Manduka eKO Lite vs Yoga Design Lab Combo: Which One Should You Buy?

Line these two up on paper and they nearly match. The Manduka eKO Lite is 71″ × 24″, 4 mm and 5 pounds of natural tree rubber with more than 30% recycled content, for $96. The Yoga Design Lab Combo is 70″ × 24″, 3.5 mm and 4.9 pounds: natural rubber again, with a microfiber towel made from recycled PET fused to the top, for $117.

So $21 and the top layer are what separate them. The eKO Lite’s closed-cell rubber keeps sweat out, the Combo’s towel is there to soak it up, and nearly everything else on this page follows from that.

Manduka is frank about its own mat. Its care notes explain that nothing soaks into the closed-cell top, so the eKO Lite can feel slick for anyone who sweats a lot, and they suggest a hand towel for grip, or a full hot yoga mat towel once the room is heated.

Yoga Design Lab builds the towel in. It says the Combo’s surface gets grippier as you sweat and pitches the mat for hot yoga, and because the towel is bonded, there is nothing to shift or bunch in a flow.

For scale, Yoga Design Lab’s own hand towel lists at $21, so an eKO Lite with a towel at that price lands right on the Combo’s $117.

Manduka’s own grip claim for the eKO Lite is limited to dry conditions, and owners mostly bear it out: grip mentions on Amazon run 24 positive to 6 negative, and Amazon’s summary says it stays in place while you practice. GearLab hasn’t tested the Lite; the full 5 mm eKO it did test tied for the best dry grip of 19 mats, which speaks to the family rather than this thinner mat.

The Combo scored 4 for dry grip in GearLab’s table, the second lowest of the 18 mats listed. A towel top is built to grip once it is damp, so dry hands are its worst case. One Combo owner on Amazon lists slipping when the mat is too dry, and again when it is too wet, among their complaints.

This is where the Combo is supposed to win, and GearLab’s results say it doesn’t. After a liter of water went on the mat, as it does on every mat in the wet test, the Combo scored 4, and GearLab said it had hoped for more grip from a mat designed for hot yoga.

Owners on Amazon disagree with each other. One who does hot yoga regularly says the mat works very well and they feel stable in poses, while the review summary notes others who find the grip fading within minutes. The eKO Lite has no wet score at all, and by Manduka’s own account it needs a towel once you sweat.

For mostly hot yoga, we would pick neither. The mat that won GearLab’s hot yoga award goes up against the Combo in our GRP Adapt 2.0 comparison.

Manduka calls the eKO Lite’s 4 mm layer soft and says it gently springs back with movement. GearLab scored the Combo 6 for comfort and support, and one Amazon owner calls it cushiony enough for their knees. Neither is thick enough to kneel on tile for long without a folded blanket.

Both brands sell something thicker. Yoga Design Lab’s 5.5 mm Combo adds two millimeters for $14 more and 2.2 more pounds, and Manduka’s 5 mm eKO is covered in our eKO vs Combo comparison.

A tenth of a pound separates the brand weights, and GearLab’s scale put the Combo at 4.6. Combo owners disagree on whether that counts as heavy; one finds it easy to manage on a packed train, another calls it heavy and regrets buying it at that price. The Combo ships with a carry strap, and Manduka’s page lists none for the eKO Lite.

Both are 24 inches wide, and narrow is one of the Combo’s three GearLab cons. If you are tall, Manduka also sells a 79″ version, the eKO Lite Long, for $104.

The eKO Lite gets a wipe with Manduka’s rubber mat cleaner or a damp cloth, then air dries before you roll it, and it should never be soaked. Manduka wants it stored somewhere cool and dry, away from sunlight and never in a hot car, and says white marks on the surface are oxidation.

The Combo is the one you can launder. Yoga Design Lab prefers hand washing but allows a gentle cycle and mild soap, provided there is no center agitator in the machine. It hangs to dry away from direct sun, which Yoga Design Lab says fades it. GearLab needed no scrubbing or hosing to get it clean, and names lint as the catch.

Both are built on natural rubber, and Manduka’s spec line warns against the eKO Lite for anyone with latex sensitivities, so neither suits a latex allergy. Both lean on recycled material, rubber in the eKO Lite and plastic bottles in the Combo’s towel.

Smell is a clearer split. The eKO Lite’s Amazon summary calls its smell strong and unpleasant, with 10 of 11 odor mentions negative, while odor doesn’t come up as a topic in the Combo’s summary at all.

Only Manduka’s PRO series mats get its lifetime guarantee, which leaves the eKO Lite without a warranty, and the Combo has none either. Both brands give you 30 days and both want the mat unused, so neither can be practiced on and then returned.

List prices are $96 and $117. The eKO Lite comes in 8 colorways at last count and is rated 4.5 stars by roughly 340 buyers; check the eKO Lite at Amazon or order from manduka.com. The Combo at Amazon is rated 4.6 by around 620 buyers, and Yoga Design Lab sells it in 19 printed designs in the 3.5mm at last count.

The eKO Lite is the one for an unheated room and grip straight from bare rubber. It costs $21 less, everything we have points to it being the grippier surface dry, and if your hands start to sweat you can add a towel the way Manduka suggests.

Get the Combo if you would rather never manage a separate towel, want to machine wash the whole mat, or want one of its prints. Just don’t expect the towel top to fix a sweaty practice on its own, because in GearLab’s soak test it didn’t.