Examining one of the most iconic floormat companies in the world
During the 1950s through the 1970s, German car makers offered floormats made from woven fibers from the husks of the coconut. While it sounds somewhat ludicrous, the ‘carpeting’ was exceptionally durable and held a pleasing aesthetic that sustained the high-quality and exotic nature of German cars. Then, at some point, the making of palm-based flooring materials fizzled out, and in their place came synthetics and cottons. Then, one day in the mid-1990s, Jeff Allwine opened his door to a DHL box. Thinking it was a sampler of shirts, he was surprised to find a sampler of coco fibers, which took him back to those days of coco-based matting in German cars.
“I was always interested in cars, and had a number of Porsches, and remembered the Coco Mats from those days long ago,” he said. “Feeling the texture and looking at the colors, I thought it would be a good idea to bring back the idea of high-quality, naturally-derived floor mats.”
With this, Jeff co-founded Coco Mats in Southern California. He sourced original Porsche 911 fiber mats from Gary Emory at Parts Obsolete in Oregon and a company in India was contacted to source new coco fiber material.
“We still work together today, nearly 30 years later,” Jeff said.
Developing a nibbed, rubber mat as a backing provided a grip, ensuring the Coco Mats would remain in place and catch debris before it reached the factory carpeting. Vacuum it out and the factory carpeting never even knew any debris was falling from above.
Cocomats - Final Stitch & Edging
“It wasn’t long before we moved to Connecticut from California, and then on to South Carolina shortly after that,” he said. “Here in Fort Mill, we are surrounded by a number of skilled artisans who cut and sew the Coco Mats to perfection. A lot of our employees have been with us since we arrived in South Carolina, it’s more like a family than a company. But to that end, I’m always very impressed by what we all put together.”
In this day and age, “handmade,” “handcrafted,” and “made in the USA” seem to be cliché and commonplace. Catchphrases to capture the imagination and attention of potential customers – but at Coco Mats, these aren’t catchphrases, they are the reality of the business. Every mat is handmade to order, in a sense, a custom job, and each mat is made in the Coco Mats factory in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The factory is home to what looks like a million miles of matting and backing and other materials to make remarkable mats. Customers choose their grommets, posts, Velcro, colors, patterns, materials – in fact, they have a multitude of each to choose from. It’s almost a situation where no single Coco Mat is like the next.
What began in earnest with just six colors and a limited number of patterns has grown to well over 50 colors and thousands of patterns. And, if Coco Mats doesn’t have the pattern a customer is looking for, they work with the customer to create it.
“If we don’t have a pattern, we’ll send a kit to the customer that contains a large swath of paper, a few swatches of Coco Mat materials and colors, and some basic instructions,” said Jeff. “With the swath of paper, the customer can outline the factory mat or trace out the footwell to create a pattern. The customer sends this back to us, along with the material and color choice, and we create the mats.”
This is how the mats for the DeLorean were created and, several years ago, the 1979 Chevrolet Caprice Classic. Find out more about CocoMats – Custom Car Floor Mats. Hand-Made in USA and see the DeLorean up-matting project here Gift to the DeLorean
