The International Surface Event (TISE) is one of the most influential trade fair for the floor covering industry in United States. Both major brands, manufacturers and distributors has displayed their latest product launch and collections that attract both industry professionals and clients. Many trade deals and business were also carried out at the show that further caters the industry’s versatility.
New product display at the show can indicate industry trends from both manufacturing, brands, and retailers. As such, observations from these new flooring product design and collections can carry some indications on the flooring product trends for 2026.
This article aims at identifying some of these product trend in luxury vinyl flooring. An observation from The International Surface Event (TISE) 2026.
Key Summaries on New Product Trends
- WPC Vinyl Flooring is still on the lead compare to Light Density SPC (L-SPC).
- New Hybrid Acoustic Vinyl Flooring Design for Superior Acoustic Performance.
- Vinyl-Free Resilient Flooring is Shifting in favourable for PET Based Material.
- Multi-Size Vinyl Plank Collections on the Go.
WPC Vinyl Flooring Still on Lead Trend to L-SPC
Light density SPC (L-SPC) flooring is a new design vinyl flooring that was originally launched during the 3rd year of pandemic time. This innovation for lighter density was meant to reduce the weight of SPC so more quantities of products (in terms of coverage) can be loaded onto the shipping container. By using foaming techniques in SPC extrusion, the finished vinyl plank can have up to 20% lighter in density. While this density weight is still slightly higher than the WPC vinyl planks, L-SPC is considered a substitute and next generation vinyl flooring that can replace WPC vinyl flooring.
Light Density SPC has the benefit of offering rigid plank surface which has improving performance on surface dent and bearing. Just as SPC flooring are considered the “upgrade” to LVT with more rigidity, density, and durability, L-SPC can also be perceived as the next product line to replace WPC.
From previous industry claims, WPC naturally has more product defects from both surface dents and click system profile breakage. Due to the hollow structurer in WPC core, the WPC vinyl plank are a softer material to both LVT and SPC. This is also the reason why current product launch in WPC flooring in the market mostly focus on thickness above 8.0mm up to 1.2mm, and hybride ABA structure for LVT-WPC-LVT layers are used to diminish this disadvantage attribute.
Nevertheless, with the observed product display by leading brands at the TISE show, there is no indication that L-SPC will be replacing WPC flooring this year. The product road map set out by brands generally goes through a 2 years cycle before old unpopular collections are being replace by new collections.
New Hybrid Acoustic Vinyl Flooring For Superior Acoustic Performance
The natural characteristics of LVT and SPC provide different product experience, advantages, and disadvantages into the flooring products for consumers. While both LVT flooring and SPC flooring are floating floors that provide durable performance with inexpensive prices that made it highly popular in the flooring market, consumers are also concerned that the feeling of vinyl flooring is never the same with wood based floorings. A major attribute that lead to this perception is due to the sound reflections from walking on the floorings.
The Acoustic Vinyl Flooring is made with a hybrid structure that aimed at improving the acoustic performance of vinyl flooring. It is generally composed of LVT-Foaming Layer-SPC-Underlayer. This structure combines the benefits of both LVT and SPC, and with the foaming layers divided into two different layers also minimised the compression issue in foaming underlayment.
Vinyl-Free Resilient Flooring is Shifting in favourable for PET based material
Vinyl free resilient flooring continues to have market challenges in the flooring market. This is mainly due to the fact that the cost of manufacturing for non-vinyl composition still remains significantly higher than the PVC materials. While brands are getting prepared for this next generation eco-friendly flooring products, this year at The International Surface Event, there is a significant disappearance in polypropylene flooring promo. PET, especially r-PET which is composed of recycled polyethylene terephthalate, can be still be observed by many leading brands and manufacturers.
While this does not mean that polypropylene based resilient flooring totally lost the market, just that the development for r-PET based resilient flooring is considered more matured and considered to have better sustainability when it comes to execution feasibility. However, due to the cost structure for non-PVC resilient floorings, neither PET based nor PP based flooring has significantly gained any popularity in the flooring market.
Brands that offers Non-Vinyl Resilient Floorings:
| Polypropylene (PP) | Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET / rPET) | Polyurethane (PU / PUR) |
|---|---|---|
| Inhaus with Ceramin PP Flooring | Mohawk SolidTech R | Wineo |
| Tarkett iD Evolution | Karndean Design Flooring | Shaw Contract Innate + In Tandem |
Multi-Size Vinyl Plank Collections on the Go
Multiple brands are now launching vinyl flooring collections that offers different plank size options in the same pattern design and colors. This concept for multi-size are offered with the purpose to keep flooring color designs the same while having different pavement styles between different living spaces.
