Excercise Mats Mats

I’m so happy the Holidays are over! Not because I don’t like spending time with my family and seeing all those friends with whom your schedules never seem to coordinate, because I do. It’s just all the food at an arm’s reach at all times! I think the reason we over eat around the Holidays is because are defenses are down being around the ones we love. We’re a little less insecure and therefore not fully aware of all the countless calories we’re just shoveling down our throats. Then the New Year hits and suddenly everybody is a health and fitness nut. Just a wild idea, but maybe we can reduce the amount of guilt if we start doing the workouts we save for January, WHILE we’re shoveling our faces with food.

We can help. All you need to turn any hard floor into gym flooring is some of our interlocking foam mats.  Whether it’s our 7/8” or 1” thick  Martial Arts Tiles for those more advanced athlete practicing those round house kicks,  5/8” multi colored tiles for a fun yoga room, we have you “covered”.  Since these tiles start at only 2’x2’, you can configure almost any size floor and easily expand or reduce your size if necessary.

All of our Customer Service and Sales representatives are educated on our products to the point where we can have an easy conversation with you about your needs. If you’re not sure what you need to make your new home gym just perfect, you can guarantee that we have somebody here that can help you make a decision that you’ll be happy with for years to come. We do our best to stay competitive and love talking one on one with people.

Let us help you keep your resolutions and get through the next holiday season. Give us a call today!

Anybody else feel remember being in elementary school and wanting to be a gymnast?  I wanted to learn gymnastics because I had dreams of being a super hero.  And I’ve read that it’s even more popular now. Gymnastics is the most popular sports among elementary school aged children and it’s probably the best for them. It encourages flexibly and coordination while demonstrating the importance and benefits of dedication.

When I was young I envied the kids that could do back handsprings and would have given anything to be able to accomplish that. Any time I tried on my own I ended up with rug burns. Had I had a real mat to practice on, I could have been an Olympian! Maybe.

Since I’ve started working here, over 5 years ago, I’ve seen the demand for gymnastics mats grow.  More and more kids are getting involved and I talk to parents daily that want to get mats for their home. My mom would of loved for me to have an interest like this. It would have occupied my time and kept me fit. It’s the most popular Holiday item for us and we have been working hard make sure there is plenty of stock to meet the needs of all the little Simone Biles and Danell Leyvas of the world.

You can be sure our mats are competition quality and durable. All of our mats have hook and loop fasteners so you can create runways or practice pads.

Aside from gymnastics, our folding mats are used for yoga, pilates, and meditation. It’s a very diverse, functional product that makes a great gift!

You know the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side”? Well, that’s probably because it’s fake!

I often find myself driving through my neighborhood and having garden envy. All the other houses have such green manicured lawns and their planters always look so vibrant with color – It’s easy to feel inadequate. I’m not saying my yard looks like an abandoned house or anything; it just doesn’t seem to pop.  I’ve tried all kinds of flowers and plants, but nothing seems to last very long and I’m really sick of empty looking, brown planters.

My solution to all this is our Shredded Rubber Mulch. It looks just like real wood mulch this realistically-textured, eco friendly, shredded mulch groundcover is made from 100% recycled rubber and will not fade, rot, compress, or lose its original beauty, even after years of exposure to the elements. This is the perfect substitute for traditional wood mulch, which must be replenished periodically due to wood decomposition. Rubber mulch, on the other hand, will retain it’s original qualities for many, many years. It is the perfect loose-fill groundcover for residential or commercial landscaping applications. Rated as the safest groundcover on the market, our rubber garden mulch also provides superior drainage and minimizes dust.

My favorite feature, aside from the longevity, is that is comes in different colors. Now, no matter the time of year, I can keep my planters looking green (or blue or red). With the variety of colors you can really add some character to your yard, providing a tailored and elegant look. Curb appeal is very important. More important than your front door mat, it is the true first impression!

Around half of my day is on the phone and half of those calls are usually for an exercise mat. A lot of people toy with the idea of a home gym for a lot of reasons. You save money on commercial gym membership costs, there’s less worry about bacteria from other people, you never have to wait for a machine, and probably my favorite – the time you save driving to and from the gym. That is precious TV time!

The thing I’ve come to realize is most people don’t really know where to start or what they really need and end up either getting discouraged or ordering the wrong product. I frequently get asked “What do I need?”. Unfortunately, that is a very hard question to answer because while everybody’s general need is the same [a workout room], there specific room needs are all different.

When you decide you want a workout or fitness room, there are a few things you should look at to help decide what room is the best and what product you should use.

First of all, I’d go with a room that is either tile or cement. Carpeted room can work, but I really suggest removing the carpet. If you have a treadmill of any kind of weights, most likely they will wear a hole and just end up looking very tattered. Plus carpet is a nice place for all you sweat to collect and that’s just gross.

