my first experience with tuxmat Came a long time before any official product testing. I once drove by a hotel in Miami in a Tuxmat-equipped Mercedes EQS, and I remember thinking what a great job these mats did of balancing a strong-but-classy aesthetic that fits really well in the car. And, of course, the really neat feature about these is that they completely cover the lower half of the car’s interior.
Since then, we’ve put them in sedans, crossovers, and trucks, and I’ve been pleased to see that TuxMat car mats fit not only specific models, but specific trim levels as well. Lots of custom mat companies offer model-specific options, but Tuxmat really reaches a level of granularity that other aftermarket companies can’t really touch. This is the domain of Sam Cheng, Product Development Director at Tuxmat, and his team.
I love industrial design in general, and I’ve been getting into 3D digital design in particular since I started 3D printing (these two concepts definitely go hand in hand). It was fun to learn with Sam how Tuxmat creates the designs for its vehicle-specific mats.
Tuxmat’s commitment to a better-fitment, trim-specific design philosophy means product development is far more rigorous than a make/model-specific mat set.
As he was telling me about the company’s workflow and design process, Sam explained that trim levels in late-model cars have more physical variation than in the past, citing moving consoles, bench seats versus captain’s chairs, and optional ice boxes as examples. “That customer … bought the car with the ice box and the subwoofer, and the mat isn’t trying to bend on that – it actually goes around those bends.”
Naturally, getting all those measurements involves a little more than tape-measuring length and width. Tuxmat goes through a complex 3D-scanning and data clean-up process to create models of car interiors. The development process utilizes advanced scanning equipment that uses “structured light” combining laser lines, blue LEDs and infrared light to effectively scan various textures and light-absorbing surfaces.
Sam explained that the scanning process typically takes about two and a half hours, depending on the size of the vehicle, after which the team cleans the resulting polygon data. Blind spots in tight areas are addressed by taking multiple scans from different angles and stitching them together to create a high-fidelity model.
“We have a team of designers who are extremely experienced, know our coverage requirements, and they design the mats to the best of our ability without compromising safety. We will design in safety features that will ensure we clear the pedals and adhere to OEM requirements,” Sam said. “So we really have a lot of unique parts. You know, Mercedes has a different way of holding the mats for Subaru, Kia, and others. So, we’ll scan them all, document them, and get the exact matching hardware that clips nicely into the OEM style. We’ll do that for every single area. And then work with our factory to make the molds that make these mats. And that’s just step one – then test-fit and refine the mats. is done.”
tuxmat Currently shipping its second generation of mats, informed by the company’s growing breadth of knowledge and experience. “…Sometimes we’ll see customers who have had cars for a while, and we really look for scratch marks. Dirt marks and such are potential opportunities for us, really, right? It’s like, you might not think you’re going to step in there, but you’ll actually brush your boot against it.” It was comments like these that inspired Tuxmat to pursue broad-coverage fitment in the first place.
“Each car is a completely different design challenge,” Sam told me. For example, Tesla model
Plus, now that Tuxmat has a decade in operation, it has a deep library of internal knowledge that can still help inform impending product development. Sam used the example of the new Toyota RAV4 and 4Runner, some of which have “kind of a weird step” to accommodate the hybrid batteries under the floor. “And so we just went in and pulled out the data and looked at it,” adapting a solution to help from another project.
While fitment is important, so is the selection of material. TuxMat car mats feature a unique multi-layer makeup called TriForce™, which gives it a plush feel without losing TuxMat’s signature crisp edges. Sam told me how it works.
“Ours is a tri-layer construction. We have a vinyl layer on the top, a middle layer which is an EVA foam layer, and then grip dots on the bottom.” The formulation of TriForce™ is such that Tuxmat is able to create a product that is plush where you want it and rigid where you need it.
“And that’s what separates us,” Sam explained. With cheap mats, you “step up and it’s a hard plastic – especially in the winter, it feels like ‘rattle rattle.’ While we step into it, and it’s really soft and plush. I remember when I put Tuxmat in my car – I drive a van, so the whole back section got the new material. Both my daughters were very excited. He actually took off his shoes and was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to mess up the mat. It’s very soft.’ …but our upper material is very easy to clean… even after a full season of salt and mud etc, it is very easy to spray and does not stain.
Besides fitment and maintenance, there’s another part of the puzzle: durability. Tuxmat car mats need to be able to take shoes, sandals, toes, toes and whatever else has to grind on them for hours and days. “We created what we call a ‘fatigue tester’ in-house… We have this crazy machine that you can strap on a boot with a weight on it that can simulate people running, grinding (mats) with different substrates for thousands of cycles, doing cycle testing.”
At the top of this story, I described Tuxmat’s aesthetic as “robust-but-classy.” What I mean by this is that its products feature strict, but clean, structural lines and decorative elements. The material has some character, but it has the vibe of a James Bond wetsuit, not the Austin Powers pleather-adjacent one found in some aftermarket mats.
The mats you see here are in the five-seat Tesla Model I think you’ll agree that this is a great example of OEM-fitted clips, side-wall tucking, and a zero-gap finish.
That combo of high-end execution, perfect fitment and extensive zero-gap floor coverage makes tuxmat A very nice floor mat. To apply it to your car, check out TuxMate’s full fitment list—and make sure you click on your specific trim level!
