What Happened to MyPillow? Why the Company Is Losing Its Cushioning

Once heralded by QVC as the "product concept of the year," the popularity of MyPillow has suffered some setbacks in recent years, primarily due to founder and CEO Mike Lindell's insistent claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Given Lindell's role in helping former President Donald Trump push his claims that the election was "rigged," MyPillow took a hit for its owner.

So, what exactly happened to MyPillow?

From defamation lawsuits to allegations of engaging in a scam, here's a look at the trouble Lindell has gotten himself into over the years and how it has impacted the MyPillow brand.

Lindell and his MyPillow company are being sued for defamation by two different voting systems companies over his continued claims that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" from Trump.

In 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Lindell and MyPillow for his claims of voter fraud with their machines. Dominion representatives say they made two attempts to caution Lindell about his false claims. Still, he continued his accusations, including releasing a video that featured "numerous red flags and flaws in the fake evidence."

"Despite repeated warnings and efforts to share the facts with him, Mr. Lindell has continued to maliciously spread false claims about Dominion, each time giving empty assurances that he would come forward with overwhelming proof," Dominion CEO John Poulos said in a February 2021 statement.

Poulos also said, "These claims have caused irreparable harm to Dominion's good reputation and threatened the safety of our employees and customers. Moreover, Mr. Lindell's lies have undermined trust in American democracy and tarnished the hard work of local election officials."

In January 2022, the voting technology company Smartmatic took similar action and filed a lawsuit against Lindell and MyPillow for Lindell's "persistent, deliberate, and damaging lies about Smartmatic regarding the 2020 Presidential election."

"Crazy like a fox. Mike Lindell knows exactly what he is doing, and it is dangerous," reads the first line in the introduction of the complaint filed by Smartmatic.

Lindell's never-ending battle against the results of the 2020 presidential election may have hurt MyPillow sales. Around the same time that Dominion filed its lawsuit against Lindell, several major retailers started pulling MyPillow off their shelves. Bed, Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, JCPenney, Costco, and Wayfair are a few retailers that stopped selling MyPillow.

"These guys don't understand," Lindell said in an interview with the Right Side Broadcasting Network on Jan. 18, 2021. "They're scared. Like a Bed, Bath & Beyond, they're scared. They were good partners. In fact, I told them, 'You guys come back anytime you want.'"

Several retailers said their decision to pull MyPillow was due to decreased customer demand.

"We have been rationalizing our assortment to discontinue a number of underperforming items and brands. This includes the MyPillow product line," a Bed, Bath & Beyond spokesperson told CNBC.

Lindell's persistence could end up bankrupting the company that he built. According to CNBC, Lindell said he would "spend every dime I have" in his campaign against the outcome of the 2020 election. He has already spent over $25 million of his own money to push his false claims, CNBC reports. That is half of his net worth, which is estimated to be about $50 million.

In August 2021, Lindell launched the "Prove Mike Wrong Challenge" as part of the "Cyber Symposium," offering $5 million to the lucky winner. In order to receive the reward, a contestant would need to prove that "packet captures," along with other data, were not valid data "from the November 2020 election." They would ultimately need to prove China interfered with the 2020 election.

Robert Zeidman was one to enter the challenge and provided a 15-page report that indicated the data Lindell had supplied didn't "contain packet data of any kind and do not contain any information related to the November 2020 election," per NPR.

But after a panel of judges refused to declare Zeidman the winner, he reportedly filed for arbitration. The three arbitrators assigned to the case agreed Lindell must pay Zeidman the $5 million.

After news broke on the verdict, Lindell responded by saying, "It's going to end up in court. I'm not going to pay anything. He didn't prove anything," NPR noted in an April 2023 publication.