Then you have to figure out how many outlets you’ll need and where they need to be placed. It doesn’t happen very often, but I have had people tell me they put the whole room together and realized they would have to run extension cords to power their machines.

Next you need to decide what ttype of flooring you actually need. If your workouts are in the Yoga, Pilates, aerobic genre, you probably want a an EVA foam flooring. Our soft floor tiles are a closed cell EVA foam that are not only comfortable to sit, lie, and walk on, but they won’t absorb any liquid, should it fall from a water bottle or your face. Also these tiles are dense enough to support you ankles. I do recommend a thickness of at least 5/8” so the tiles will not pull apart with your movement.

If you are more of a Treadmill, Bowflex, weight lifting type of person, I suggest are Tuff-n-Easy Rubber tiles or Rolled Rubber. They’re both made from 100% recycled rubber and the exact material we’ve put in commercial gyms across the U.S.A.  These tiles are also very dense, but much more the foam tiles. You won’t need to worry about your equipment being unstable and the rubber can withstand impact from weights.

Lastly you, you just need to decide on color. We have a wide variety of different colors to match any home.

With the Halloween Holiday quickly approaching some of you may be going out to get yourself or even your children their costumes already. Some of you more crafty fellows and ladies may even be making your own.  Some will make it from fragments of previous year’s costumes, whereas others will completely fabricate one from the ground up. If you like to tinker and you’re in need of material to construct your costume then look no further than the Premium SoftFloor Interlocking Tiles. Sure these soft foam tiles are typically used as trade show booth flooring or exercise flooring, but they are also used in classrooms for arts and crafts.

The foam tiles can be cut easily with a razor or even a hot knife and soldering iron to make exact and specific cuts. I have seen people make some very convincing Transformer costumes from these exact tiles. Not to mention a wide array of comic book or anime characters. All brought to you by the magic and Halloween awesomeness of the foam tile.

Since the tiles come in a 2’x2’ they are perfect for making large pieces that can be suitable as your costume armor or what have you. They also come in a wide variety of colors making them perfect for such an experiment.  So pad up, and set out on your Halloween madness this October, fueled by our softfloor foam tiles.

I was out window shopping the other day, trying not to spend money since the Holidays are so rapidly approaching.  Even though I had Holidays on the brain I was shocked to see Christmas Decorations! I haven’t even noticed Halloween decorations yet, which is my favorite Holiday, how can I possibly be expected to think about Christmas?  It’s not even Autumn yet, which happens to be my favorite season and not just because of Halloween.  It’s definitely not summer and not quite winter – the perfect weather, in my opinion. I love night time strolls with a light breeze rustling the leaves while  some gently fall to the ground. It’s so soothing.

Then soon after, winter strikes. We’ve told we can expect the heaviest rain and wind we’ve experienced in over a decade. I do love me some stormy weather, but I’m so not looking forward to the rainy mess. Luckily it’s time to redecorate because we carry new entrance mats that I just love. Montage are new, top of the line commercial door mats made with environmentally friendly components.  Montage offers enhanced long wearing performance and durability and my favorite feature- it hold a gallon and a half of water per square yard! No more sopping wet mats leaking onto my wood floors and no more throwing towel tackily on the carpet as a make shift runner. Aside from all the functionality they look real nice too. I could see our Montage carpeted floor mat in the entrance of a 5 star hotel which makes it perfect for my tastes. I just need to decide on color, because having seen these mats myself, I know it’s going to last me a very long time. It has to fit just right.

It seems my customers are the only people who listen to me. I should have some of them inform my family that I actually know what I’m talking about because I think to them I’ll forever be 5 years old and have zero credibility. But that’s for another therapy session…

This past weekend I was helping my Uncle, and by help I mean watch, work on restoring his classic Chevy Step side. This has been his pet project for the better side of a decade and I’ve seen him spend hours just tinkering in his garage.  I watch him hunched over his work table screwing, sanding or hammering something then walk to the truck and stand there briefly to measure or tighten something else. At one point he grabbed his back and let out a little moan/growl sound and went about his business. My MatsMatsMats antenna went up and I said “Hey Uncle, you should get longer anti-fatigue mats so it covers your whole work area, not just in front of your table”. And he said he used to have a few but he was constantly tripping over them and he found himself rearranging them so he could throw down tools and heavier parts without damaging them. He obviously didn’t have the right mats.

I had a few drinks which is why I wasn’t actually working with tools and almost completely forgot about our SoftRubber tiles.  I told him all about how SoftRubber interlocking tiles are the perfect hybrid. They have the anti-fatigue feature which is the most important part, but it also has the durable rubber surface. He  could stand, kneel and walk around his entire area with worrying about where to set the heavy parts he keeps pulling off and putting back on the truck.  I went on trying to convince him it was time to discard the tripping hazard that is only really helping half the time but he’s stubborn.  I’m going to have to just put a floor down for him so he can see. It’s a really easy installation; I could do it in less than an hour. I guess I’m just as stubborn.. must be a family trait.

