Two Penn State Students Start Rug Business
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — What is a rug? To some, a rug is just something that you throw on the ground and walk on. Others look at rugs and think it could help with the way a room looks.
Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Walmart and every well-known shopping store sells rugs. But for Penn State juniors Jackson Long and Chris Greer, a rug is more than something you throw on the ground. It’s a job.
These two friends from West Chester, Pennsylvania, started Rug Drop, a business where they make custom rugs.
“It all started with a video that me and Chris came across, and we decided that we can definitely have a lot of fun with it and make something pretty big out of it,” Long said. “Now, we do everything from stitching the rugs to designing them, to obviously promoting them as well.”
With a tufting gun in hand, Jackson and Chris decided to have their artwork displayed on rugs because of the flexibility.
“The thing that really sold us on this whole vision was that we could create whatever design we wanted because we just sketched the design on the canvas and sewed from there,” Greer said. “The flexibility of being able to pick whatever design we wanted really sold us on it, and that’s why we went after it.”
They have created custom rugs of Derek Jeter’s No. 2 pinstripe New York Yankees jersey, a Miller Lite logo and fraternity letters. They recently did a giveaway of the bear from the Kanye West album “Graduation.”
Long and Greer say that the rug-making process takes them a total of about 10 hours per rug.
With the holiday season coming up, Long and Greer are still taking orders. You can DM them on Instagram at @RugDrop if you are interested in purchasing a rug.
Zach Gershman is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email zmg5128@psu.edu.
