It was November 2022, and Jeff Schieman was walking around the gigantic Metstrade show in Amsterdam. Exhibitor after exhibitor was displaying equipment, materials and systems that could be used on boats. The place was cavernous, with every product imaginable.
Even amid that endless sea of options, the Kanvaslight display stopped Schieman cold. This French company had figured out how to weave optical fibers into fabric, and then add a light injector. In essence, the combination made fabric light up.
“It was pretty cool,” says Schieman, one of the founding partners of Florida-based SeaDek, which makes foam flooring for boats. “They were putting it in Bimini tops and seating and things. I wanted to work with them to light through our EVA foam.”
Two years later, at the 2024 Miami International Boat Show, SeaDek won an Innovation Award from the National Marine Manufacturers Association for its latest product: Lighted SeaDek. Judges were wowed by what they called “a new level of functionality and owner customizations.”
To Schieman’s thinking, Lighted SeaDek was simply the next step in what has been a journey of high-quality, innovative boat flooring since the company’s founding in 2004. Back then, SeaDek gave boaters an alternative to the ubiquitous hard-fiberglass nonskid or standard household-style carpeting. SeaDek flooring, by contrast, is a foam blend whose underfoot comfort helps to reduce boater fatigue while providing traction. It’s fully customizable too, with all kinds of colors, textures and laser-cut patterns.
Boaters loved it—so much so that competitors sprung up, many with lower-quality knockoff products. That’s why Schieman and the team were at Metstrade, trying to figure out the next advancement that SeaDek could offer in a high-quality way.
“We’re always thinking of ways to stay No. 1,” he says. “The job of myself and the SeaDek team is to think about what the next big thing will be to stay as leaders in innovation.”
Kanvaslight’s fiber-optic technology appealed to Schieman because it’s different from the LED lighting that’s usually installed in covered locations on boats. This fiber-optic solution can be out in the open for everyone to see—where flooring is on a boat.
“When you see LED strips, they’re not pretty-looking. You want to keep it hidden,” Schieman says. “The fiber-optic strip is very clean. It just looks like a white strip, and you can get it in very wide lengths. With LEDs, getting an 8-inch-wide LED, there are too many little, teeny chips. A piece-of-paper size of an LED looks like a circuit board. The lights are independent. It’s not a nice, consistent wide light. That’s why the LED doesn’t work in this kind of application.”
By the time Schieman got to Metstrade, SeaDek had already been trying to solve the lighted flooring challenge for a while. SeaDek had several patented ideas, but they were different from this new solution: “A fiber-optic ribbon is adhered, and our peel-and-stick flooring is on top of that to create the illumination that you want.”
Another key benefit to making Lighted SeaDek this way is that the fiber-optic lighting stays cool when it lights up. It also can handle the wet environment without the system being fried. And it works with dimmers and with music, similar to other modern boat lighting.
Right now, Lighted SeaDek is available only by request from OEMs on new builds—and only under the SeaDek brand. The SeaDek team works directly with manufacturers to determine how the wiring should connect to the boat’s command center, which is why boat buyers need to ask for Lighted SeaDek during a boat’s construction.
The biggest problem that SeaDek’s team is running into so far is boaters requesting the lighted flooring for all kinds of sprawling onboard spaces. They want it everywhere. The technology isn’t quite there yet, although SeaDek is the only company figuring out how to apply it in different ways.
“None of our competitors are doing this,” Schieman says. “What we are offering right now is 3 to 4 inches wide by about 3 feet long, to light up logos and small areas.
“SeaDek strives on innovation and customer service,” he adds. “We want everyone to know that when we come out with a product, our goal is to stay No. 1 and be innovative, and not just sell flooring. It’s about new products and disrupting the marine industry time and time again.”
For more information, visit seadek.com/innovation.
