Exactly 5 years ago today!

Exactly 5 years ago the idea arose to develope an anti-slip stair tape that had to have the quality of a strip and that could easily be applied by anyone, but would also be suitable for the most staircases in social housing.

Well what's new about that you will think .. Once that would have been my first thought. There is still enough to buy to make your steps rough and safe, you would think. You are absolutely, right there are so many possibilities in this. However, the idea with us also arose from the regular questions we received from customers or visitors of our website, so there was a real demand and need for a non-slip strip that you can apply yourself.

Don't click away yet! ... I'll explain to you;

In 2004 I started trading company Lamiwood. A company that sold stair parts to the stairs and carpentry industry. Visiting staircases and staircases all day long and trying to make the carpenter's stairwell enthusiastic about an ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY laminated pine wooden handrail.

You must know that this handrail has been made from tropical hardwood for many years. The idea was to offer a railing that was environmentally friendly and at least of the same quality as the hardwood railing. All well calculated and it should be a large market with at least 15,000 homes per year.

Yes sorry but what does that have to do with anti-slip? .... Wait a minute let me explain!

The first few years it went great, although it took me a lot of effort to make the carpenter aware of an environmentally friendly handrail, more and more factories switched to this handrail and the turnover grew nicely.

But then .. the crises came ... and the sale of handrails was more difficult, in the evenings at home while we were eating we often discussed themes with my 18-year-old daughter. That is how the topic internet came up that night and how that could affect the retailer and the businesses like I had Lamiwood in the future.

My daughter Joyce was convinced that this was going to be the future, I had to say that I had honest doubts about it.

Shall I make a webshop for Lamiwood dad she said, I thought she was joking but no, she was dead serious. Yes and to make a very long story a bit shorter she was right. The internet grew explosively and the business market in the construction industry collapsed completely. We switched just in time. Thanks to the internet and my daughter ;-)

AND NOW IT COMES!

A whole story to come to the point, namely why develop an anti-slip strip that is stickable?

We were regularly asked by email and by phone for a rubber strip but not a strip where you have to make a groove in the steps, or such an ikea strip with sandpaper but a strip that you can simply apply and that has the same characteristics like the step strip clamped in a groove.

THE RELAY OF A SHOPPING VISITOR

The deciding factor was a visit from a lady who came to the store with her arm in the brace and her plaster shoulder-length. She had come by bus and had been on the road for 2 hours. We are in the industrial area of ââ¬â¹ââ¬â¹Roelofarendsveen and public transport there was poor at the time. Anyway she had found us.

She had had a lot of bad luck, quickly down the stairs because 1 of her children screamed, stumbled, slid 12 steps down and broke her arm in 2 places. To the hospital and her arm in plaster for 8 weeks. As a woman without a husband and 2 children, this is a difficult task.

While drinking a cup of coffee she was telling all this, yes and you know she said .. the worst part is that I can't drive a car now, I have to do everything with public transport. I have looked and searched on the internet but can't find anything that is good to make my stairs safer. You can buy those strips that you have to put in a groove, but that is not allowed by the housing association because I have a rented house, I think those stairmats are pretty ugly and that sandpaper from Ikea that is on it does not help it sands your socks well through and over time they become smooth.

So yes I have now learned that .... the stairs is dangerous so there must be a solution. When I read that you are a stair parts specialist and I thought I am going there that will probably have a solution for that smooth staircase of mine and will be able to help me.

Mmmm well that was a question, what can you do now to make your stairs safer, a non-slip tape with the quality of a strip for do - it - yourself we did not sell at lamiwood, with more than 3,000 items I could not even help this lady..

THE SOLUTION FOUND

That was the solution I sold her a piece of handrail of 1 meter with 2 supports. A week later she called me, the solution was perfect, the neighbor had fitted the stair railing and that gave her safety and tranquility, I told her that through her visit we had started looking for a good solution for rental properties and a strong non-sandable strip to assemble myself, and that I would call her if we had found this and included it in the assortment.

DEVELOPING A PRODUCT

Making and inventing a non-slip rubber tape was not that easy, but in the end with the help of students in Delft who came up with a coastal substance composition and the manufacturer Tesa, a specialist in adhesive layers that came up with a very good adhesive layer and a Dutch manufacturer who developed this tape has been producing for us for 5 years now, a new product has been born, a non-slip tape with the quality of a strip and suitable for do it yourself.

After 6 months I called the lady with the message that we had developed a strip with an adhesive layer and she bought a roll of this anti-slip rubber tape. For the comic we have created a special web store where we are the only one in the Netherlands that sells the brand: antisliprubbertape.com.

From our office at Lamiwood we slowly started packing and sending this anti-slip rubber tape.

Joyce and I are proud that we have now made more than 14,000 stairs safe again.

How it started in 2014

From the Lamiwood office, we wrapped the anti-slip rubber strips ourselves in green envelopes every morning. A few every day and slowly the turnover grew to a larger volume.

5 years later in 2019

The amount of packages has grown considerably in the meantime, so that we have been working with postNL since the beginning of this year. They package the stair strips and ship them the same day. A big advantage, because this guarantees that the shipment is delivered to the customer the other day. Our product is perfect for packaging with this robotized order processing system from the PostNl fulfillment center.

www.antisliprubbertape.com

September 24, 2019