Testing Carpet Durability and Resiliency with African Elephants and A Black Rhino
Mohawk Flooring (Mohawk) is teaming up with the Dallas Zoo to put its SmartStrand® with DuPont™ Sorona® (SmartStrand) carpet to the mightiest of durability and resiliency tests.
Last year, Mohawk partnered with The Birmingham Zoo to carpet Ricko the Rhino's enclosure with SmartStrand carpet. Ricko lived on it for two weeks eating, sleeping, rolling his 50-pound ball around and doing things that just come naturally to a 2,800-pound rhinoceros. All on Mohawk's SmartStrand carpet! At the end of the test, the carpet came perfectly clean, proving SmartStrand's unsurpassed stain protection. This year we asked, "What's bigger than a rhino?"
How about six African elephants and a black rhino? On October 7, Mohawk will install SmartStrand triexta carpet in the indoor enclosure of The Dallas Zoo's African elephant exhibit to test its ability to withstand the animal's mess, size and weight for a two-week period. A party of six African elephants will be monitored as they go to and from their living quarters several times a day, walking across the SmartStrand carpet. The Zoo's black rhino will also be living on SmartStrand during that same time period.
Six day- and night-vision webcams will be strategically placed throughout the enclosures to capture the animals' life on the carpet. The public is invited to check in on the animals throughout the SmartStrand Zoo Challenge via its website: www.smartstrandchallenge.com. Watch as they romp and tromp, giving SmartStrand carpet a run for its money.
"The Zoo's six elephants are going to march 45,000 pounds across our SmartStrand carpet. Twice a day, every day for two weeks. That is a bit more than the average house will ask of their carpet!" said David Duncan, Mohawk's Vice President of Marketing. "SmartStrand is an extraordinary product and we're challenging its durability in an extraordinary way. We are confident that not only will our carpet come clean at the end of this challenge, but it will not be crushed by the weight of the elephants. If SmartStrand can stand up to this wildlife, it can certainly stand up to your wildlife."
SmartStrand triexta carpet made with DuPont Sorona is a sustainable flooring option that is also luxuriously soft. Bio-PDO®, which is made from corn sugar and is a renewable resource, makes up 37 percent of DuPont Sorona. Additionally, SmartStrand with DuPont Sorona provides superior stain resistance due to the way it's engineered. Stain protectors are built in the carpet fiber and will never wear or wash off. It will even resist discoloration from bleach.
To go along with the new carpet, Mohawk brought in Chip Wade, designer, expert craftsman and carpenter and cast member of Home & Garden Television's (HGTV) TV shows "Curb Appeal" and "Designed to Sell." As the Mohawk SmartStrand celebrity spokesman, he wanted to be part of the Challenge, involved every step of the way.
This year, Mohawk is also introducing a new Human Habitat exhibit to the challenge, where zoo guests can visit four different household situations … a living room, kitchen, bedroom and foyer. Housed in the reptile quarters of the zoo, each living situation will incorporate Mohawk flooring products--carpet, wood, laminate and ceramic--allowing visitors to interact with the exhibits and see for themselves how the flooring is tough enough to stand up to their wild life.
A unique t-shirt design incorporating this year's animals will be available for purchase. All proceeds will benefit the Dallas Zoo's "Zoo2Wild" Conservation fund, supporting field conservation partnership programs such as Charles Foley's Tarangire elephant project and the International Rhino Fund.
About Mohawk Industries:
Mohawk Industries has been a trusted name in carpets for more than 130 years and is a leading supplier of flooring for both residential and commercial applications. Mohawk offers a complete selection of broadloom carpet, ceramic tile, laminate, wood, stone, vinyl, rugs and other home products. These products are marketed under the premier brands in the industry, which include Mohawk, Karastan, Lees, Bigelow, Columbia, Century, Dal-Tile, American Olean and Quick-Step. Mohawk's unique merchandising and marketing assist our customers in creating the consumers' dream. Mohawk provides a premium level of service with its own trucking fleet and more than 250 local distribution locations.
Contacts:
Intermark Public Relations
Rebecca Hart or Ashlan Yeilding
(205)
803-0000