Amazon Basics 1 Inch vs Gaiam Classic Print: Which One Should You Buy?

On the Amazon Basics side you get 25.4 mm of soft NBR foam, 74″ long, 4.6 pounds and $38.40 at list. Gaiam’s Classic Print is 4 mm of printed PVC, 68″ long, 2.1 pounds and $24.98. Stack six Classic Prints and you still would not quite match one Amazon Basics.

When we checked, Amazon ranked the Amazon Basics listing, which covers the half inch and 1 inch versions together, second in Yoga Mats and the Classic Print 13th. GearLab hasn’t tested either mat, so owner reviews are the best outside evidence we have.

Amazon’s review summaries count how many owners mention a trait and whether they are happy about it. About 1,700 Amazon Basics reviews mention thickness, and nearly nine in ten are positive. About 590 Classic Print reviews mention it, and close to seven in ten are negative, mostly owners who say 4 mm isn’t enough padding.

The Amazon Basics tally includes the half-inch version, since Amazon pools the reviews. And a review mostly records the job the buyer had in mind: someone doing crunches on tile loves the padding, while someone kneeling on a thin yoga mat over hardwood feels the floor. Neither summary says much about balance, which is where the thin mat earns its place.

Over carpet, 4 mm of PVC is plenty. On tile, hardwood or concrete, a kneeling lunge or twenty minutes of supine stretching finds the floor quickly, and you start reaching for a folded towel to kneel on. The Amazon Basics has more than six times the depth, and bridges, ab circuits and physio work on a garage floor are what it is for.

That does not mean you need the full inch. The half-inch Amazon Basics is already three times as thick as the Classic Print, lists at $22.48 and weighs about the same as the Gaiam. Move up to the inch when half an inch still leaves your knees sore.

Stand up and the Classic Print takes over. Your foot sits almost on the floor, so in tree or half moon there is very little under you to correct for.

An inch of soft NBR gives under a single foot, and the heel sinks further than the toes, so your ankle keeps adjusting. Anything with a hop in it, from a jump forward to a set of jumping jacks, lands on foam that is still compressing.

Amazon’s listing promises stable and confident poses anyway, and its first bullet calls the pad memory foam while a later one says NBR, so read the copy loosely. We go with NBR.

The grip tallies look alike. A little over half of the roughly 610 Classic Print reviews that mention grip are negative, and slightly more of the roughly 560 Amazon Basics mentions are unhappy than happy, though the Gaiam summary does single out how well the mat works on hardwood floors. The foam pad is textured too, but the whole inch can squirm under a pressing palm.

Neither surface soaks up sweat, so it pools under your palms, and a heated class would defeat either one.

The Classic Print is 68″ × 24″. Its length works out to five foot eight, and a taller person lying flat in savasana hangs off one end or the other. The Amazon Basics gives you 74″.

Rolled, the gap grows. An inch-thick pad that long cannot roll much tighter than about ten inches across, while the Classic Print rolls to roughly four, so the pad takes something like six times the closet space. Its Amazon listing promises a carrying strap, though its review summary notes some buyers say theirs was missing. Gaiam’s own page doesn’t list a strap, though the Amazon listing title now mentions one.

Gaiam is candid that a new printed mat smells very strong, though harmless, and wants it left unrolled somewhere airy for two or three days first. Amazon’s figure for the inch is 48 hours or more. Odor is still a theme in the Classic Print summary, with about three quarters of roughly 370 mentions negative. It isn’t one of the themes on the Amazon Basics summary.

Gaiam also says the mat may fade and turn brittle in long sun, so keep it away from windows. Both are latex-free: Gaiam says its PVC leaves out the six phthalates it calls most harmful, and Amazon’s listing names eight phthalates its foam is free of, along with heavy metals and latex.

Here the Classic Print reviews come out ahead. About two thirds of roughly 300 durability mentions are positive, and the complaints center on the printed plastic peeling. The Amazon Basics draws nearly 970 durability mentions, slightly more negative than positive, mostly rips and tears in soft foam. The foam also stays compressed wherever it takes the most weight.

The Amazon Basics warranty runs 1 year. Gaiam doesn’t publish the terms behind the Classic Print’s lifetime guarantee, so our guess is that it covers manufacturing faults, not a surface worn smooth. Returns to Gaiam itself are limited to 30 days, for gaiam.com orders that are still unopened and unused.

List prices are $38.40 and $24.98, and colors are priced separately on both listings, so check the Amazon Basics 1 Inch at Amazon and the Classic Print at Amazon before you order. The Classic Print is also sold at gaiam.com, where each print is its own product and the designs rotate.

Amazon Basics offers the inch in three solid colors, aqua, black and rose. If you like the Gaiam look but want more padding, our Premium Reversible vs Classic Print page covers Gaiam’s 6 mm printed mat, patterned on both sides.

The Classic Print is our pick for yoga. It stays steady when you stand on one leg, stores and carries far more easily, costs $13.42 less and has Gaiam’s lifetime guarantee behind it. The catches are a 68 inch length, a surface that slips once you sweat, and so little padding that hard floors reach your knees.

For floor exercise on a hard surface, buy the Amazon Basics 1 Inch, as long as you have somewhere to keep it. If you want a longer yoga mat with a bit more padding than the Gaiam, our Amazon Basics 1 Inch vs Gruper page puts the same pad against a 72 inch, 6 mm TPE mat.