How Ruggable designed its new rug to have the charm of jute without any of the scratchiness

I have a very conflicted relationship with my jute rug. I love the organic, textured aesthetic that makes my dining room feel earthy and relaxed. But over time, I’ve come to resent how scratchy it feels underfoot, how the fibers shed and splinter, and how if my toddler spills yogurt on it, there’s no way to get it out of the nooks and crannies, so it becomes part of the rug forever.

Ruggable, the company that launched nearly a decade ago on the premise that rugs should be washable, has been on a mission to reimagine the jute rug. And after nearly two years of development, it is launching a machine-washable rug called Performance Weave that mimics jute so convincingly, you would need to touch it to know the difference.

To create it, Ruggable had to embark in a complex process of reverse engineering to give customers all the qualities they love about jute—the complexity of its texture and color—while making it softer to the touch and washable. “There’s so many performance benefits of jute when you think about it as a material, but there are a lot of drawbacks too,” says Nicole Otto, Ruggable’s CEO. “Traditional jute doesn’t have the best foot feel. We set out to fix that.”

Building a Jute-Alternative

The breakthrough starts at the yarn level. Rather than using standard synthetic fibers that are commonly used to make rugs these days, Ruggable’s team engineered a yarn made from a polymer called polypropylene specifically designed to replicate jute’s signature look.

To re-create the depth and tonal variation you would see in a natural fiber, they found a way to twist three distinct filaments together that were light, medium, and dark. It’s the same principle behind why our hair looks dimensional, rather than flat: Individual hairs come in different shades that work together to create richness. This makes it different from rugs that are dyed in a single color, which ends up looking flat and synthetic.

Many people like having jute rugs in outdoor spaces—particularly in warmer climates in the sun belt. So Ruggable chose to use yarns with a U.V. stabilizer built into the filaments, allowing it to hold up whether it is baking in the sun or in your living room.

From there, the yarn is tufted into what Otto calls a “croissant” weave. It is narrower at the base, but gains density as it loops upwards. The structure creates the thick, textured, organic look that makes jute so appealing, while staying soft to the touch. “We’ve actually woven it in a way that it has a lot of give and cushion,” Otto explains.

Ruggable found a tufted construction method that allows the rug to be both fully machine washable, while also staying structurally stable. The company promises that the rug won’t warp, wrinkle, or crease when you throw it in the washing machine. The bottom layer of the rug is thin and lightweight, keeping it pliable enough to fit in a standard home washing machine, while giving the rug some grip.

Ruggable’s All-in-One Platform

Since launching in 2017, Ruggable has made a business out of solving problems with traditional rugs. Founder Jeneva Bell’s original breakthrough was deconstructing a rug into layers and engineering them to survive a washing machine cycle together—which required understanding the material science of how each layer behaves under pressure.

To create a washable rug, Bell created a two-piece system that featured a rug cover attached to a separate non-slip pad. The cover was thin enough that it could easily fit in a washing machine when it needed to be cleaned. But many customers complained about putting the rug back together after the wash, since it was hard to get all the edges lined up perfectly.

Last September, Ruggable launched a new “all-in-one” rug design. Within six weeks of launching, Ruggable saw that the majority of its customers moved to the new innovation. It now represents 70% of the business, and it has been responsible for increasing Ruggable’s net promoter score by 20 points. Revenue climbed as well, although the company won’t share specifics.

“We’re obsessed [with] our consumers’ feedback,” Otto says. “We feel like we made the platform with our consumers and really addressed all of the hurdles of the two-piece system without compromising either design or functionality.”

The original two-piece system still has its devotees, particularly for high-traffic zones like kitchens where weekly washing makes sense, or under office chairs where you need something flat enough that your wheels don’t catch. But for larger rooms where you actually want comfort and texture, Ruggable is betting that washability plus natural-fiber aesthetics will keep driving adoption.

Performance Weave represents something the traditional rug industry hasn’t prioritized. Maintaining the design people want while engineering for the chaos of everyday life. It’s one thing to make a rug that looks like jute. It’s another to make one that survives your washing machine, children, or pets.

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