PETPremier, Mohawk’s newest carpet innovation in soft, solution-dyed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) carpet, is pet-friendly, stylish and sustainable carpet for value- and performance-driven and millennial homeowners. To tell the story, the manufacturer rolled out a new PETPremier display in first quarter 2024 that creatively captures customer attention and succinctly tells the carpet’s benefits.

“PETPremier was designed to appeal to today’s consumer,” said Denise Silbert, Mohawk’s vice president of marketing, soft surface. “Over the last three years, affordable pet-friendly solutions have become increasingly more important. The buying power of the millennial generation is greater than any other generation, so they are an important target audience to win over. A majority of millennial buyers own single-family homes, with 54% having children and 63% having a dog under their roofs. Knowing this, we engineered a completely new yarn system for PETPremier to perform at a higher level than other PETs.”

The new PETPremier display uses bold merchandising and large sample cards to draw consumer attention. Photo: Great American Floors. 

The new display uses a different storytelling model than what Mohawk has traditionally done, featuring a dog and PETPremier boldly at the top of the display. Large sample cards showcase the product, and a graphic water bottle at the side of the display helps to tell the sustainability story.

“It’s paving the way to be more purposeful—the messaging is really clear and really attracts that target that we have, which is really the pet enthusiast,” Silbert said. “There’s lots of options these days for pet-friendly products, and so making that particular line and brand really overtly pet oriented helps it cut through with every other brand that has some of those benefits."

Silbert said the product development team was tasked with creating a product that would be extremely durable, soft and cleanable. Featuring a stain-resistant fiber backed by a lifetime All Pet Protection & Warranty, PETPremier carpets come in vibrant, fade-resistant colors and luxurious fine denier softness. 

Doug Heath, owner of Heath Floorcovering Concepts in Dallas, Georgia, added the PETPremier display to his showroom in February.

“We saw it at the Mohawk Roadshow here in Georgia and we were very impressed with the simplicity yet direct-to-the-point of what you're buying and purchasing,” Heath said. “It made it a great opportunity to buy it and put it in our showroom for our customers. You could tell that's what the customers would catch their eye to. It was a very easy sale and we've sold quite a bit of it since we've added it. I expect it to perform just like they advertised it with the looks and the styles that they included helps as far as the look of wear."

From left: Denise Heath and Claudia McGarity at Heath Floorcovering Concepts. Photo: Heath Floorcovering Concepts.

Atlanta Flooring Design has been selling carpet with the new PetPremier display since January 2024. “It is performing great,” said Mimi Mulugeta, designer and retail sales associate. “It is exactly what our pet owner customer needs and desires. I cannot believe that this was not here before.”

"When they see that dog on the front, they run towards it just because everyone loves dogs, sometimes more than humans,” said Rachel Selzer, director of operations at Great American Floors in Sandy Springs, Georgia. “Most people have pets, so whenever they're looking for carpet or anything, they always want something that's pet-friendly.”

PETPremier also helps divert waste from landfills. It is sustainably made in the USA with post-consumer recycled bottles through an efficient water and energy manufacturing process.

"It’s recycled and that’s something people are attracted to,” Selzer said. “It's not something that they bring up, but it's definitely that someone looks at."

“Mohawk has been making polyester carpet for years, but with PETPremier we stepped up our game by offering beauty and sustainability plus All Pet,” said Thomas Kilgore, Mohawk’s senior product director, soft surface. “We are launching 10 styles but expect PETPremier to be a much larger product line in the future. An expansion is already in the works.”

The product development team is already planning to expand the line: the display has two empty slots to hold future new products, and Silbert said future variations of the display may offer new pin structures to hold even more product samples.

“It’s been a huge success that just exceeded our expectations.” Silbert said. “I think the fact that we were able to start shipping before season even started, which was a testament to the buy-in and excitement for the products because a lot of our customers were buying it before we even had samples out to our sales force.”