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MARKET FOCUS SECTION { INTERIORS } 52 | Boating Industry | October 2015 www.BoatingIndustry.com upholstery to provide a sportier look for today's consumers and updated colors that are matched with today's gelcoats and boat coatings. "Before we had a lot of grays and a lot of whites. Now you have a lot of different shades of colors and different textures," said Swee- ney. "Probably our best example is our Deluxe Sport Bucket chair. The style, look and appeal of it has been very popular and it's gone onto a lot of sport boats at the OEM level. With Springfield, generally when we get something [popular] at OEM [level], aftermarket gener- ally follows suit." COMFORT IS KING A product can't just look good – it also needs to feel good. If a boater is going to spend hours on a vessel, it needs to be a comfort- able experience. That's why it is the first piece of SeaDek's tagline: Comfort, durability and an aesthetic look and feel. Comfort drives much of what SeaDek designs because it is the brand's hallmark trait. "Our product is essentially similar to a shoe product [or] sandal. When someone looks down at the back of a Monterey and they see what appears to be at first glance kind of a faux teak, they expect it to be a hard plastic decking, and they jump down onto the swim platform over and over again," said Gardner. "Usually people who get a boat with SeaDek will never get one without it. The EVA foam in and of itself is a really good anti-fatigue product so comfort is forefront in everything we do." While comfort has always been important, its significance has become more prominent in the past years, even in segments where it was not historically a priority. Sweeney said that as more and more manufacturers create products that are used for multiple activities rather than a single application, comfortable seating is on the rise. One example he provided was in the pontoon segment. "Pontoon boats used to just have standard, back-to-back kind of style seats. It's now all comfort style seats, and at the helm what I'll call the Lay-Z-Boy effect has come into play. These chairs have definitely gotten a lot big- ger, a lot plusher," said Sweeney. To meet these needs, Springfield Marine has had to significantly strengthen its pedestals to accommodate larger chairs and redesign the chairs themselves. "We've taken helm chairs that we were designing for our offshore boats, yachts and workboat applications and they're now going on the recreational boats," said Sweeney. As boats and the seats inside them have gotten larger, the aluminum castings Spring- field Marine uses in its pedestals have been built with new configurations. The company is also bringing the performance of seating from the automotive industry into marine. Spring- field has added electronic motor actuators to its seating, which will adjust height and move forward or aft. "People have just become accustomed do it in the automotive industry. Their seats have all kinds of electronic features to them," said Sweeney. "The recreational boating industry always kind of follows suit not long after the automotive [industry] has it out. They're doing it with electronic controls these days so it kind of makes sense to do electronic seating as well." One key aspect to comfort is temperature. Manufacturers have begun designing products to keep consumers from burning themselves. Sunbrella's acrylic does not stick to con- sumers' skin and is comfortable to the touch, said McDaniel. "In order for the fabric to survive in that en- vironment, it has to have that durability aspect, meaning sun resistance, resistance to suntan oils, food stuff, whatever might become part of that environment," said McDaniel. Sunbrella also released its Sunbrella Terry, a knitted terrycloth much like cotton terry but made with Sunbrella's fibers. The cloth is de- signed to protect the seat and make it more comfortable to sit on in a heated environment. "It's a great sacrificial cover to put over the vinyl seats or other seating areas," said McDaniel. NO SACRIFICE TO QUALITY While styling and comfort are a huge focus for suppliers, it cannot be done at the sacrifice of quality. As a result, suppliers have released new products that enhance the customer expe- rience while drawing in the eye. To achieve this, Sunbrella introduced its Jacquard weaving technology a few years back into the construction of its outdoor fabrics. The technology produces a print-life fabric that is a woven pattern and design that is fairly intricate. "Sometimes you don't want a huge amount of intricacy inside a boat because it kind of overwhelms the space, but yet still we can bring the comfort, soft dynamic feel to the fab- ric, along with having that true performance story, which is to say it's sun-resistant and it's cleanable," said McDaniel. Sunbrella Marine's products are made with acrylic because of its great UV degradation properties and cleanability, said McDaniel. SPRINGFIELD MARINE'S SEATING DESIGN HAS MOVED TO A SPORTIER LOOK TO MEET CURRENT TRENDS. SYNTEC'S NEW ELAGÉ UPHOLSTERY VINYL HAS GREEN PROPERTIES, WHICH STEELE SAID IS "FEW AND FAR BETWEEN" IN THE INDUSTRY. "It kind of all feeds back to the primary issue, which is functionality, cleanability, durability." — William F. McDaniel, marine market manager at Glen Raven Custom Fabrics, LLC