Las Vegas—Against a backdrop of somewhat troubling, if not sobering, economic reports, the industry came in full force to the Mandalay Convention Center for The International Surface Event (TISE 2023) with no sentiment of impending doom. Retailers at the show agreed, the trek was well work it and exhibitors came ready to do business with aggressive deals and gold standard product.
Here’s what they had to say about what they found on the show floor at TISE 2023:
BHW had some fantastic introductions, one being their new laminate line called Kingston. Kingston is a 12mm + 1mm IXPE pad, AC4 waterproof laminate in all the right colors at the right price. In the low $2s, it’s positioned under some of the other waterproof laminates in the market. We were also impressed with their SPC/HW hybrid collection Coastal. A wood veneer on an SPC core is interesting coupled with the reactive stain. BHW has also stepped up their game offering more scratch-resistant finishes, which we will merchandise under our PetSafe brand.
—Liz Rivera, FCA Network, Shorewood, Ill.
I really liked the MSI hybrid laminate, which is waterproof.
—Jimmy Poulos, Flooring 101, Oxnard, Calif.
We really liked Dream Weaver’s new Gold Standard carpet technology with a 6.5 twist ratio and up to 24 different colors in the yarn. I did not really appreciate what the benefit of all those colors were until they took an LVP sample board with 12 colors on it and put it up against the carpet sample board that had like 20 colors, and every single one of the carpet colors could be put with any of the LVP colors and none of them clashed. The benefit is the customer does not have to worry about making a bad decision on the color, as it will match anything in her room.
—Ted Gregerson, Ted’s Carpet & Floor, Anniston, Ala.
The best product I saw was Karastan’s new waterproof wood—BelleLuxe. The style, the sizes and the colors are top notch. Jason Randolph (SVP) and crew knew what they were doing. The story, elegance and luxury behind this collection will, for sure, take off. The Karastan exclusive gives Karastan dealers the upper hand in this beautiful collection. I am super excited to bring this to my market. I stocked up on it.
—Ashlie Butler, Bob’s Carpet, Clearwater, Fla.
RevWood Premier. You can feel the textures and the knots; it has crisp colors for today’s design.
—Typhannie Harker, Carpeting by Mike, Somerset, Wis.
The new nylon SmartStrand blended products from Mohawk are definitely one of my favorites. The story of performance and stain-resistant technology of SmartStrand all wrapped into one. In addition, this new fiber blend will give you the capability to dye a vast color range.
—Bruce Odette, Carpet Exchange, Denver
I was impressed with Mannington’s new TumbledEdge technology on tile visuals. That really gives LVT a more realistic look compared to the painted micro-bevel that’s out there. I also liked Torlys’ new Everwood Designer XP Designer collections. They have created one of the best looking and performing ‘water-resistant’ hardwood products on the market today.
—Raffi Sarmazian, Sarmazian Bros. Flooring, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
On the tile side, there was a stunning blue porcelain slab at Daltile that was amazing.
—Penny Carnino, Grigsby’s Carpet, Tile & Hardwood, Tulsa, Okla.
All the buzz nowadays is creating a ‘customer experience.’ Cali knocked it out of the park with their merchandising. Displaying real hardwood samples in real whisky barrels, crafting surfboards out of LVP to demonstrate the length of the boards and creating an authentic “beach” look with pier posts and pelican to showcase their new laminate line. Heidi O’Reilly, heading up marketing and merchandising, has raised the bar when it comes to creating a customer shopping experience.
—Liz Rivera, FCA Network, Shorewood, Ill.
