Floor tiles made out of recycled leather belts

Ting London makes bespoke flooring out of recycled leather belts, laying them down like floorboards. When/if you get sick of them, they'll take them back and recycle them. I'm not sure how they'd wear or what they'd be like to clean, but they look awesome.

Each belt is hand selected to ensure a high grade of leather and then the belts are stripped of their metals, hand cleaned with chemical free substances and prepared for use. The vintage belts for each tile are carefully designed in-house as the colour and patterning on the belts is sensitive to each tile. This means no two tiles will ever be the same.

Flooring | Ting (via Core 77)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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kartwaffles

“chemical free substances” … can anybody point out where on the periodic table I might find such substances?
- togi
  
  Beat me to it. Surely the discovery and use of a chemical free substance is the remarkable issue here?
- GawainLavers
  
  Hah! Maybe they use aether and phlogiston.
jandrese

Dammit, I came in here to post that same question. “chemical free substances” is some sort of marketing jibberish that doesn’t mean anything (unless maybe they were cleaned with a pure vacuum somehow?)
- http://profiles.google.com/bigfatpugsley Αντώνης Παππάς
  
  A vacuum cleaner so strong that would pull all filth would be nice though.
GuyInMilwaukee

Just to go with it… A US Flag made of jeans.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opacity/3984122194/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maribethbaker/6281523465/lightbox/
http://stephan-zielinski.com/ Stephan Zielinski

Ironically, I am wearing a belt of linoleum.
Jer_00

Would a pure vacuum count as a “substance”?

“Chemical-free substances”. Sheesh. Might as well tell us that you’re using unicorn farts and leprechaun blood to clean them. If you mean “soap and water” say “soap and water”. If you mean something else, just say it. “Chemical-free substance” makes me feel like you’re trying to hide something in wiggle words (and not very well) rather than being honest about it.

But those are some nice looking floor coverings. But since they don’t seem to give a price for the tiles I imagine they fall somewhere between “too rich for my blood” and “it’d be cheaper to just clean my floors with unicorn farts”…
http://www.kmoser.com kmoser

The implication is that the cleaners are “natural”, i.e. free of man-made chemicals. I just hope they don’t contain naturally occurring uranium.
- http://profiles.google.com/bigfatpugsley Αντώνης Παππάς
  
  Is there natural soap?
  - http://fieldguidetohummingbirds.wordpress.com/ Sheri L. Williamson
    
    Yes. Saponins are naturally occurring soapy chemicals.
  - http://stephan-zielinski.com/ Stephan Zielinski
    
    Yes, but in a horrible way. Under certain conditions, some of the fats in a corpse can saponify, forming adipocere. Which isn’t all soap, but it contains a significant amount of it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipocere
salsaman

Along with the “chemical free” issue, how is this flooring “bespoke”?! That word makes my skin crawl even when used correctly. “Pretentious” is a fine substitute most of the time.
- Eryq Ouithaqueue
  
  Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only person on the planet who was irked by that damned word. It was a scant two years ago that I’d never even seen it — not even in its traditional sense of “custom-tailored”. Then suddenly it was *everywhere*. What’s wrong with saying “custom-made”, anyway?
Antinous / Moderator

The lower white belt must have been on a diet. There are half a dozen homemade holes in it.
- kartwaffles
  
  Bespoke holes.
shutz

Someone make and sell a T-Shirt that reads “Water is a chemical.”
- Palomino
  
  Or “Conserve water, dilute it”.
parrotboy

It sounds cool and all, but some part of me would be creeped out by having a floor made of skin. Bad enough lots of people make flesh furniture. For some reason flooring crosses a line for me.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  People tend to walk on floors in shoes made of skin.
Dougall

When I was going to University I chanced upon a small gym in the residence that must have dated to the fourties or earlier. It had the standard high school gym stuff like basketball nets and various lines on the hardwood floor. Not particularly well lit, but rather pleasant for that. Around the gym about fifteen feet off the floor ran a narrow balcony. When I climbed up to see, it turned out to be an indoor running track.

The track was beautifully banked in the corners, and floored with LEATHER. Of course I had to try it out, even though I hadn’t done any running in a while, it was amazing to run on… just resilient enough, nice traction, and just a nice smooth feel generally.

That was the first, last and only time my knees didn’t hurt after running. If I could get a floor like that (like my running track, not the dopey floor made of belts), and be sure that I would never spill coffee on it, I would be interested.
jimh

I like it. I also like the business model, by which the company resells their inventory when you decide you want hardwood or carpet again. I’m sure you don’t get any of your money back when they recycle the belts…