Beaulieu® of America is targeting pet owners with a new carpet called "Bliss EverClean." It's made with solution dyed polyester which, unlike nylon, can be cleaned with a half and half solution of household bleach and water. It has "Magic Fresh" built in odor control treatment, too. Beaulieu is showing the new product this year at Surfaces.
This reminds me of the Amoco "Roll Out" about twenty years ago. We did more than 200 demonstrations for carpet retailers, architects, carpet specifiers, designers and decorators all around the country. Marquesa Lana samples were abused by the audiences. Bowl cleaner, mustard, coffee, soft drinks, catsup and shoe polish were dumped on the carpet. Those of you who took part will remember the oohs and ahhs when you cleaned it. Bane-Clene operators who participated in those events prospered, not just from being paid for the demonstrations, but also from the contacts they made.
Hercules™ introduced a new carpet line to compete with Amoco and we were doing the roll out for their new products, too, when both programs came to an abrupt end. Amoco Corporate decided to get out of the fibers business. Shaw Industries bought the olefin fibers extrusion plant and DuPont bought the entire production of fibers from Hercules. These two maneuvers effectively put an end to an exciting era of easy to clean products. The big nylon guys must have been nervous.
I remember suggesting Marquesa Lana to a friend in Alabama and it is still on the floor of his rental properties. I had it installed in a motor home and it was excellent. Polypropylene had some issues if the face yarn weight wasn't heavy and dense enough. My friend in Alabama and I both bought the heaviest face yarn available and it performed very well. It will be interesting to see how polyester performs.
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