Jade Voyager vs B Mat Strong 6mm: Which One Should You Buy?

Both are rubber mats that grip properly, and that is where it ends. The Jade Voyager is 1.6 mm, folds down to roughly the size of a yoga block, and weighs about 1.5 pounds, at $49.95.

Against that, the B Mat Strong runs 6 mm thick and 5 pounds across 26 inches, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, at $144. One of these travels and one of these is the mat you own.

OutdoorGearLab scored the Voyager 2 out of 10 for comfort and support, near the bottom of a nineteen mat test. That is accurate rather than harsh: at 1.6 mm there is essentially nothing between your knee and the floor.

The B Mat Strong is the thickest mat b, halfmoon makes, and 6 mm of dense rubber is real cushion for knees without the wobble a thick foam mat would give you. That combination of thickness and density is unusual and it is most of what the $94.05 buys.

GearLab scored the Voyager 9 out of 10 for dry grip and 7 wet, level with mats costing three times as much. Open-cell Jade rubber absorbs moisture and keeps holding, and the material is the same one in the Harmony.

GearLab rated the 4 mm B Mat 9 for grip and called it among the grippiest mats it had used in wet or dry conditions, with traction surviving sweat pooled under a hand. The Strong uses the same compound. On the numbers this is close; in use the Voyager is thin enough to pick up whatever is beneath it.

Thickness only destabilises you when the material compresses under a foot, which is a foam problem and not a dense rubber one. The B Mat Strong stays exactly where you put it and does not move underneath you.

The Voyager is so light that it can shift on smooth polished boards, which is the most common complaint owners raise, and the visible scrim backing is not the same as a properly textured underside. On carpet, grass or over a studio mat it stays put.

The B Mat is 71″ × 26″ against the Voyager’s 68″ × 24″. Sixty-eight by 24 is the small end of standard, and the width shows in a wide-legged forward fold.

Jade makes only one size of Voyager. b, halfmoon sells an 85″ Strong Long, and its 4 mm B Mat Everyday at $118 is the lighter option with the same surface and width.

The Voyager folds rather than rolls, down to roughly the footprint of a yoga block, and GearLab weighed its sample at 1.8 pounds and called it the lightest mat in its test. It goes inside a day bag next to a laptop.

The B Mat Strong rolls and should not be folded; 6 mm of dense rubber resents creasing. At 5 pounds it is a normal studio carry and a bulky thing to pack. If you want one mat that does both jobs reasonably, the Jade Travel at 3.2 mm sits between these two.

The Voyager can tear at the edges if it snags, which is why GearLab scored its materials 4 out of 10. That is what 1.6 mm of rubber is rather than poor manufacturing. Jade covers it for a year and excludes sun damage.

Dense rubber wears slowly and there is no coating to lose, so the B Mat should give you years of regular practice; b, halfmoon backs it for one. Sunlight destroys both, so store either rolled and out of the light rather than in a car window.

The Voyager is open-cell, so sweat soaks into the rubber and has to come back out. GearLab still scored its care and cleaning 8 out of 10, so it is easy enough; the real rule is that a folded mat put away damp is how odor starts.

The B Mat is dense and does not absorb. Sweat pools on the surface, you towel it between rounds, and nothing lives inside the mat. Neither tolerates harsh cleaners, and both contain latex, so neither works with a genuine allergy.

$49.95 against $144. Neither is on Amazon: Jade sells the Voyager on jadeyoga.com and b, halfmoon sells the Strong on its own site, both close to list most of the year.

As a single mat the B Mat is worth the difference, because you can practice on it anywhere and it will last. As a second mat the Voyager at $49.95 does something no thick mat can, and Jade plants a tree for every one sold.

Get the B Mat Strong if this is the mat you practice on. Six millimetres of grippy dense rubber at 26 inches wide, certified and covered for a year, handles a serious practice on any floor and however much you sweat.

Get the Voyager if the mat has to travel. It packs smaller than anything else with genuine grip, weighs about a pound and a half, and is real Jade rubber underneath. Practice on carpet or over a studio mat when you can, and do not make it your only mat.