On to the black mats...

In my memory black mats started coming out around 2000 - or that is when I started seeing people using them. At first I thought they were too thick, too big and WAY too expensive. There was no way I was going to pay $70 or $80 for a yoga mat. But as I said in the previous mat blog, a friend of mine decided it was time that I had one and gave me one! She is a good friend. So the story with the black mat is that they are thick but not squishy, for people who tend to slip on other mats, often they don't slip on the black mat, they are also a little wider than most of the other mats so you have a little more mat underneath you which I like. From what I can tell most of them are 98%pvc and 2% recycled polyester - and because of the fact that you will probably only have to buy one in your life, there is a lower probability that it will end up in a landfill. I've always purchased my black mat from either Barefoot Yoga or Bheka - they both have a shorter and a tall version, their prices are about the same. The other company is Manduka - which I've never used - but a lot of people have the Manduka. Also, Manduka makes another mat called the PurpleLite Travel Mat that runs for more like $60 and that a lot of people seem to like just as well as the black mat. When I was doing research for this blog it looks like Barefoot and Bheka offer a similar purple mat as well.

Next on the discussion list is the new green mats.... if anyone has anything to offer about these let me know.