Carpet performance includes how the product looks, feels (both to the hand and underfoot), retains its appearance and impacts the home it furnishes in ways such as noise and odor control.
As carpet has lost residential market share to hard surface flooring, manufacturers have developed innovations to make soft flooring more attractive to consumers. Here’s a sampling of what some manufacturers are doing to enhance performance.
Shaw Incredible Style
Shaw Floors continues investing in its exclusive LifeGuard waterproof backing system line with five unique patterns. Brad Christensen, vice president, soft surface category management at Shaw Floors, said, “Today’s consumer demands durability and cleanability but refuses to sacrifice style and design for those attributes. With these five beautiful new patterns, they don’t have to.”
Shaw’s LifeGuard carpets are designed to provide stain and soil protection top to bottom, starting with Shaw’s R2X stain and soil resistance on the face of the carpet and a waterproof barrier in the backing.
Mohawk SSS Reserve
Mohawk’s retailers use campaigns like SmartStrand To the Max to tell customers about performance through stories.
Mohawk’s most recent innovation in carpet performance is SmartStrand Silk (SSS) Reserve, which recently launched for 2017. Promising SS Silk’s durability and cleanability, SSS Reserve offers even greater softness, according to Seth Arnold, vice president residential marketing at Mohawk. “For SSS Reserve’s tested durability, Mohawk went beyond the industry standard and did walk tests with real people doing 60,000-foot steps. The result was 46 percent better than a comparable nylon. We are able to achieve an astonishing level of softness that dramatically outperforms competitive alternatives,” he said.
EF PureColor fibers
Dream Weaver designates its carpet styles covered by the comprehensive pet warranty with its purple pet shield. Engineered Floors’ VariColor technology creates a space-dyed look in solution dyed yarn in styles like these.
Engineered Floors’ (EF) most recent enhancements to the performance of its Dream Weaver residential carpet brand are based in its solution dyed PureColor fiber system offered in nylon and polyester, according to Will Young, residential brand manager at EF. “Our PureColor solution dyed nylon with cationic technology significantly reduces the number of dye sites in the fiber, thus reducing the fiber’s ability to absorb stains,” explained Young. “This is coupled with our N2 stain and soil treatment for better performance. These inherent characteristics and processes not only repel stains, but also allow our customers to aggressively clean their Dream Weaver carpets without fear of ‘bleaching’ the fiber.”
Stainmaster LiveWell
Stainmaster is supporting its LiveWell campaign through various POP, POS and merchandising material within the retail environment.
The latest development from the Stainmaster brand is Stainmaster LiveWell carpet, according to Tim Millsaps, channel marketing manager, Stainmaster brand. Stainmaster LiveWell carpet with AllerShield technology helps people live more comfortably in their homes because it reduces allergens by being designed to discourage dust and allergy-aggravating particles from bonding to the carpet’s fibers, Millsap explained.
“The patent-pending kid and pet safe AllerShield technology coats the carpet fibers to help prevent bonding of allergens, making vacuuming much more effective,” he said.
Lexmark Monarch
Lexmark is launching a national product knowledge campaign to train RSAs on the performance benefits of its products such as Monarch.
Lexmark manufactures fashionable carpet that will hold up and make a very proud homeowner from the beginning of the process, stated Rodney Mauter, executive vice president residential.
“All our yarn is solution dyed, which by its nature is very stain resistant. It has also proven to standup to foot traffic over the long term. Our yarn is all continuous filament to improve performance and reduce shedding,” Mauter said.
Phenix Cleaner Home
Phenix tells the story of its Cleaner Home brand with a point of purchase display as well as a social media campaign and digital messaging for consumers.
Phenix Flooring developed its Cleaner Home brand for consumers who are concerned with maintaining a healthy home environment, explained Susan Curtis, Phenix senior vice president, product development. The collection includes 10 stylish carpets.
“We developed these carpets in an exclusive partnership with Microban. Cleaner Home also utilizes Opulence HD, a new, highly engineered PET polyester yarn,” she said.
Foss Cashmere – Sedona
Foss takes its product messaging, such as with Sedona, directly to consumers online and provides retailers with POP displays and materials.
Foss Manufacturing LLC introduced its Cashmere Collection in January. “These broadloom carpets offer the look and feel of wool for a lot less,” said Mark Gauthier, director of marketing at Foss. “The carpets feature Foss’ exclusive DuraKnit premium carpet backing technology that offers the very best in dimensional stability while eliminating fraying, zippering and unraveling. The carpets are made from Foss’ Natural Touch Fiber, a proprietary fiber made from 100 percent recycled plastic drinking (polyester) bottles in an enhanced nonwoven, needlepunch construction,” he said.
Beaulieu Small Display
Beaulieu offers its Healthy Home carpet styles in this small footprint display as well as a larger wing rack.
Beaulieu has launched the Healthy Home brand, including carpet, carpet tile, engineered hardwood, laminate, LVP and Impervio, the company’s new engineered waterproof flooring. Dallas Chapman, executive vice president of sales at Beaulieu, explained that the carpet in the line encompasses an assortment of styles in Nylux nylon, SoftSense PET and polypropylene. Stressing the benefits of carpet in its Carpet Healthy Home brochure, Beaulieu points out the performance benefits of carpet, saying it “provides design flexibility, reduces noise, prevents slips and cushion falls.” Further, Healthy Home carpet offers Magic Fresh (odor reducer), Silver Release (antimicrobial), Scotchgard and a Pet Guarantee.