Portland Airport Turns Old Carpet into Collector Items

Portland, OR, March 18, 2015—Portland International Airport (PDX) is replacing its current carpet, which has, over its 30 years installed, achieved an iconic status in pop culture, and a portion of the removed carpet will be upcycled into souvenir items.

Thirty-two groups submitted ideas for repurposing the carpet, and four were chosen to receive 1,000 square yard sections: City Liquidators, Carpet Mill Outlet, The PDX Project and MyPDXCARPET.com.

It has become common practice for travelers passing through PDX to take pictures of themselves on the PDX carpet and post these to social media. In fact, the PDX carpet Instagram page has garnered over 18,000 followers and its Facebook page has over 12,000 likes. In PDX shops and on pdxcarpet.com, consumers can purchase goods carrying replications of the PDX carpet design.

The PDX carpet has received nationwide news coverage with articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and LA Times.

Rubenstein’s Contract Carpet, a Starnet member based in Seattle, has been hired to complete the replacement. The dominant new design, called Carpet Diem, was manufactured by J+J Industries.

Listen to today's interview with Mark Harman here.