The phenomenon is also known from other areas, where a brand name becomes a category term: For example, paper handkerchiefs are often referred to as “Kleenex” or adhesive strips as “Scotch”. This is because these brands were or are so dominant in their product category that they have become synonymous within the entire industry.

The same happened with tartan. Tartan is the brand name of a US manufacturer. This manufacturer was so successful with the invention of the track from the 1960s that plastic running tracks were installed all over the world under the brand name Tartan. In Europe, the first tartan track was installed in 1968 at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich.

Tartan tracks gradually replaced running tracks

Before the tartan track, there were in the German language area so-called “Tennenbahnen” or “Tennenplätze”. They are not so well known because of their name, but visually everyone knows them. They are made of the red ash of brick dust. The tartan tracks have increasingly replaced the running tracks. Whenever prestigious sports facilities were either renovated or newly built, the builders opted for the tartan track instead of the dusty and also more slippery cinder track.

Ultimately, the tartan track ensured better results for the athletes, which contributed to their global success.

Possibly another reason also contributed to the success of the tartan track: The U.S. manufacturer had its tracks built with the same visual appearance as the running tracks: with a red brick color and a grainy surface texture. In this way, the well-known and familiar image that athletics surfaces leave in a stadium was retained from the spectators’ point of view.

The name of the tartan track has endured to this day, as it has greatly improved the performance of track and field athletes and visually dominated stadiums around the world since its triumphant debut 60 years ago. Virtually all major international records from the 1960s through the 2000s were achieved on tartan tracks.

Difference between tartan tracks and modern synthetic tracks

The structure of a tartan track looks like this: The elastic layer is made of SBR granules and PUR as a binder, and the wear layer is made of EPDM and PUR. Before 1983, tartan tracks also contained mercury and other heavy metals. Modern synthetic running tracks, such as Conica’s Conipur Vmax solution used in the Letzigrund Stadium of the present days, use pure PUR for two layers. Over the years, thanks to research and development and cooperation with sports science, the formulation of the surface has been consistently refined to both constantly improve the performance of the athletes and to provide a surface that is as gentle as possible on their musculoskeletal system.

Not least when it comes to the color design of athletics tracks and surfaces, there is much more freedom today than with the earlier tartan tracks with their red brick look: Conica offers a total of 24 colors for Conipur Vmax. The visual appearance of the tracks plays an important role in the design of modern sports facilities and can even tip the scales when it comes to awarding the contract. The Estadio Vallehermoso in Madrid, which was equipped by Conica, is considered the greenest stadium in the world because, in addition to the turf, the running track and the stadium building were also designed in different shades of green, based on an idea by the architectural firm Estudio Cano Lasso Arquitectos.