Gaiam Premium vs Premium Reversible: Which One Should You Buy?

Gaiam sells enough similarly named mats that this comparison mostly exists to untangle two of them. The Premium 6mm at $29.98 and the Premium Reversible 6mm at $39.98 share everything that matters: the same 68″ × 24″ footprint, the same 6 mm of soft latex-free PVC foam, the same 3.3 pounds, the same lifetime guarantee.

The difference is cosmetic. The plain Premium comes in two-tone solid color combos; the Reversible carries printed artwork with a different design on each face. Ten dollars for a print is a fair deal or a pointless one depending entirely on you, so the useful thing we can do here is describe the mat you get either way, honestly.

Worth clearing up before you pay for it: both faces of either mat are finished practice surfaces with the same texture and feel. Flipping the mat changes which design shows, not how it grips or cushions. Some brands sell genuinely two-surface mats, one face grippier and one softer; neither Gaiam is one of those.

Owners describe the Reversible as two mats in one, and that is fair as long as you mean two looks. The plain Premium technically reverses too, to its second solid color. If you were hoping the print bought a performance difference, it does not, and now you know before checkout rather than after.

In OutdoorGearLab’s 19-mat test, the plain Premium scored 62 of 100 and took the Best First Yoga Mat award. The Reversible scored 54, finishing 15th, rating a shade lower on comfort and support, 6.0 against the plain version’s 6.5, with its grip scored 4 of 10, the lowest of the three Gaiams in the lineup, and staining clothing listed among its drawbacks.

We would not read a large gap into scores this close on near-identical mats, but the direction is worth noting: the extra $10 buys artwork, and by the only independent test that rated both, nothing else.

Both versions are 6 mm of genuinely soft foam, and for kneeling poses, stretching, restorative classes, and workout videos, the squish is pleasant. GearLab praised the cushion for exactly those uses. This is a comfortable mat to spend floor time on, and that is most of why it makes a good first mat.

The same softness is the weakness. GearLab found the foam went squishy and sacrificed stability in balance poses like tree, and the surface compresses visibly where hands and feet land over time. If your classes are heavy on standing balances or anything one-legged, this construction, in either finish, is the wrong one.

The textured sticky finish holds fine with dry hands in slow classes. Add sweat and both mats turn slick; one GearLab tester described losing confidence in a wide-legged forward fold as moisture built up, and wet grip rated 4 of 10 against a test average of 5.7. The recurring owner complaint about Gaiam mats is this exact behavior.

A towel over the mat patches it, but if sweaty practice is the actual plan, the correct move is a different mat entirely: tacky rubber like the Jade Harmony or a budget polyurethane top like the IUGA, both of which we compare against the Premium directly.

Both carry Gaiam’s lifetime guarantee, which covers manufacturing defects. That is genuinely unusual at this price and also narrower than it sounds, because the way soft foam mats actually age, cushion packing down where you stand, texture wearing smooth after a year or two of steady practice, is wear, not defect. Practice daily and expect the mat to feel thinner within a couple of years; practice weekly and it lasts much longer.

The Reversible adds one quirk of its own: the printed surface can transfer dye to clothing when new, so give it a damp-towel buff before the first session and skip pale leggings for a week. Gaiam’s own advice for both is to unroll and air the mat for two to three days out of the box to clear the new-mat smell.

The plain Premium comes in four two-tone color combos at last count. The Reversible comes in ten printed designs at last count, patterns like Purple Illusion and Lunar Wave that are the reason this mat exists and the reason it shows up in living rooms that care how the mat looks unrolled.

This is a legitimate reason to spend $10. A mat you like looking at is a mat you use, and at $40 total the Reversible is still one of the cheapest decent mats sold. Just be sure the print is what you are paying for, because it is the only thing you are paying for.

Both sell everywhere Gaiam does, which is everywhere. Check the current prices at Amazon for the Premium 6mm and the Premium Reversible; the Reversible in particular has better than 15,000 Amazon ratings averaging 4.6 stars, which tells you how many first mats it has been.

One catalog warning while you are shopping: Gaiam also sells Classic, Essentials, and Performance lines that look similar in thumbnails. The Essentials is a lesser mat despite the family resemblance, so check the product name before assuming a cheaper listing is a deal on this one.

Get the plain Premium 6mm and keep the $10. It is the same mat, it scored slightly better in the only independent test to rate both, and the two-tone colors are perfectly pleasant. It remains our default recommendation for a first mat under $30.

Get the Premium Reversible if one of its prints is the thing that will actually get you on the mat, or it is a gift and the artwork will land better than a solid color. That is worth ten dollars. Whichever you pick, the upgrade conversation starts the first time you sweat on it, and we cover where that path leads in our Manduka PRO vs Premium Reversible comparison.