In today’s world of “Me Too” start-ups, small businesses and a vacuous landscape for semi-skilled laborers, chances are that you may be running your own business. Whether it is a mail order trinkets, weekend painting for Trader Joe’s chalkboards that put your fine arts degree to some use, or walking dogs after a hard day at the office, there’s a very good probability that you might have some sort of company brand or logo.

Just about everything and everyone nowadays is considered a brand. Even you, without any sort of business, can be a brand overnight with some clever viral post on your social media profile page, forum, or embarrassing YouTube video.  When one is in need, it is important to personalize your brand and get it out as much as possible. Visibility of your personal brand is important to establish yourself in the minds of your potential customers or clients. Everything from t-shirts, stickers, to custom logo entry mats for your office or workplace is paramount to project stability and legitimacy of your endeavor. Can you imagine the Disney without it’s trademark mouse ears silhouette on virtually everything they own? Even more relevant is that a circle with two smaller ones as tangents, I can’t HELP but think of the famous mouse and the company associated with it.

Visual presentation is everything and a  logo can establish your brand with a long lasting visual representation that is, in the end, indispensable for your small business to thrive.

Every once in a while I get a phone call from somebody requesting to rent our products. It’s really not a big deal, but this week we’ve been flooded with people wanting to rent. I can understand the appeal of renting logo mats for your business. You get to enjoy the benefits of a nice looking entrance mats that represents your company and helps keep dirt and debris from getting into your business. Then once a week, or once a month, somebody comes by and replaces your mat with a fresh and clean mat. It really is very convenient.  However, if you are like a lot of small business’, that just doesn’t make sense, financially.  Owning your own mat will save you hundreds, or even thousands of dollars over the life span of your mat.

A lot of rental comings will play up the convenience of picking up and washing your mat. Some of them may even make it sound like if you want to ensure your mat stays bright and not fade, you need to trust them with the special cleaning process. That’s a load of doggy droppings.  I guarantee they are doing nothing more than throwing your mat into a commercial washer. You could easily do the same.  Realistically, our mats can just be hosed down and hung to dry. Alternatively, I’m sure there are cleaning companies that will pick up and clean that mats you own allowing you to opt out without losing use of your mats.

Here is a formula to show you that buying your own entrance mats, logo mats or rubber backed runners is cheaper than using a door mat rental company.

Formula:
# of Mats per location x $Weekly Costs x 52 weeks x # of Locations

Example:
ABC Tire Shop uses an entrance mat Rental Service for 6 door mats (3′x5′ in size) at $5.00 per mat per week rental cost for 4 locations…

Rental Costs:
6 doormats x $5.00 weekly cost =  $30.00 x 52 weeks = $1560.00 per Location x 4 Locations = $6240.00 per year… ouch!

Purchase Costs:
6 rubber backed door mats (3′x5′ in size) @ $75.00 each = $450.00.

$450.00 to purchase vs. $1560.00 per year for rental door mats.
This would save you $1110.00 per year, per location x 4 Locations = a $4440.00 SAVINGS!

You could buy a 2nd set for backup or for those bad days you would have them on hand if needed… and it would still cheaper than renting!

We offer the same exact gripper rubber backed mats that a mat rental company typically uses for renting.  In fact, many of these companies buy the mats from us and then turn around and rent them to you.  The mat rental company then uses these mats for an average of 5 years… and you could too.  So, why rent? Buy mats and SAVE!

From time to time the conversations in our office can become – somewhat unique. For example; today I was trying to think of what to write about, so I asked my esteemed colleagues Ben and Chris. It began with Chris’ very logical depiction of items that we carry and how we can discuss them in different ways, so on. This was quickly interjected by Ben, with his very humorous and long-winded ideas. If you have read any of his blog – you know what I am talking about.

He suggested that if we ourselves were mats, what mats would we be? He insisted that he, himself would be our Anti-Static Smooth Runner Mat; with emphasis on “smooth” if you know what I mean. I have to reluctantly admit, if anyone here is the “smooth” mat, it would be Ben. Just don’t tell him I said that. That will just be between you and I dear reader.

After that it kind of did not derail the discussion, as neither Chris nor I could come up with what kind of mat we would be if we have to anthropomorphosis ourselves to one. Needless to say, Ben had many, many reasons why he was so slick that he would undoubtable be the Smooth Tech Runner Anti Static Mat.  Needless to say; aside from the very obvious humor we took from this, he had a point. Smooth and anti-static indeed, we had no counterpoint that he could not deflate – thus proving his smooth mat-ness even more.