Native Trails’ new concrete sinks, made of a gorgeous, groundbreaking cement and jute fiber mixture called NativeStone, are poised to spur the concrete trend in home design and energize the kitchen and bath industry.

The NativeStone line, which includes, kitchen, bar/prep, and lavatory sinks. These sinks are impervious to staining and are cool and silky smooth, thanks to a cutting-edge nano sealer. Jute fiber is integrated throughout the concrete, resulting in a material that is highly resistant to cracking.

“Our customers are going to love NativeStone as much as we already do,” says Dion Wilson, Manager at Waterhouse Bath and Kitchen Studio in Perrysburg, Ohio, one of the 1,300 showrooms in the U.S. and Canada where the NativeStone products will be sold. “It is one of those tactile products where seeing is just not enough; everyone is drawn to touching and feeling it. These sinks are a real game-changer because they give our customers the option of concrete without the cost and challenges that come with a custom-made concrete product.”

NativeStone fully upholds Native Trails’ Eco-Social Positive commitment to only make and sell products that have a positive influence on our world, both socially and environmentally. By adding jute—a natural, renewable vegetable fiber—to the proprietary concrete blend, Native Trails has reinvented concrete as we know it. NativeStone concrete sinks are 40 percent lighter, much stronger, and far more sustainable than traditional cement sinks since they make use of natural resources, generate less waste, and require less energy than ordinary concrete production. Less heft also makes them easier to install and less expensive to ship than traditional concrete.

“Concrete is an emerging home design trend that we see used far more often for countertops, floors, furniture, and even home exteriors,” says Native Trails CEO and Founder Naomi Neilson Howard. “NativeStone makes great use of concrete’s natural beauty and its natural color—gray—which is also a hot design trend right now, and avoids all of its previous downfalls. It is gorgeous and silky to the touch. For the first time, concrete communicates luxury just as powerfully as it does function.”

To develop this product, Naomi Howard and Native Trails President Tim Blair visited artisans in Vietnam, where they spent weeks hiking to remote villages, exploring cities both ancient and modern, researching factories and workshops, and coming to appreciate the country’s strong handicraft tradition and deep-rooted artisan culture.

“We were looking for a material that could translate to both a kitchen and a bath sink,” says Native Trails President Tim Blair. “It needed to be artisan-made, with our Eco-Social Positive philosophy and story behind it. It also had to be sustainably crafted to fit with our core beliefs and be viable for business—not an easy thing in reality. Once we saw one of the NativeStone prototypes and felt the smooth, cool texture, we fell in love with it. That’s how it goes: if we love the product, it’s a pretty good bet that designers and homeowners will as well.”

The NativeStone designs were influenced by Native Trails’ most popular copper sinks and by the versatility of the concrete material, which granted enormous creative freedom. The result is a product line inspired as much by nature as it is by modern life and by concrete’s naturally industrial appeal.

Native Trails. www.nativetrails.net

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