Gaiam Dry-Grip vs Yoga Design Lab Combo: Which One Should You Buy?

Both of these carry a hot yoga promise. Gaiam’s copy calls the Performance Dry-Grip ideal for hot yoga and credits a moisture-wicking topcoat. Yoga Design Lab uses the same words for the Combo, and says its microfiber towel top gets grippier as you sweat. One is $69.98 of PVC, the other $117 of towel bonded to natural rubber.

GearLab tested both, and neither claim survived. Its wet grip table has 18 mats in it. The Dry-Grip scored 3.5, second from the bottom, and the Combo scored 4, tied with two budget PVC mats one step up. If a heated room is why you are shopping, skip to the bottom line for mats that did well in that test. The rest of this page is about how these two differ for everyone else.

GearLab’s wet score comes from a soak. Every mat is doused with a liter of water, which GearLab puts at about a hot class’s worth of sweat, and then tested through a run of poses. The Combo, whose top is an actual towel, beat the PVC mat by half a point. That is the entire margin in the one condition both brands built their pitch on.

Dry is not close. The Dry-Grip scored 6.5 and the Combo 4, with only the Primasole Foldable below it. GearLab’s verdict on the Gaiam is that it isn’t the stickiest mat around but suits a stretch practice nicely. Its one-line summary of the Combo says it was more slippery in practice than the testers had hoped.

A towel top is designed to grip once it is damp, which accounts for the dry score. The wet score came after the soak.

Amazon’s review summary for the Dry-Grip counts 568 positive grip mentions against 154 negative, and says owners find it stays put even when they sweat. That listing pools reviews with the Long & Wide, so the count covers both sizes.

The Combo’s owners are more divided, 38 grip mentions positive and 25 negative. One calls it perfect for hot yoga and says they don’t slip at all. Another, five months in, says their back foot still often slips a couple of inches during transitions.

Overall the Dry-Grip scored 62 and placed 12th of 19; the Combo scored 52 and placed 17th. In the weighted categories the Dry-Grip won comfort and support 8 to 6, grip 5 to 4 and care and cleaning 7 to 6. The Combo won materials, 5 to 4.

Comfort is the biggest of those gaps and carries the most weight, 35% of the total. GearLab called the Dry-Grip’s cushion ideal, easy on the joints and firm for support. The Combo is 3.5 mm to the Gaiam’s 5, which shows up under your knees on a hard floor.

GearLab describes the Dry-Grip’s surface as silky smooth, which suits slow stretching and gliding a foot into place. Its catch comes in the first week: GearLab found the dye can come off on clothing and suggests rubbing a new mat down with a towel before you use it. Stains easily is among its cons too.

The Combo feels like fabric, and Amazon’s review summary notes owners describing it as velvety. Its catch is that microfiber lifts hair and fluff off the floor, and GearLab lists lint collection as a con.

The whole Combo can go in the washing machine, on a gentle cycle with mild soap in a washer with no center agitator, though Yoga Design Lab would rather you hand wash it, and the Amazon listing’s care field says hand wash only. GearLab found no scrubbing or hosing involved and says it smelled fresh after every wash.

The Dry-Grip is a wipe-down mat, yet GearLab scored its care higher, 7 to 6, in a category that also weighs portability. Gaiam says to air a new one for two to three days to clear a strong but harmless odor, and warns that long sun leaves PVC faded and brittle.

The Dry-Grip is 68″ × 24″ and the Combo 70″ × 24″, both on the narrow side. The brand weights say 4.25 and 4.9 pounds, but GearLab’s scale reversed the order: 5.4 for the Dry-Grip and 4.6 for the Combo. The Combo includes a carry strap.

Gaiam does make a bigger version. The Dry-Grip Long & Wide is 78″ × 26″ for $74.98, just $5 more, with the same topcoat, though GearLab tested only the standard size.

Gaiam’s spec for the Dry-Grip is rubber, latex and 6P free, so a buyer with a latex allergy can use it, which is rare among mats sold on grip. The Combo’s base is natural tree rubber, so it is out for an allergy. Its top is recycled PET microfiber, 19 recycled water bottles per mat by Yoga Design Lab’s count, printed with water-based inks.

Durability is the Dry-Grip’s sore spot. Not very durable heads GearLab’s cons, and on Amazon 283 of 385 durability mentions are negative, with owners describing the top layer separating from the bottom. One says theirs began to peel in under eight months of a few classes a week.

The Dry-Grip comes with Gaiam’s lifetime guarantee, whose terms Gaiam doesn’t publish; we wouldn’t count on it to replace a topcoat that peels with use. Direct from gaiam.com, returns are limited to unopened, unused mats within 30 days. Yoga Design Lab offers no warranty, and its 30-day window, counted from the day the mat arrives, only covers one that is unused and back in its original box.

List prices are $69.98 and $117, a gap of $47.02. The Dry-Grip listing at Amazon and the Combo at Amazon show current prices, and yogadesignlab.com sells the Combo in 19 printed designs in the 3.5mm at last count.

For hot yoga, buy neither. The mat GearLab picked for heated rooms, the Manduka GRP Adapt 2.0, scored 8.5 wet and is set against the Combo in our GRP and Combo comparison. For less money, the $66.99 IUGA held a 7 in the same soak test.

Between these two, the Dry-Grip is the better mat for a cool room: more cushion, much better dry grip, latex free, a lifetime guarantee and $47.02 less. Get the Combo only if a machine-washable towel top and one of its prints are what you are paying for, and you can live with a thin, narrow mat.