DESIGNER SERIES

Our  5/8th inch (14.5mm) thick coated Designer Series foam mats come in a 2-foot tile size with 6 standard patterns to choose from.

We've taken our  Ez-Clean foam surface, bonded a plastic printed layer to it and then coated the final product with a PU film.  These mats are compatible with the Standard Series tiles, but they are limited to Indoor use, since the printed layer will not hold up in outdoor conditions.

Beyond the visual differences over Standard Series mats, this is the easiest to clean foam mat surface being made today but truthfully, the coated mats are more fragile than the Standard Series mats. Because of this fragility, we have always consider it a special purpose mat and have only marketed it as temporary flooring to the Trade Show and Exhibit industry in the U.S.  Many people have installed it in their homes, with mixed results. This line sells well in Japan's consumer market; but people don't wear shoes in the house.  It's important that you bear these limitations in mind when selecting the type of mat that's right for your needs.

Businesses appear to like this product for trade shows and other events because the product is easy to clean, and the ability to do process 4-color printing. Besides our 6 basic colors and patterns, we can print ANY Pantone color on the surface of a mat, which means that we can give your company or school colors exactly as they should be.  Taking it a step further, we can actually print your design, centered, in a 1,2 or 3-Foot square tile.  Again, it won't hold up for years in a high traffic environment, but even if you get two or three trade shows out of a mat (you'll get more), it's still cheaper than renting carpet.  In-house design and fabrication expertise is available in our Trade Show Center.

If you are seeking an OEM / ODM solution, please visit our Designer Series Made-to-Order pages.

  We have been working on the problem of printing on a highly flexible foamed plastic that expands and contracts since 1994.  We have always been able to  offset print, silk-screen, or pad print this product, but the underlying foam properties make the printing temporary at best. 

Back in 1994, initial efforts at developing an applied print film process were directed squarely at the Toy Industry, and having the ability to place licensed images into our juvenile mat and toy products.  What came of those efforts could be termed a short-term success for some of our partners, given the amount of product that was produced, but Wondermat sat that round of printed foam toy products out for one reason:  The print film we were using didn't hold up.  The printing looked great, but two months of heavy use and the final product looked worn out.  If you every bought these toys, you know what I mean, and you will understand why you never saw the Wondermat name on any them.  Not a good way to build a brand we thought, so we stayed with our tried and true die-cut toys during this period.  We were there, but we weren't there.

Undaunted, we kept at the problem and in 1999 we came across an improved process for bonding the print film to the foam.  This produced a product that was much better, but the final product still did not perform as we wanted for a toy product.  However, the improved durability of this process made us start thinking about using it to make floor tiles for our Trade Show and Exhibit customers.  By the fall of 1999, we had 16 tile patterns printed and were producing a line of 1-foot and 18-inch "Designer Series" tiles.  In 2002, we went to a standard 2-foot tile size and increased the thickness to our standard 5/8 inch, but we still sell this product in 2007, so it has been a commercial success in the vary narrow market we have targeted.

Not satisfied, we have continued to work on a process that gives us a print film that will hold up to a three-year-old. We're no Edison, but thirteen years at this and I'm comfortable that we have discovered the solution by finally addressing the last element: The print film.  In 2008, we will start selling the resulting product to our Trade Show and Exhibit customers as part of the Wondermat  "Designer Series" tile line. A Japanese distributor who helped encourage the effort by guaranteeing customers for the final result has been selling the 1-foot tile version of this new mat for a few months now, and the news is all good. 
 

Super easy to clean designer mats look so good you won't believe it's a soft floor until you step on it. It's not just for kids any more!