, he startedas a photojournalist in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015. Aftermoving to Bluffton in 2021, he wrote for several area publicationsbefore starting with The Post and Courier the following year. Hiswork has been recognized by the National Newspaper Association, theCalifornia Newspaper Publishers Association and the South CarolinaPress Association. Tony covers local government, environmentalissues and development in addition to authoring the Hurricane Wirenewsletter.

A trio of pillows made by Harris Pillow Supply. The Beaufort-based company has been family-owned and operated for three generations and makes luxury pillows.

BEAUFORT — For decades, it's been a tradition in the Beaufort area to give Harris pillows as wedding, housewarming and graduation gifts. There are good reasons for that.

"What we're good at is making high-quality pillows. They're luxury pillows. We won't make the pillows you see in a stack at a department store," said Patrick Harris, president of Harris Pillow Supply. "I don't want to sell something that I wouldn't sleep on."

Three generations of the Harris family have been in the pillow game, and they've managed to build and maintain a reputation for manufacturing some of the finest pillows around. It's a reputation that's bolstered by a client list that includes international luxury hotels, cruise lines, designers, military bases and direct-to-consumer sales.

Patrick and Emily Harris on the production floor of Harris Pillow Supply in Beaufort, March 6, 2025. The family-owned company has been in business since 1958 and makes luxury pillows.

"We have so many customers who have gone to a hotel and find our label on the pillow. For years, the majority of our online (sales) were people finding us that way," said Emily Harris, director of communications.

Originally founded in Chicago in 1958 by Bill Harris, Patrick's grandfather, the company later moved to Beaufort and has been there ever since.

To this day, anyone in the area can stop by the factory on Parker Drive in Beaufort and check out their offerings of feather, down and hypo-allergenic polyester-fill pillows for themselves.

"It was very different from what it is now. Back then, every pillow was a feather and down pillow, even in hospitals," Patrick said.

Three iterations of Pillow-Vac machines are on display in the lobby of Harris Pillow Supply in Beaufort, March 6, 2025. The machines are used to clean and refill down and feather pillows.

All those pillows then needed to be cleaned and refreshed on a fairly regular basis. Enter the Fluff 'n Puff Pillow Service in the 1950s. A mobile business, Fluff 'n Puff employees traveled to hotels, nursing homes, hospitals and any other business involving pillows. They'd slice open the pillow and discard the case. The feathers and down would be cleaned using ultraviolet light and put back into a fresh cover.

"Most of the nastiness is stuck to the inside of the old cover," Patrick said. "You get a sterilized, clean like-new pillow back."

Fluff 'n Puff's business went on the skids, and Bill Harris borrowed as much money as he could to buy their inventory. He envisioned a different business model, Patrick explained. His plan was to sell the Pillow-Vac machines to businesses like hotels and dry cleaners so they could clean pillows on-site. He'd then regularly provide additional feather fill and pillow covers, also called ticking.

"Like Gillette sells razors to get the blade business, he would sell a machine to get the ticking business," Patrick said. "That's when Harris Pillow was born. For many years, that's what we did."

An employee of Harris Pillow Supply operates a Pillow-Vac machine, which sterilizes feather and down pillows, in the company's Beaufort facility, March 6, 2025. The family owned company has been in business since 1958.

Patrick's father, John Harris, joined the family business in 1976 with one important requirement. He wanted to move the business south. Bill Harris was an early adapter and bought into Hilton Head's Sea Pines development in the '70s. After honeymooning there, John felt it would be a better place to raise his young family. Plus, it was closer to his fabric supplier, located in Sumter. The move would significantly reduce shipping costs. It was a veritable win-win, and the move was made in 1980.

For the next dozen years or so, the business hummed along selling Pillow-Vac machines and ticking until a long-time client, Hyatt Regency Hotels, called and asked if the company could make pillows. It was a good question. John Harris gave it a try using the existing machinery, which proved successful on a small scale. An investment in new equipment expanded capacity.

"That's when we started manufacturing pillows," Patrick said. "Had we not, I'm not sure we'd be in business today."

The company's business plan has three primary components all related to pillow manufacturing. Large-scale sales focus on resorts, hotels and cruise lines. Custom work for designers makes up another large part of the business. The final component is private label business, in which a retailer puts its label on Harris Pillow products. Sales of the Pillow-Vac remain part of the business strategy, though it represents a smaller part now than in the past, explained Emily.

In 2018, the business moved into its current 40,000-square-foot facility after outgrowing its original location, which was just down the street. The building had something of a notorious past as it was previously occupied by Jeff Lowe, who was affiliated with Joe Exotic and was featured in the "Tiger King" series on Netflix.

"He had little tigers running around where my office is today. He had all these lions and tigers in here," Patrick said, adding that he had quite a bit of cleaning to do after the big cats were moved out.

Emily Harris holds an example of down at the Harris Pillow Supply facility in Beaufort, March 6, 2025. Harris is the director of communications for the company, which makes luxury pillows.

For the uninitiated, there is a difference between down and feathers.

"Down doesn't have a quill. Feathers have a quill. It takes five full-grown geese to make one pound of down, but you can get five pounds of feathers from a single goose. That's why down is so expensive," Patrick said.

While the down and feathers are sourced from multiple locations, including the U.S., most goose down comes from Europe and most duck down comes from China. The supply is based on the culinary habits of those regions, though duck and goose consumption is on the decline. Declining consumption leads to higher prices.

The down and feathers are certified that the birds were raised humanely and that the rest of the bird was used for food.

A king-sized pillow filled with 100 percent down has about 30 ounces of down. Patrick said his favorite combination is a pillow with 50 percent down and 50 percent feathers.

Emily Harris examines a shipment of down on the production floor of Harris Pillow Supply in Beaufort, March 6, 2025. Harris is the director of communications for the family-owned company, which has been in business since 1958 and makes luxury pillows.

"The feathers give it a little more body. The down is so soft you sink almost to the mattress," he said.

The polyester used for pillow fill comes mostly from recycled plastic water bottles. Those pillows offer the advantage of being less expensive and machine washable.

"It's the closest to a feather and down pillow that I've ever felt," Emily said.

True to their roots, Harris Pillow still refreshes down and feather pillows in much the same way that Fluff 'n Puff Pillow Service did in the 1950s.

"Bring it here once a year, or you can ship it to us. We'll make it brand new again," Patrick said.

Reach Tony Kukulich at 843-709-8929.

Tony Kukulich is an editor/reporter working in the BeaufortCounty bureau. Turning to journalism as a second career, he startedas a photojournalist in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2015. Aftermoving to Bluffton in 2021, he wrote for several area publicationsbefore starting with The Post and Courier the following year. Hiswork has been recognized by the National Newspaper Association, theCalifornia Newspaper Publishers Association and the South CarolinaPress Association. Tony covers local government, environmentalissues and development in addition to authoring the Hurricane Wirenewsletter.