Gaiam Premium 6mm vs B Mat Strong: Which One Should You Buy?

Both mats are 6 mm. That is the spec most people look at first, and here it tells you almost nothing, because $29.98 of soft PVC foam and $144 of dense Spanish rubber behave nothing alike.

The Gaiam Premium 6mm holds OutdoorGearLab’s Best Buy award as Best First Yoga Mat. The B Mat Strong is b, halfmoon’s thick mat: tacky rubber on both faces, OEKO-TEX certified, with a written year of coverage.

What separates them is density, and it is worth understanding because it explains most of the price gaps in this category.

Thickness tells you how far a material can compress. Density tells you how hard it pushes back. Two mats can both be 6 mm and offer completely different amounts of support, which is exactly what has happened here.

GearLab listed cushion compresses among the Gaiam’s cons despite the 6 mm figure, because light PVC foam gives under the points you load hardest, and keeps giving over months of use. The B Mat’s rubber resists.

You feel it in two places. Kneeling on tile, where the Gaiam bottoms out and the B Mat does not. And standing on one leg, where soft foam has your ankle constantly correcting.

Dense rubber is tacky from the first class with no break-in, and on the Strong both faces are the same surface, so there is no wrong side up. That is the property b, halfmoon built its name on.

We should be straight about the evidence: OutdoorGearLab has never tested the B Mat, so we are describing the material and consistent owner reports rather than quoting a score. GearLab did test the Gaiam and rated it 6 out of 10 dry, 4 wet, and 5 for grip overall, with slippery wet grip in its cons.

Rubber is closed-cell here rather than open, so sweat pools on top instead of soaking in. Very good dry, less good in a genuinely heated room, and still a level above sticky PVC.

Worth saying plainly, because a $114 gap makes it easy to be unfair. GearLab gave the Gaiam a Best Buy award and called it budget- friendly, beginner-friendly and portable, with soft cushion and fun designs, at 62 out of 100.

For someone starting out, practicing gently at home, and unsure how far this goes, $29.98 is a sensible amount to spend and this is a good mat to spend it on. You will outgrow it, and outgrowing a $30 mat is not a problem.

The B Mat is 71″ × 26″ against the Gaiam’s 68″ × 24″. Two inches of width is what stops your hands finding the edge in a wide down dog, and three inches of length helps if you are tall.

b, halfmoon also makes an 85 inch Strong Long, which is a genuinely large mat. Gaiam sells the Premium in one size, so above about five foot eight the cheap mat has no answer.

3.3 pounds against 5. Dense rubber is heavy, and 6 mm of it over a larger footprint adds up, though 5 pounds is mid-pack rather than punishing next to the 7 and 8 pound mats out there.

GearLab listed portable among the Gaiam’s pros for good reason. If you walk to a studio several times a week, the cheap mat has a real advantage that has nothing to do with price.

b, halfmoon writes a one-year warranty on the B Mat Strong and carries an OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification, which covers testing for harmful substances rather than sustainability.

Gaiam advertises a lifetime guarantee. It reads better and is worth less, because foam compressing under your hands and heels is not a defect anyone replaces a mat for. A written year on a mat that will not compress is the more useful document of the two, even though it sounds like the weaker one.

The B Mat Strong is mostly natural rubber with some synthetic in the blend, made in Spain. That means a genuine latex allergy rules it out, and it means the mat wants keeping out of hot cars and direct sun, both of which degrade rubber.

The Gaiam is latex-free PVC, tolerates neglect, and has no rubber smell. If allergy is the constraint and you want density, dense PVC is the direction and the Manduka PROlite is where that search usually starts.

The B Mat Strong sells through us.bhalfmoon.com in seven colorways. Its Amazon listings are unreliable, so buying direct is the sensible route.

The Gaiam is on Amazon and gaiam.com in four reversible color combinations and is discounted often enough that paying the full $29.98 is rarely necessary.

Buy the Gaiam Premium 6mm if you are starting out, if you carry your mat, or if latex rules rubber out. It is the cheapest mat we would recommend without caveats to a beginner, and an independent test agrees.

Buy the B Mat Strong if you want 6 mm that stays 6 mm, grip from the first class, and a mat you will still like in five years. It is heavier, it needs a little care, and it costs $114.02 more. If the thickness is what appeals but rubber is not, look at dense PVC instead of buying more foam.