Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review

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Ekotex's Eko Sticky Yoga mat is a reliable budget mat with impressive eco-friendly credentials. Made by a family-run company that prioritises eco-consciousness, this mat is made from Polymer Environmental Resin (PER) and is a more climate-friendly option than the normal PVC yoga mats you can buy. 

The Eko Sticky Yoga mat lives up to its name, providing great grip from the first time you use it. It arrives in zero plastic packaging – you receive your yoga mat in a cardboard box, a small recyclable card insert that tells you how to care for your mat and absolutely no single use plastic.

While there are more robust options out there that are better suited to hot yoga or very intense use (head to our best yoga mat guide for some alternatives), this is an excellent mat for most yogis. Here's our full Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review.

Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review: performance

From the moment I began using this mat it had above average grip for the first use. A lot of yoga mats boast about grip quality but very few offer that from day one. There's normally some caveat in the small print where you have to use it multiple times before the grip comes in but this wasn't the case with the Eko Sticky Yoga Mat. First use, and no slipping. Hurrah! However, I will say now that if you're looking for a yoga mat for Hot or Bikram Yoga, this mat won't stand up to those levels of intense heat and sweat!

I used my Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat for a long time before my mat started to disintegrate, seeing bits starting to flake off. I'll just note here that this is very normal for mats made from PVC or PER after a period of time. However, with the Eko Sticky Yoga Mat, this only happened with exceptional use. As a yoga teacher, I was using it to teach two times, and sometimes more, a day, multiple days a week. For the average use as a home practice mat or for your regular stint at a group class, it's perfect. However, it may not perform so well if used continuously at all hours in a busy studio, for example. 

It's lightweight and measures 183 x 61cm, which means it will suit most heights.

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Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review: comfort

This 5mm mat offers sufficient protection for your knees and sit-bones when practising kneeling postures, lunges or seated postures, on a hard floor. The cushioning and bumpy texture make it feel extra luxurious and thick. It almost offers the same comforting experience as an extra thick yoga mat or Pilates mat when weight bearing on sensitive joints but with the additional benefit that it doesn't interfere with your practice, as sometimes these extra thick mats do. 

It's the perfect blend of comfort and practicality – thin enough to not affect your balancing postures (as a really thick mat makes these a whole new challenge as your ankle and foot wobbles away under you as if you're balancing on an actual cushion...) but supportive enough for you to enjoy those postures that require weight to be placed on more sensitive joints. There's no worry here of sinking into this 5mm mat, it purely supports.

This mat only comes in one thickness so for people looking for a thinner mat, this might not be a good choice. 

Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review: design and colours

The Eko Sticky Yoga Mat is available in four luscious colours; green, blue, purple and grey. I love the simplicity of choice when it comes to the colour range. The mats do not have any fancy designs on them and colour choice is minimal. But why is this a positive thing? With the world offering us so much choice now, this often leads to a feeling of unhappiness. We don't know if we've made the right choice when we are bombarded by options. Think of the supermarkets and the aisles and aisles you have of canned soups and crisps. There is so much to choose from that we can feel overwhelmed and unhappy by the selection. Ekotex offers a limited colour range to make our purchase easier. We either like the selection or we don't and luckily I do. 

Without the mats having any crazy, colourful designs on them, you can make a choice that feels uncomplicated and isn't this what yoga is about? Living simply, feeling content with what you have not what you lack? It seems the perfect fit to me.

Ekotex Eko Sticky Yoga Mat review: verdict

You'll find it hard to find another yoga mat that offers this level of grip, padding and environmentally conscious decisions from production to delivery for this price. Usually, eco-conscious yoga mats cost an arm and a leg but Ekotex offer one here that proves they don't have to. It truly is a fantastic mat for anyone on a budget who's looking to ensure their purchase doesn't harm the planet. 

• View the range at Ekotex yoga