Jade Travel vs Gaiam Essentials: Which One Should You Buy?

On the spec sheet the cheap mat wins nearly everything. The Gaiam Essentials we link on Amazon is 72″ × 24″ and 6 mm of soft PVC, with a carrying sling, for a $22.13 list price. The Jade Travel is 68″ × 24″ and 3.2 mm of USA-made, open-cell natural rubber for $79.95, and Jade doesn’t list a strap.

What the Travel has is a fold, half a pound less weight and rubber that holds on when your hands get damp. Whether that is worth $57.82 comes down mostly to whether your mat leaves the house.

GearLab hasn’t tested either mat. The closest Gaiam it did test is the Premium 6mm, a 6 mm Gaiam PVC mat with a similar tacky surface, which scored 6 dry and 4 wet in its grip table. We use that only as a guide to Gaiam’s PVC, not as a result for the Essentials. The roundup includes Jade’s Harmony 2.0 and its much thinner Voyager, but not the Travel.

That leaves owners. The Essentials holds 4.6 stars across about 15,000 Amazon ratings and the Travel 4.4 across about 780. The topic counts below come from Amazon’s review summary for each listing.

Gaiam’s Amazon listing says the Essentials’ texture holds up even in heated practice and hot yoga. Its owners don’t agree with each other: the summary counts 95 positive grip mentions and 111 negative, with some describing hands and feet sliding. Even a happy owner mentions hands slipping a little in down dog, and the Premium’s 4 wet is a fair warning for a heated room.

The Travel’s grip mentions run 132 positive to 33 negative. Open-cell rubber takes light sweat into the surface, which is the basis for Jade calling the grip incredible. One owner with sweaty hands says it is the only thing that has helped.

The Essentials has nearly twice the Travel’s thickness, and its summary has 146 positive comfort mentions to 24 negative. One owner finds it thick enough to protect them from the hardwood floor they stretch on, though about a third of the thickness mentions are negative, some saying it isn’t as thick as expected. Soft PVC also gives under a standing foot. One owner, happy with the padding, suspects it would feel a bit wobbly for someone under 150 pounds.

The Travel has almost nothing to compress, and owners split evenly on whether 3.2 mm is enough, 34 mentions to 36. One calls it thin but says you get used to it after a few classes. Another finds it adequate for knees if you have some experience and thinks beginners might struggle with it.

Folding into a suitcase is the Travel’s whole purpose, and at just over 3 pounds it is also the lighter mat here, against 3.5 for the Essentials. Rolled, it goes tight enough, one owner says, to strap onto a backpack or a carry-on duffel.

The Essentials rolls into a fat tube, and the sling is its whole carrying plan. Owners like having one, though a reviewer calls it pretty cheap, just a fabric strap with a slider.

The 72″ length belongs to the Amazon version. gaiam.com sells a 68″ × 24″ Essentials for $19.98 without the sling, the same length as the Travel, so check the size on whichever listing you use. One Amazon owner at five foot nine and a half says it was finally a mat long enough for them.

Jade’s answer for taller people is a 74″ Travel at $93.75, which widens the gap to about $72.

New PVC and new natural rubber both smell, and owners of both say so. The Essentials’ summary has 59 negative odor mentions to 32 positive, some saying it stinks up the entire room, and Gaiam’s listing tells you to air it out for 2 to 3 days first. One owner says it needs at least a day in a well ventilated room or outside.

The Travel’s odor mentions run 30 negative to 14 positive. One owner left it overnight on a covered patio to let the rubber smell clear, and another says it lasted the first few weeks and then faded. Keep it out of direct sun while it airs, which Jade asks of all its rubber mats.

Nothing soaks into the Essentials, so it wipes clean, and Gaiam’s care advice for its PVC mats warns that long sun leaves them faded and brittle. Gaiam adds a lifetime guarantee without publishing its terms, so treat it as defect cover, not protection against foam going flat.

The Travel absorbs sweat, so let it dry before you fold it. An owner who got care advice from Jade by email says it recommends a damp cloth, or for a deep clean a 4:1 water and white vinegar mix or mild dish soap, then hanging it somewhere shaded to dry. Sun damage and harsh cleaners are both excluded from Jade’s one-year warranty.

The Essentials is latex-free PVC made without the six phthalates its listing names. Jade’s rubber is 99% latex free by its own description, so an allergy rules it out.

The Essentials lists at $22.13 in seven plain colors at last count, and Amazon prices each color on its own, so check the Essentials at Amazon before you settle on one. Jade sells the Travel on jadeyoga.com for $79.95 in three colors. Jade’s Amazon listing has gone through an outside seller at a markup, so buy direct.

To see the Travel against the Premium, which GearLab did test, read Jade Travel vs Gaiam Premium 6mm. For a lighter folding Jade, see Jade Travel vs Voyager.

Buy the Gaiam Essentials for a home mat with the most padding and length per dollar. It is latex-free, comes with a sling and a lifetime guarantee, and some 15,000 ratings average 4.6 stars. Expect it to slip once your hands sweat, whatever the listing says about hot yoga.

Buy the Jade Travel if it has to go in luggage or your hands sweat through cheap mats. It is lighter, owners score its grip well ahead of the Gaiam’s, and it is made in the USA. Accept a shorter, thinner mat, an initial rubber odor, careful drying and latex. At $22, the Essentials is cheap enough to keep as a home mat alongside it.