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Tricycle — Changing An Industry

Young software company cracks the code of carpet sample waste.

Penny Bonda -- Interior Design, 1/13/2006 3:55:00 PM

started out to attack the design waste problem generated by carpet sampling and ended up creating convenience for designers, quick response times for their clients and cost savings for manufacturers. Founded in 2002, the company developed the technology to reproduce on paper the colors and textures of carpeting that are remarkably accurate, so much so that an increasing number of customers are using them in the early stages of product selection. By doing so they are preserving nonrenewable resources—oil—reducing landfill waste, speeding up the design and specification process and saving money.

The traditional process of carpet sampling zaps economic and environmental resources

Here’s how it works: The designer, while scheming a job, looks through carpet folders, selects 30 samples he’d like to consider and calls his rep who orders them from the mill. The mill produces the tufted samples, tying up expensive machinery, creating backlogs and using 7 ½ gallons of oil. 45 pounds of samples are shipped via a costly delivery service to the designer who receives them 3 – 10 days later and promptly rejects all but three. Or, perhaps, he rejects them all and selects others and the sample production / delivery process begins anew. The discarded samples most likely end up in a landfill.

Tricycle carpet samples are produced on 100% recyclable paper

Here’s how it works with Tricycle: The designer, while scheming a job, looks through carpet folders, selects 30 samples she’d like to consider and calls her rep who orders them from the mill. The mill produces paper simulations (SIM) samples on 100% recyclable paper using zero oil, and ships a far smaller and less costly package within 24 hours. The designer rejects all but three and orders those patterns in tufted samples to be shown to the client. Or, perhaps, she rejects them all and orders 30 more SIM, or 60 or 90—all without sending anything to the landfill.

Alternatively, she can bypass the rep and complete the whole process online. Lees Carpet, for example, offers 135 patterns in 35 colorways as "techno images" through their website (http://www.thoughtpatterns.com/). The carpets can be custom colored, viewed online in six unique room scenes and be on her desk the next day.

The speed of paper sampling is another great benefit for designers and clients

Though the environmental benefits are great, speed of sampling is the #1 reason why designers choose SIM. For manufacturers, it increases responsiveness to customers and saves money. Only a handful of manufacturers have signed on to date, but they include the big guys: Shaw, Interface, Lees, Mohawk and Tandus, and each have uniquely branded the SIM process with its own moniker; i.e. Shaw calls them "Xample", Interface a "SIM strike", and Tandus a "blink print."

Tandus began using SIM with their Collins & Aikman line and subsequently added Crossley and Monterey. Lee Shilling, senior vice-president, couldn’t be more pleased. "Blink definitely shows our product extremely well. Put the two – the paper and the tufted sample—down on the floor together, back up a couple of feet and you can’t tell the difference," he says. "But speed is the key. I can send out blink samples and get a response before my customer has even received my competitor’s tufted samples." Tandus is also using the SIM technology to test new product ideas for customer feedback.

Unlike digital photography SIM models how machines work for more authentic replication

SIM succeeds where digital photography fails, because Tricycle and Apso, their software development partner, are fanatical about the quality of their product. Rather than buying a lot of expensive proprietary equipment, they’ve created a computerized "mill" that models how the machines work, "It’s a very complex program," explained Tricycle president and COO Jonathon Bragdon. "Color accuracy has been our biggest hurdle and we’ve hired the best brain power we can find to figure out how to convert dyed fibers and textures into ink on paper. We’ve ended up with a process that is very consistent and one the design professional can trust."

Immediate impact may be small, but catching on

Tricycle admits that, at the moment, its impact is but a drop in the bucket but believes that the SIM technology is catching on. The biggest driver is convenience—it’s easier, it’s faster and it speeds up the decision making process. In a 12-month period approximately 80,000 SIMs were created online by designers and nearly 375,000 room scenes were viewed. The manufacturers who are not using Tricycle should find the $4,729,825 that was saved by the manufacturers who do very compelling.

Tricycle’s environmental progress report, however, is even more impressive. In one year, 34,443 SIM alternative samples shipped, 8,611 gallons of oil were saved and 51,665 pounds of carpet were not landfilled. These are terrific statistics that will surely grow as Tricycle expands within the commercial carpet industry and beyond. Residential markets are being explored as well as the fabric and wallcovering sectors.

However, environmental advances happen slowly, one supplier, one specifier at a time. A carpet executive who had originally rejected using SIM, "got it" when 2 tractor-trailer loads of architect’s folders with out-of-date colors were returned. "It clicked how you’re going to help me," she said.

Another exciting development for Tricycle and for sustainability is Opus, a start-up carpet company with a goal to dematerialize the design/sampling process as much as possible from day one. "We are particularly excited about Opus because, in our opinion, they represent a new paradigm in the carpet industry," said Tricycle co-founder Michael Hendrix. "This new mill will apply the hospitality industry's mass customization approach to the commercial industry. After seeing our exhibit at NeoCon, their president Bo Barber, asked us to design his sample cycle from the ground up, rejecting the current methodology that requires significant financial and environmental resources. This, of course, was music to our ears. Up to this point Tricycle had created supplemental waste reduction programs for many mills, but no manufacturer had taken such a dramatic leap as to reject the status quo based on a fundamental belief that the system of getting products to market was flawed."

Tricycle can, indeed, change an industry.