The CocoMats.com Story

Cocomats.com Car Floor Mats was founded in 1996 out of a garage in Agoura Hills, California. The idea began when a DHL package from India was sent to the doorstep of Jeff Allwine in California by mistake. Expecting a sample shirt to arrive, Jeff found a small sample of woven coconut fibers. A divine mix-up that planted the Cocomats.com seed.

Early Days

Cocomats were very popular in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s as a factory accessory option by Porsche, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and many other European auto manufacturers. They were, and still are, one of the best-woven car mat options available to help any car look great. They are also the only car mat option on the market that can hide the dirt on the floor of your car, just like when they were first developed.

By the mid-’90s, cocomats were no longer available. So when the co-founder, Jeff Allwine, received the package of coco fibers by mistake, it sparked a recollection of his early 911 Porsche’s and the great look and feel of cocomats. Having determined that there was a market for a new and improved line of cocomat car mats and finding no one manufacturing them at the time, CocoMats.com was started. A few old sets of original Porsche coco mats were bought from Gary Emory at Parts Obsolete in Oregon to get the weave and colors to match the original cocomats. Contacts were made with a factory in India to purchase the new and improved coco matting material, which we still use to this day after 22 years of working together.

Building a Company

After starting CocoMats.com in 1996, our first step was to design a natural nibbed rubber bottom for the underside of every car mat we manufacture. The original cocomats were developed to go on the floor of early European automobiles, which had rubber on the floor before carpeting was the norm. With most vehicles now having carpet, adding our nibbed rubber bottom gives all of the benefits of the original cocomats, with the added advantage that the mats won’t move or bunch up. They are 100% waterproof and will still hide and hold dirt until vacuumed, shaken out, or hit against a tree.

In addition to our rubber bottom that holds our mats in place, if any car is equipped with mat attachments, we offer either factory grommets or factory-styled grommets, depending on the material chosen and its thickness. We have over 10 different styles of grommets, snaps, posts, and velcro options for the various different car systems.

The business moved from California in 1998, relocating to Easton, CT. Then in 2006, having outgrown our four-car garage, we relocated the business in 4 tractor-trailer trucks to our current factory location in Fort Mill, SC. We choose Fort Mill, SC, for the great skilled labor and a positive and healthy work environment. We have built a great team of skilled craftsmen. Every mat we manufacture is handmade to order, using the finest materials and labor.

When Cocomats.com began in 1996, we only manufactured six different cocomat colors! We currently carry nine products with 50 color options. One of the biggest hurdles we faced at the beginning of Cocomats.com was that we failed to realize that there are thousands of patterns for the thousands of car models built over the years. We did not have one car floor mat pattern. We were so thrilled to have found and revived such an exciting and great product that we overlooked this considerable detail.

After a few tough years and help from the car community family, we persevered and now have all vehicle mat patterns, including every Porsche, Mercedes Benz, BMW, and other European car manufacturers, from the 50s up to the current models, including left hand and right-hand drive. We also offer our customers the choice to send us a new or modified pattern which we will custom make to their design, for no extra charge, as all of our auto mats are still handmade to order in our shop in Fort Mill, SC, USA.

Going Forward

For further information about our car mats, many “About Us“ articles and videos have been done on our company over the years, including a feature article in the Mercedes-Benz Club magazine and a Porche Club of America product spotlight video. Our friend and customer, Jay Leno, did a video about our mats in Jay Leno’s garage. Mercedes Source also did an informative video on their popular YouTube channel. Many more articles in magazines, videos, blogs, and forums are available online.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our site and read about CocoMats.com. We have included our mission statement below because it is who we are here at CocoMats.com.