Fervor over Portland airport's trademark teal carpet generates new life for the old design

SALEM, Ore. Visitors and locals lined up inside Portland International Airport to have their photos taken with an odd celebrity a piece of nearly 30-year-old carpet.

By day's end, more than 800 photo booth-style pictures were snapped of people standing next to the segment of floor covering, hung up for an event called PDX Carpet Fest.

It was classic Portland, a city known for keeping it weird: a farewell party for the airport's trademark teal carpet, which is being replaced after three decades under travelers and luggage wheels.

"I guess this carpet is really iconic, and I can't imagine another city getting this worked up over carpet," said Sierra Prior, a Portland resident who posed for photos before boarding her plane to New Orleans.

The unmistakably '80s carpet at the airport known as PDX is decorated with dark-blue lines and red, lavender and purple dots a design meant to symbolize air traffic controllers' view at night.

As word spread that it would be torn up, the weathered floor covering became an online superstar.

More than 40,000 "foot selfies" photos people took of their feet on the carpet were plastered on Instagram. The carpet got its own Facebook and Twitter pages.

Some local companies started selling T-shirts, coffee mugs and other products featuring its signature pattern.

"I'm getting married on November 6th, and I think I'm going to have all my groomsmen wear the PDX carpet socks," said Derek Harguth, a Portland native who went to the airport to check out the PDX Carpet Fest.

Demand for actual remnants of the carpet has been so high that airport officials are giving four local vendors 1,000 square yards each to incorporate into items including sofas, doormats and cat beds that will be sold to the public.

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Fervor over Portland airport's trademark teal carpet generates new life for the old design