Jade Level One vs Yoga Design Lab Combo: Which One Should You Buy?

The Jade Level One is Jade’s entry-level mat, a 4 mm sheet of open-cell natural rubber from the USA priced at $66.50. Jade calls it the perfect mat for the new yogi. The Yoga Design Lab Combo costs $117 and is 3.5 mm: a microfiber towel layer with a rubber mat underneath.

So the Combo costs $50.50 more for a slightly thinner mat. The money buys a towel surface you can wash, which Yoga Design Lab pitches at sweaty and heated classes. The room you practice in decides most of this.

GearLab put the Combo in its 2026 roundup, where it finished 17th of 19 with 52 points and scored 4 on dry grip and 4 on wet. The one-line verdict called it more slippery than the testers had hoped.

Nobody we trust has published a test of the Level One. Jade’s page promises grip and cushion that keep a beginner from worrying about slipping, which is Jade’s claim rather than a result, so for this mat we’re working from the specs and from what open-cell rubber generally does.

A towel surface wants some dampness before it grips. GearLab gave the Combo 4 for dry grip, and the Primasole Foldable was the only mat in that table to score lower. Amazon’s review summary calls owners’ grip feedback mixed, with some praising the traction and others saying it slips.

The Level One’s surface is plain natural rubber, like every Jade mat. There’s no score to confirm how well it holds, but it doesn’t depend on sweat to start working the way a towel does.

A hot class is where the Combo should shine. Yoga Design Lab’s pitch is a moisture-activated grip that improves with sweat. GearLab’s wet test, a liter of water on every mat, still gave it a 4.

Amazon’s review summary counts 38 positive grip mentions against 25 negative, and one owner who practices heated vinyasa says it grips well. A buyer on Yoga Design Lab’s own site went back to a towel on top after about half an hour of hot yoga, the very pairing the Combo was built to replace.

GearLab’s buying advice says open-cell surfaces like Jade’s absorb sweat and grip better in sweaty sessions. A dripping hot class will eventually overwhelm either mat, and with the Level One you’d plan on a towel from the start.

Jade places the Level One between its Travel and Harmony mats in thickness, and the Combo is half a millimeter thinner still. GearLab’s guide says most mats fall between 3 and 5 mm, a range that balances footing with joint cushion, and both sit toward its thin end.

GearLab’s comfort and support mark for the Combo was a middling 6, though Amazon owners like its cushioning, 28 of 29 mentions positive. If you kneel a lot on a hard floor, the Combo is also made in a 5.5 mm thickness ($131), and Jade’s step up is the thicker Harmony.

Jade notes that the Level One is made in a single pass, with its reinforcing scrim on the underside instead of sandwiched in the middle as on the Harmony. It doesn’t say what that changes in use, and we have no long-term test to tell us.

The Combo is two layers: a recycled PET microfiber top printed with water-based inks and made, by Yoga Design Lab’s count, from 19 recycled bottles, over natural tree rubber. GearLab scored its materials 5 out of 10 and noted that the towel collects lint.

Yoga Design Lab would rather you wash the Combo by hand, but it permits a gentle cycle with mild soap in a machine that has no center agitator. One Amazon owner rinses theirs in the shower with baby soap once a week and uses it again the next day.

The Level One can’t be laundered, and whatever sweat its open cells take in stays there until you clean it out. Jade suggests a weekly damp-cloth wipe, says one after every class is fine if you practice hot, and names soap and essential oils among the things that harm its rubber, with its own mat wash the exception.

The Combo is 70″ × 24″ and the Level One 68″ × 24″, and GearLab counted the Combo’s narrow cut against it. Jade makes the Level One in a single size; its cheapest 74″ mat is the thinner Travel at $93.75, and the 74″ Harmony is $109.95.

We list the Level One at 4 pounds, but Jade publishes no weight and its store data points closer to 5, so call it roughly even with the Combo’s 4.9. The Combo ships with a carry strap; Jade doesn’t list one.

Natural rubber is in both, which rules each of them out for a latex allergy. The Level One carries a one-year Jade warranty that excludes damage from sun and harsh cleaning products. Yoga Design Lab doesn’t offer a warranty and accepts returns for 30 days after delivery, unused and repackaged.

The Level One is $66.50 from jadeyoga.com in classic blue and classic purple at last count and isn’t sold on Amazon. The Combo is $117 in 19 printed designs in the 3.5mm at last count; check the Combo at Amazon (roughly 620 ratings, averaging 4.6 stars).

Get the Level One if you’re new to yoga, practice in an ordinary room, and want rubber grip for $50.50 less. It’s made in the USA, carries a year of coverage and needs only a weekly wipe. Accept two plain colors and the lack of any independent test.

Get the Combo if you take heated classes and would rather wash one mat than manage a mat and a towel, or if a print matters to you. Its grip scores were low in both conditions. For Jade’s thickest mat against the same towel mat, see Fusion vs Combo.