Manduka eKO vs Lululemon The (Big) Mat: Which One Should You Buy?

The eKO weighs 7 pounds and the (Big) Mat about 7.1, which is unusual: normally the oversized mat is the one you have to plan around. Here neither is a cheerful daily carry, so the usual portability argument cancels out before it starts.

What is left is a mat that scored near the top of the category against a mat that’s 40% larger. The eKO is 71″ × 26″ of natural rubber at $114; the (Big) Mat is 84″ × 28″ with an absorbent polyurethane skin over rubber at $128.

GearLab put the eKO second of 19 mats at 87 of 100, behind only the Manduka PRO. Its category scores were comfort 9, grip 9, materials 8 and care 8, and the summary described a mat that walks the comfort and support line perfectly with great dry grip for a less sweaty practice.

The Lululemon build placed fourth at 81, with a perfect 10 for comfort and support and a top pick award for mixed fitness routines. Its listed drawbacks are more pointed: contains latex, stains easily, needs deep cleans, may lose grip with use.

The eKO’s dry grip is the best number in the entire field, a perfect 10, and it needs no break-in at all. GearLab also noted textured rails along the edges that add traction where hands land. Wet it scored 7, which is respectable, but “more slippery when wet” is one of only three cons the testers listed against it, because a closed-cell surface lets moisture bead on top with nowhere to go.

The Lululemon is the opposite trade. Its polyurethane face pulls sweat in rather than letting it pool, and the same review lists “sticky when wet” among its strengths. The wet-grip chart in that roundup put it at 4.5 out of 10 all the same, which sits oddly with the prose. Our reading is that the eKO grips brilliantly right up until sweat beads on it, the Lululemon copes better once that happens, and a genuinely heated room defeats both.

Thirteen more inches of length and two more of width work out to roughly 40% more mat. A six-foot-four practitioner lies flat in savasana with margin, hands stop creeping off the front edge in down dog, and wide-legged standing work stays on rubber instead of straddling the edge.

The costs come with it. An 84 inch roll overwhelms most mat straps and pokes out of standard bags, and a mat that size takes up more than one person’s share of floor in a packed class. If you want length without going that far, Manduka sells a 79 inch eKO at the standard width.

Both are 5 mm and both are firm. The eKO’s dense rubber reads as planted and solid, and GearLab praised it on hard and soft ground alike. The Lululemon is a touch softer where the polyurethane meets your hands, and it earned the perfect comfort score on that.

Texture is the bigger difference. The eKO is textured rubber that you feel under a palm; the Lululemon is smooth and slightly cool, closer to skin than to fabric, and it flips over to a textured rubber side if you want the other sensation. Longtime rubber practitioners sometimes find the Lululemon slick-feeling at first touch and never quite trust it.

Neither is a decade mat. eKO owners report surface flaking after a few years of heavy practice, and GearLab lists creasing among its drawbacks; Manduka backs it with a 30-day return window and no warranty at all, which remains a strange gap for the brand whose PVC mats carry a lifetime guarantee.

The Lululemon wears from the top down as its grip fades, with a realistic lifespan of four to six years, and the absorbent face stains where hands and feet land. It only comes in black, which hides that better than a pale colorway would. Lululemon’s Quality Promise says it will stand behind gear that fails to perform as designed without committing to a period.

The eKO is the easier one to live with. GearLab rated its care and cleaning 8 of 10 and noted it wipes down without fuss, where the Lululemon needs regular attention to stay ahead of the staining and drew a call-out for needing deep cleans.

Both are latex-bearing tree rubber, so neither is safe with a genuine latex allergy, and GearLab lists latex content among the Lululemon’s cons for exactly that reason. On sourcing, Manduka describes the eKO’s rubber as biodegradable and non-Amazon harvested with over 30% recycled content; Lululemon’s base rubber is FSC certified. Both are real, neither is decisive.

The eKO had five colorways at last count and sells through manduka.com and Amazon, discounts fairly often, and comes back through Prime without a conversation.

The (Big) Mat comes in black, from lululemon.com or a store. Lululemon doesn’t sell through marketplaces, so what you find under its name elsewhere is resold stock without the Quality Promise. When two mats are $14 apart, the ease of sending one back counts for more than usual.

Get the eKO unless size or sweat is your specific problem. It scored higher, costs $14 less, grips better dry than anything measured, cleans more easily, comes in colors, and is far simpler to buy and return.

Get the (Big) Mat if you’re tall or broad, or if you sweat enough that a sealed rubber surface starts letting go. Thirteen extra inches of length and two of width is a different practice, and the absorbent top handles damp palms better than the eKO does. If you want the Lululemon surface at a normal size, our The Mat vs eKO comparison runs the same matchup at 71″ × 26″.