Yoga Design Lab Combo vs Gaiam Essentials: Which One Should You Buy?

The Gaiam Essentials is a 6 mm soft PVC mat that lists at $22.13, comes with a sling when bought through the Amazon listing we link, and holds a 4.6 average from about 15,000 Amazon ratings. The Yoga Design Lab Combo is 3.5 mm of natural rubber under a printed, recycled microfiber towel, for $117. That is a $94.87 gap.

The Essentials is a first mat for finding out whether yoga sticks. The Combo is aimed at someone who already lays a towel over their mat and wants the two joined, and most of this page comes down to whether that is you.

GearLab tested the Combo in its 19 mat roundup and scored it 52, 17th overall: comfort and support 6, grip 4, materials 5, care and cleaning 6. In its separate wet and dry table it scored 4 both ways.

It hasn’t tested the Essentials. The closest thing it did test is Gaiam’s Premium 6mm, the same thickness and the same sticky PVC idea. It scored 62, won GearLab’s award for a first mat, and rated 6 dry and 4 wet. Treat that as a guide to Gaiam’s surface, not a score for the Essentials.

Side by side, the $117 towel mat tied the $29.98 Gaiam on wet grip and trailed it by two points dry.

Yoga Design Lab promises moisture-activated grip that gets better as you sweat, and markets the Combo for hot yoga. Yet even soaked with a liter of water in GearLab’s wet test, it scored 4, and GearLab’s cons for it open with slippery for dry and wet grip.

Gaiam’s Amazon listing makes its own claim: excellent traction in all types of yoga, even heated practices and hot yoga. Owners disagree: 111 of 206 grip mentions in its review summary are negative, and one owner found it slippery once their hands got at all sweaty. Combo owners are closer to evenly split, with about three positive grip mentions for every two negative.

The Combo’s Amazon description says its point is that you no longer need to bring a mat and a towel to class. Yoga Design Lab sells the towel half of that setup too: its own Yoga Mat Towel lists at $61 and a hand towel at $21.

An Essentials and that mat towel come to $83.13 at list, about $34 less than the Combo. You get a thicker mat underneath and a towel that goes in the wash on its own. What you give up is the bond: a loose towel can bunch or creep during a flow, which is the problem the Combo exists to fix.

The Essentials is soft PVC foam, and its 6 mm is kind to knees in floor work. Owners mostly agree, with 130 of 201 thickness mentions positive, though some found it thinner than they expected. The tradeoff with foam that soft is steadiness when you balance on one foot.

The Combo is 2.5 mm thinner and earned a 6 for comfort and support from GearLab. Owners seldom complain about its cushion on Amazon, but one lists the thickness among their gripes because they feel it under bony spots.

The Essentials on Amazon is 72″ × 24″, two inches longer than the Combo’s 70″ × 24″. Buy from gaiam.com instead and you get a 68″ × 24″ version for $19.98, minus the sling, which is two inches shorter than the Combo. Confirm the length before you order.

Both are 24 inches wide, and GearLab lists narrow among the Combo’s cons. The Essentials weighs 3.5 pounds to the Combo’s 4.9, though GearLab’s scale read 4.6 for the Combo. Each comes with a sling or strap.

Hand washing is what Yoga Design Lab recommends for the Combo, but it can take a delicate wash with mild detergent as long as the machine lacks a center agitator. It then hangs to dry out of the sun, and Yoga Design Lab wants it rolled with the pattern facing outward to avoid creases. GearLab reports it smelled fresh after each wash, and lists collects lint among its cons.

The Essentials is PVC, which absorbs nothing, so a wipe with a damp cloth keeps it clean. Its listing asks you to air a new one out for two to three days, and 59 of 91 odor mentions from owners are negative.

Gaiam sells the Essentials as latex free and lists the six phthalates it leaves out, so it works in a home where someone reacts to latex. The Combo’s natural tree rubber base rules it out there. Its top is recycled PET microfiber, and Yoga Design Lab says it uses no silicone or toxic glue and is phthalate free.

Looks are the easiest win for the Combo. It comes in 19 printed designs in the 3.5mm at last count, and only one of the 54 owners who mention its appearance on Amazon is unhappy. The Essentials comes in seven plain colors at last count.

Gaiam covers the Essentials for life but doesn’t spell out the terms, so assume that means manufacturing faults rather than the slow thinning soft foam goes through. An Amazon order follows Amazon’s return policy. Yoga Design Lab has no warranty and takes a Combo back within 30 days of receipt only if it is unused and repacked in its original packaging.

For current prices, see the Gaiam Essentials on Amazon and the Combo on Amazon, whose listing averages 4.6 stars over about 620 ratings. The Combo also sells direct at yogadesignlab.com.

The Essentials is the pick for beginners, unheated rooms, sore knees and anyone who needs a latex-free mat. It is longer on Amazon, lighter and $94.87 cheaper, and if you do start sweating, a separate towel still leaves you well under the Combo’s price.

The Combo makes sense for someone who already lays a towel down every class, is tired of it sliding, and likes the idea of a mat that goes in the washer. Go in knowing GearLab found it slippery and that it is thin. For a mat that grips when wet for about $50 less than the Combo, see our IUGA vs Essentials page.