What is Michael Fux's Net Worth?
Michael Fux is a Cuban-American businessman and philanthropist who has a net worth of $450 million. Michael Fux earned his fortune as the founder of the bedding companies Sleep Innovation and Comfort Revolution. He is also a prolific collector of supercars, with over 160 vehicles in his collection. Among his many other activities, Fux established a foundation to support seriously ill children and their families. In June 2013, Michael made headlines after a mechanic accidentally totaled his brand new Ferrari Enzo on a test drive.
Michael Fux Car Collection
Due to the wealth he has accumulated from his bedding companies and other business endeavors, Fux has built up an extensive collection of supercars. He has around 160 of them spread out in five garages, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a McLaren 12C Spider. In 2019, Fux became the first customer to have a McLaren Senna delivered to him. He received the emerald-green car in the courtyard of his midtown Manhattan residence. Fux later auctioned off that car, in addition to such cars as his 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder and his 2016 Ferrari F488 Spider.
In January 2019 Michael put 25 of his cars up for auction at the Mecum auto auction in Kissimmee, Florida. The auction included a 2016 LaFerrari Aperta with just 174 miles, one of only 120 produced. This car was estimated to fetch $6-9 million. The auction also included a 2014 LaFerrari special-order painted fire red with 418 miles that is worth an estimated $4 million.
Real Estate
Michael keeps a portion of his car collection at his home in Florida, and another portion at his home in New Jersey. His New Jersey estate, located in the town of Milford, spans 85 acres. The property features a 6,000 square foot main house and a 30,000 square foot car garage. The garage space also features a basketball court, sauna and commercial kitchen. Michael listed the estate in 2018, initially for a little under $11 million, then $8.7 million, before dropping it all the way down to $5.9 million before he took it off the market. He is a video tour when it was for sale:
Perhaps to save on state taxes, Michael's primary residence has been Florida for approaching two decades. In 2006 he paid $12.14 million for a penthouse condo in Miami, Florida. He sold this penthouse in 2013 for $16 million. He should have held on to this condo because in late 2023 it was listed for $54 million. In 2013 he paid $2.5 million for a 2-acre property with a 7,000 square foot mansion in Pinecrest, Florida.
Early Life and Education
Michael Fux was born in 1943 in Cuba. At the age of 15, he immigrated with his mother and brother to the United States, settling in Newark, New Jersey. There, the family lived in a one-bedroom apartment furnished by the Salvation Army. Fux didn't speak a word of English at the time. He attended Weequahic High School and then Central Evening High School.
Career Beginnings
Fux had his first job pumping gas at a station in Newark for $1 an hour. Not long after that, he realized his entrepreneurial passion by starting his first business, which involved selling used tires and batteries from a garage in Newark. By the time he was 20, Fux had purchased and sold several small ventures. To hone his business skills, he took a job selling automotive suppliers at Sears, and eventually became a manager. Fux went on to work as a manager at a number of other department stores, including Sanger-Harris and Bamberger's.
Rising in the Ranks
By the age of 30, Fux was a vice president at the Hecht Company in Washington, DC. After doing a stint as a sales manager for a Japanese wholesale linen company, Fux became passionate about the textile industry. He bought fabric closeouts, created a marketing program, and began making full-bodied zippered blankets. However, this business lasted for three years before it fell to bankruptcy. Fux subsequently moved back into retail, working as a carpet buyer in Los Angeles. He soon founded MFA Marketing, through which he imported rugs and other products himself.
(Photo by Mireya Acierto/Getty Images)
Bedding Industry
In 1985, Fux was contacted by his sister-in-law with a proposal to work for BioClinic, a producer of polyurethane foam egg crate mattresses for hospitals. Fux helped the company expand into the consumer market, getting its products into all the major big box stores. After a decade at BioClinic, he used his knowledge of the bedding industry to found Sleep Innovations, which produced mattresses, pillows, and visco-elastic foam toppers. To sell the products, Fux devised an innovative boxed packaging design consisting of a brightly colored box on wheels. In 2005, he sold Sleep Innovations at a healthy profit.
After sitting out a five-year non-compete agreement, Fux reentered the bedding industry in 2011 by founding Comfort Revolution, which makes mattresses, toppers, and pillows made of memory foam and the company's proprietary Hydraluxe gel technology. In 2012, Fux sold a minority interest in the company to Sealy, and opened a 432,650-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Belmont, Mississippi. He serves as the CEO of Comfort Revolution.
The Michael Fux Foundation
In early 2006, Fux established the Michael Fux Foundation to support children with serious illnesses by creating programs that provide them and their families with assistance. It works to create safe and comforting spaces for children and their families, and funds projects and research related to children's healthcare. The Foundation has also created Michael Fux Family Centers at Miami Children's Hospital and the Unterberg Children's Hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Other Charity Work
Over the years, Fux has supported numerous charities in New Jersey. They include, but are not limited to: the Count Basie Theatre Foundation; Hurricane Sandy NJ Relief; the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Central New Jersey; the Monmouth Medical Center Foundation; New Jersey Heroes; Ocean of Love; the Tigger House Foundation; and the Troopers Memorial Fund.
