The holiday shopping season is in full swing. Millions of dollars are being spent online this season. The abundance of products being shipped is overwhelming and makes you think really hard about the so-called economic crisis. People are spending like mad. The popularity of alternative practices such as yoga and meditation is at its highest and the industry is trying hard to keep up with demand for yoga mats, towels and accessories. The amount of products presented today could make shopping for yoga gear a real nightmare for many people, especially those who are not experienced. This guide simply presents the best yoga mats according to countless reviews, ratings and references from yoga practitioners.
How we selected the best yoga mats
We are a team of yoga teachers who one day decided to share the knowledge of the yoga industry with our student and everyone else. We created a blog in which we simply review and post the best (in our opinion) yoga accessories based on our intimate knowledge of this field.
We use or have used most of the products we review and we are very confident in our selection. In case you doubt our opinion, we’ve included customer reviews from Amazon to back us up. Please visit our site to see for yourself.
In the process of selecting the best yoga mats, we were basing our consideration on the following criteria (in no particular order): material, quality, performance, price, appearance, customer feedback. Among the definite winners were mats made from natural and eco-friendly materials such as rubber, jute, cotton and various custom blends. These materials seemed to be most reliable and were also featuring the greatest performance characteristics such as cushioning, support and moisture absorption. Unfortunately, mats made from these materials were also the most expensive. The reasons are quite obvious, natural materials are costly to harvest and process, especially if the company is trying to stay nature friendly and harvest from expensive sustainable resources. We realized that it was not possible to cut down on the price if a mat was made of natural rubber or other natural material.
Our primary choices included:
Manduka Mats – these high-quality products are specially engineered for performance and longevity. The company offers a full range of mats for all levels of practice and budget. While Manduka does not sell their mats cheap, they stand behind their products. Many people claim Manduka mats to be the best on the market. We tend to agree.
Jade Mats - Second only to Manduka, Jade products are a lot more affordable but almost as good. We say almost because the decrease in price had to be justified by something and this is the density of the material. Jade mats are more porous than Manduka mats and do not as long as a result. However these mats are also lighter and less expensive.
Gaiam Mats – Very affordable, yet high quality products by a very conscious company that strives very hard to keep their quality standards high. These guys are actively involved in the yoga community and make excellent products that are accessible to everyone. Gaiam uses custom blends that include artificial components in their mats, but the price is just awesome.
