Berber carpet OK for cats?

I am going to be replacing the carpet in my basement with something
tough and durable like Berber given that I have a home gym in the
basement. However I was wondering two things:

1) Whether my two cats will always be clawing the carpet and getting
their claws stuck in the Berber "loops", or whether they will leave it
alone. My cats do claw at carpet but I don't have Berber carpet
anywhere in the house, and one of my friends told me that their
previous cats hated Berber carpet and would never claw it. It would
be great if they didn't bother clawing at Berber carpet.

2) Given that the litter box is in the basement, whether they will
track kitty litter into the Berber carpet which may be difficult to
remove (i.e. anybody know if its unusually difficult to vacuum kitty
litter out of Berber carpet compared to "normal" carpet)?

Thanks.