Lululemon The Mat vs Yoga Design Lab Combo: Which One Should You Buy?

Sweat is what ruins traction, and both of these mats were built around that fact. Lululemon bonds an absorbent polyurethane skin to a rubber base, so moisture soaks into the surface instead of collecting under a palm. Yoga Design Lab bonds an actual microfiber towel to a rubber base, so the mat is the towel.

They are $118 and $110, eight dollars apart, which means this comes down entirely to how each behaves and what you’re willing to live with.

GearLab tested both in the same 19-mat lineup. The Mat scored 7 of 10 for grip and took a top pick award, with “sticky when wet” listed among its strengths. The Combo scored 4 of 10 wet and dry, the lowest of any premium mat in the field, and the testers wrote plainly that it was more slippery than they hoped for during practice.

Yoga Design Lab’s own reviews tell a friendlier story, and there are thousands of them averaging close to five stars, many from people who practice hot. Both things can be true: a soaked microfiber towel grips well and a dry one slides, so the Combo depends on your sweat to work. The Lululemon works either way, which is why it’s the easier mat to recommend without asking questions first.

Neither is the category’s hot yoga champion, for the record. That was the Manduka GRP Adapt 2.0, which grips wet without depending on a fabric layer.

This is the Combo’s strongest card. Yoga Design Lab prefers hand washing to extend the mat’s life but permits a gentle machine cycle in a machine without a center agitator, using mild soap. If your practice leaves a mat genuinely soaked several times a week, being able to launder the whole thing is a real quality-of-life upgrade.

The Mat is wipe-down only: a cloth, diluted mild soap, air dry, and regular attention if you want to stay ahead of staining. Its absorbent top keeps some of what it soaks up, which is why testers steer buyers toward darker colors. Neither mat should ever go in a dryer or a hot car.

The Mat’s polyurethane face is smooth and slightly cool, closer to skin than cloth, over 5 mm of firm rubber. The Combo feels like practicing on a thin towel, because you are. Microfiber has a fabric texture that some people love immediately and others find bunches under a sliding foot.

Cushion is the measurable half of that difference. GearLab scored The Mat a perfect 10 for comfort and support against 6 for the Combo, with 5 mm against 3.5. On a wood floor the Combo is fine; on tile or concrete it’s thin under wrists and knees. Yoga Design Lab sells the same mat in a 5.5 mm version for about $11 more if that’s the sticking point.

The Mat is 71″ × 26″ and the Combo 70″ × 24″. Two inches of width is the meaningful gap; GearLab listed narrowness among the Combo’s drawbacks, and 24 inch mats leave a hand or foot on the floor in wide-stance work.

Weight is close. Lululemon lists The Mat at 5.24 pounds and GearLab’s scale read 5.9; the Combo lists at 4.9 and weighed 4.6 on the same scale. Call it a pound, plus a carry strap in the Combo’s box that The Mat doesn’t include. If you want a much bigger mat, Lululemon’s 84″ × 28″ (Big) Mat is $10 more than the standard size.

The Mat wears from the top down as its polyurethane gradually loses grip, and GearLab puts the realistic lifespan at four to six years, listing “may lose grip with use” among its drawbacks. It also stains along the way, which is cosmetic but visible.

The Combo is a textile bonded to rubber, and textiles pill, fade and lose loft with washing; GearLab rated its materials 5 of 10 and noted it collects lint. Owners get several good years out of one, not a decade. If longevity is what you actually want, dense PVC is the only honest answer in the category.

Coverage is thin either way. Lululemon’s Quality Promise covers gear that doesn’t perform as designed but names no term; Yoga Design Lab offers 30-day returns on unused mats and no warranty.

The Combo is the more interesting-looking mat by a distance. Printed designs are the brand’s entire identity, applied with water-based inks, and there were 19 of them in the 3.5 mm at last check, alongside 1.5 mm and 5.5 mm versions of the same construction.

Lululemon rotates The Mat through around ten colorways a season, solid and understated, with the practical note that darker ones age better given the staining. If you want your mat to be a pattern rather than a color, only one brand here is offering that.

Lululemon doesn’t sell through Amazon, so The Mat comes from lululemon.com or a store. Marketplace listings under its name are resellers, and they carry a markup and none of the brand’s coverage. Returns and exchanges in a store are painless if you live near one.

The Combo sells through yogadesignlab.com and Amazon, so it’s the easier of the two to buy on impulse and send back. Worth knowing: Yoga Design Lab’s own return policy covers unused mats only, while an Amazon return is more forgiving.

Get The Mat if you want the better mat by nearly every measure testers use: more cushion, more width, better grip scores, a reversible rubber side, and a top-four finish in a 19-mat test. It’s $8 more and it earns it.

Get the Combo if you already practice on a towel and want to stop managing two objects, if a washable mat solves a real hygiene problem for you, or if you want a mat that looks like something. Just go in knowing the surface needs your sweat to do its best work. For a look at how the Combo stacks up against the buy-it-for-a-decade end of the market, see our Manduka PRO vs Combo comparison.