Jul 16, 2026

Inside the factory: British manufacturing in action

If you've followed Jin Designs for a while, you might remember me mentioning earlier this year that I needed to find a new manufacturer for my indoor machine washable doormats. It was a bit of a big deal at the time as these are much-loved by my customers and I wanted to get the quality just right. Well, good news. After much research and back and forth, I finally found someone to help. And this week I went up north to visit the factory and see how everything is made.

I didn't get to see my own designs being printed on the day, but I did get to watch other doormats going through the whole production process. It was fascinating seeing the different stages, from the huge rolls of material being printed through to the finished mats coming off the line.

So here's a few things I discovered:

It's more complicated than it looks

Like most people, I use a doormat to wipe my feet on. You don't necessarily think about how the doormat is made. You probably think the design is printed on to the surface similar to how you'd print a piece of paper. The reality is different. There's lots of different stages of manufacturing and it gives me a new appreciation for something you walk over every day.

There's more to the backing than just rubber

One thing I learnt about was the backing of the doormat. It's made using natural rubber along with recycled materials including bottle tops, production offcuts and even old doormats. The factory also recycles its own manufacturing waste back into the process wherever possible. This is good to know that the product is sustainable as well as good quality. The company has a zero to landfill policy in place, which was great to see.

The people behind the products

One of the best parts of the visit was meeting the people behind the scenes and seeing the care and attention to detail that they have with what they do. There's been a lot of phone calls and emails over the last few months so to finally get to meet the team is really important to me. Running a small business means I spend a lot of time working with manufacturers, but it's great when you can visit and see the production line in person compared with looking at samples or photographs. When you watch the mats being made you get a much better understanding of the work involved and the skill and attention that goes into the process.

A new chapter for the doormats

The first delivery from this new manufacturer has now arrived and I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. Over the coming months I'll gradually be moving the doormats across, so for a little while there will be two versions of some designs available. You may notice slight differences in colour or finish between the old and new mats - this is simply because they're made by different manufacturers. The designs themselves haven't changed and both are lovely quality.