Mohawk Carpet recently announced entry into the market place with a new fiber dubbed SmartStrand made with DuPonts Sorona Polymer. Shaw also has a new fiber in Corterra, from Shell Chemical, which they’ve actually been using in the apartment market for the last four or five years with great success. Both of these new fibers will bring advanced performance characteristics to carpet that you need to know about.

First of all both fibers use the same basic chemical raw materials and the same basic chemical composition of the polymer. Shell was first to the market place with Corterra. Shaw Industries was the first to put this new fiber technology to work in what is arguably the toughest segment of the market – apartment rentals. The biggest problem in this market is stains on the carpet. The polymer used to make Corterra and Sorona is naturally stain resistant. In essence, what is derived from these new polymers is a mix of the best qualities of nylon and polyester. Nylon is extremely resilient and abrasion resistant but it is easy to stain. Polyester has less resiliency but great colorfastness and stain resistance. So when you think of Sorona or SmartStrand or Corterra or any other name given to this fiber technology, you can think of it as a fiber that excels beyond any other.

Several years ago we published a book on fiber performance, characteristics and general information on fiber. This book contains a Quick Chart that tells you at a glance the most pertinent characteristics of each of the fibers used in carpets and rugs. The chart includes cleaning, color, abrasion resistance, resiliency, soiling, staining and shedding. The highest ratings given go to Corterra, and this category would also contain the new Sorona polymer. So these new polymers, which result in new fibers for you to offer and sell, actually have raised the bar on the performance of carpet. These new fibers do, in fact, perform as they are touted.

That being said, let’s make sure you don’t oversell yourself into a complaint and claims corner. Since there is inevitably going to be warranties on these products which might give you the impression they are bullet proof, they aren’t. For example you’ll get a warranty on soiling. There should not be warranties on soiling in my opinion. Since carpet is walked on and gravity pulls things to the floor, soiling is a fact of life. You cannot warrant against something that is inevitably going to happen. This is like putting a warranty on a car for soiling – kind of absurd. If you drive it dirt will get on it. Same is true of carpet – if you walk on it and live on it, it will get dirty. The next biggest trap is the warranty of staining. Both of these fibers are naturally stain resistant. Things like bleach, acne medications, mustard and plant food for example will not affect these fibers. However, a stain is most often interpreted by a consumer as a dark spot. Dark spots are caused by the surface introduction of a substance that will attract soil. Beverages, cooking oils and even water spilled on a carpet can attract soil. Staining agents will impart color or strip it from the carpet. Since dark spots are perceived by consumers as stains and perception is reality, you’ll be fighting this battle constantly.

The carpet industry is notorious for over marketing its products with warranties that are ambiguous and open for interpretation. This creates claims and complaints that you, as a floor covering dealer, have to address. To make matters worse, when you file a claim for what you and the consumer think the warranty covers, the manufacturer will often deny it. This perpetuates the animosity between the dealer and the manufacturer and the consumer and the dealer. It is not a healthy environment in which to do business if you have to be paranoid about problems cropping up with the products you sell.

So, what’s up with the new fiber technology is that it actually works – as well as you’ve been told. It has given you more value and quality to up-sell to the market place and the opportunity to increase margins. The down side is you can’t oversell these products by using the warranties as leverage or a crutch. Just use your common sense. Carpet is on the floor and it’s going to get dirty and require cleaning, therefore a warranty on dirt is ridiculous. Spots are not stains but consumers think they are, so you and the warranty had better make that distinction crystal clear. A unique twist here is that maintenance and cleaning of carpet has been determined to be the biggest issue in the industry. The positive side to that is an opportunity for you to be in the cleaning business. Not only will you make more money by maintaining what you’ve sold but you can actually keep vigil on the bubbling cauldron of potential claims and complaints the industry has set itself up for.