Dallas—Shaw Floors is coming into 2024 loaded for bear with an increased focus on high style and exclusivity. Rather than focus its Phase 1 introductions on line extensions to core collections, the company unveiled an array of unique visuals, species and products designed to provide its retail partners with something different.
Following is an overview:
CARPET
On the soft surface side of the ledger, the higher-end Anderson Tuftex (AT) brand has 17 new products. According to Kenny Michael, director of creative design—soft surface, the goal was to revamp the AT line this year and elevate its offering. “We’re really being driven by trends this year,” he said. “Rather than trying to be inspired by specific things, we took an approach of looking at current trends in the interior residential market and then design to them.” Among those trends are a Bohemian lifestyle and tactility, he said.
Michael was particularly excited about Discover, “a much larger-scale, very specific, high-end design. This is what you’re going to put into those very high-end homes, people who really care about aesthetics. This has no pattern repeat, no pattern match required, which allows us to do much larger looks and repeats. So when you put it in a room, you’re not going to see those stamped looks. We can start to do organics, we can start to do distressed, and we don’t have to worry about those constrictions again.”
Michael also told FCNews that the AT color palette is going to have more contrast.
Stacy Smith, sales manager, Ridout Lumber Co., Rogers, Ark., is a fan of what AT is doing. “I’m loving all the updates on the carpets. There are lots of new styles, new designs that I feel have been missing in our market.”
HARDWOOD
In wood, both the Shaw Floors and AT brands are getting reinforcements for 2024—and differentiated products are at the forefront. For example, exotics are finding their way into the Shaw Floors portfolio with Regatta Teak leading the way. “The exotic space is something we’re starting to embark on,” said Kyle McAllister, category director of hardwood for Shaw. Regatta Teak is a sub-species of the teak that was used in decking on ships and yachts and high-end furniture, according to McAllister. Two colors are available: natural with a slight honey stain and another with a walnut stain, which offers a darker appeal.
Regatta Teak also gives dealers some exclusivity. “You will not find this in the marketplace, so our dealers will have a competitive advantage,” McAllister said.
Shaw is also featuring a short leaf acacia, which launched last year. According to McAllister, the species is much denser than long leaf acacia with a 2200 Janka rating.
On the AT side, the goal is to bring a level of quality and design to its customers that’s beyond anything they’ve seen, McAllister said. Once famous for its heavy distressing and handscraping, AT has morphed into a brand characterized by more subtle textures and neutral tones in response to current preferences. For 2024, AT added four colors to the successful Imperial Pecan line while introducing two new collections: Coast to Coast, a new European white oak visual that’s painted then stained for effect; and Transcendence, which boasts a thicker core and thicker, 3mm sawn-face veneer to give consumers the option to sand and finish.
TOTALWORX
TotalWorx offers Shaw retailers a “start-to-finish” total installation package that includes PrepWorx, GroundWorx, LokWorx, FinishWorx or CareWorx. It doesn’t really matter what you need in the process, Shaw’s going to have it, according to Romeo Tejada, divisional tile and TotalWorx manager for Shaw, South region. “So a dealer doesn’t have to buy something here, then buy something there. We don’t want you to go to McDonald’s to buy fries when you buy your sandwich from Chick-fil-A.”
Tejada also mentioned two other products generating excitement for 2024. The first is Shaw’s new stair treads. “It’s a full plank with a stair nose connected,” Tejada said. “All you have to do is add adhesive. It will make the vinyl and the stairs a simple installation process. The result is an elegant look because you don’t have any cuts, which makes it nice and clean.”
The second product for which Tejada has high expectations is Shaw’s fine-finished patch. “Our fine-finished patch is a skim coat that can go up to a half-inch, 99% RH, so when you’re talking about skim coating a floor, [it’s very easy to use].”
CERAMIC TILE
When it comes to tile, Shaw Floors has been making a more concerted effort over the past two or three years, according to Chase Meluch, product development manager, tile and stone. “We have definitely put a focus on getting feedback from the field on what consumers want while also staying on trend and making sure we are a design leader in the category.”
There is also a major focus on providing exclusivity—which can mean providing product no one else offers, such as Shaw’s mosaic program, or it can just be geographic.
The other theme as it relates to mosaics and wall tile is color. “We want to make sure we have the whites, grays and blacks, but then we want to throw in some pops of color—whether it be orange, green or blue,” Meluch said. “You will see that throughout many of our wall tile collections and mosaics this year, several of which are exclusive to Shaw.”
Moreover, Shaw Floors is beefing up its offering at every price point, including entry level. “We have rounded out our entry-level porcelain collection in 2024,” Meluch said. “We also have a couple of high-end, Italian-made products with the use of carving effect and gloss level changes that really make that product resemble natural stone, specifically a travertine, in this case.”
Shaw Floors recognizes that many retailers have an aversion to selling tile, which the company said it is going to be proactive about reversing.
