EcoYoga - Yoga mats - Eco Yoga - Environmental Yoga mats - Ecological Yoga Mat - Ecomats - jute yoga mat - rubber yoga mat

What's New

December 2011

Facebook Shop on its way .. .. .. mainly for factory seocnds as and when they occur

please still source your mats from trusty shops and studios - click on STOCKISTS for main folks

CLEARANCE of the factory seconds .. .. .. i'd rather these with you than with me... now at rock bottom price stock won't last long so grab one whilst you can :)

In any production I salvage with discretion as much of the material which, in any normal manufacturing scenario, would be wasted. These mats are unique and characterful and merely lack the continuity a lot of people demand

September 2011

For many the ecoYoga mats have become trusty companions: well used, much loved

Facebook
As a company we've never been one to shout but we would like to keep spreading the word and maintan a presence in the current market. Given the increasing cacophany

ecoYoga needs to sing a little louder

so please lend your voice and "like" the new ecoYoga Facebook page

May 2011

Offering over 15% off normal price on stock held: 3mm colourfree and 2mm XL Grey and Deep Lavender

Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture: Pesticides and pollinators - a future without bees...
1st April 6.30pm
Human Rights Action Centre, London EC2A

{win an ecoYoga mat in their raffle}

Limited supply of 3mm colourfree mats. Click on ecomats to purchase

March 2011

as requested:)

April 2010

Natural Rubber Price Increases

From my research and enquiry the primary reason for the current price increase is due to short supply in the global market.
Basically the demand is greater than supply, which in a commodity market pushes prices up.
Factors causing this seem multiple:
The Transport Sector consumption has increased buying both in natural and synthetic rubber.
China, the world's largest consumer of rubber, increased it's buying dramatically december 2009 through to february 2010. India and Malaysia are also buying more.
Normal trading is based on futures contracts which by their nature (an obligation to buy) keep price risks in check. Such contracts are not being placed as yet which has opened up the market to the speculators whose aim is profit.
Recent bad weather has affected yield in Thailand one of the major producers.
Replanting programmes in all Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia has reduced the current yield.
April-June is seasonally a low yield time.
And the british pound has not been strong in the currency exchange market (our compound is from a british company).

In a commodity market there are many factors at play at all times. It is a complex world of crests and troughs.

Natural Rubber has always been an expensive raw material. Even when we started creating the ecoYoga mat the cost per unit was at least 5 times more costly than plastic mats on the market. In years since prices in the international market have fluctuated with a steady increase. We have tried to absorb as much of this as possible.

So far ecoYoga has been reliant upon the international market for supply. Finance to source out-with has not been available. I do keep my awareness open to alternative sources at all times. Over the years my knowledge has deepened in the manufacturing process: farmers to brokers to factories to consumers; wholesale then retail. The next stage for ecoYoga is to go deeper and integrate this understanding.

thanks for reading

seona

Buying online directly through ecoYoga Ltd

Secure online purchase for single 2mm ecoYoga mats is now set up for checkout through Paypal.

You can make a payment through Paypal without having to sign up for an account.

Please feel free to make email contact click

February 2010

Thicker, Heavier Mats? No one has ever complained of their mat being thicker than expectation. There have however been laments over it being thinner.   The thickness of the ecoYoga material has been underestimated during several productions over the past few years. The method of the current factory to ensure good quaity material of minimum thickness has resulted in the mats being a very healthy 4mm. This allows for potential discrepancy below our standard 4mm (caused by machinery and our fabulous but temperamental compound). The general outcome, teamed with the increased density of compound, is that the mats, certainly the latest grey batch, are 5mm in thickness and slightly heavier than norm.   It has been a learning curve dealing with the various prodution problems. The days of "seconds" and "sub standard"... be it because they were too thin, too much hessian exposed, the wrong hessian used, scorched, cut badly... is all in the past. We are finally at one with the factory! It would have saved time and a lot of stress to have disposed of such material, as is common practice, but where possible it was salvaged.   During my time spent in factories I have been astounded by the waste of materials on the manufacturing level. Flaws, variations, surplus all; there is little room for error. Automated machinery creating identical products will grind to a halt if anything goes awry. ecoYoga mats however are made by a process of mechanisation. So many changeable factors during production requires hands-on power and vigilance. We revell in the variation which has required a reprogramming on behalf of the factories we work with. Bringing aesthetic and a bit of artistic flair to the factory floor can't be a bad thing . . .

January 2010

Ashen Grey mats now in stock

November 2009

Deep lavender 2mm mats now available.   Please email if interested.   I still travel with my grey/ash 2mm mat from 2005. It is a true companion!

October 2009

Coral pink has been discontinued to ease manufacturing schedules. Sorry to all those who appreciate such hues.

March 2009

A journey to india, birth place of yogic scriptures, to follow up research into materials, methods and potential manufacturing...meeting those involved in growing jute; the brokers and the mills as well as small holding rubber plantation owners, organic ayurvedic farmers and organic cotton maunfacturers...people whose lives we consider yogic by their very nature. Generous, simple and good humoured.

Yoga, for many of the those i met, is for the sages: the wise wanderers of the earth. It is a responsibility to take this honoured role and integrate it into business...

June 2008

Jute fibre…..………………………………...……………………rubber latex

This time last year the UK factory that we had built a 4 year working relationship with in realising our ecoYoga mat went into administration without warning. Given our working methods of trust, and at that time no contingency plan, we were suddenly without supply!

In April 2007 the departments we dealt with were sold off in two parts within the UK. After speaking with these two buyers we felt the best way forward was to work with them both. One was to manufacture the material and the other to cut, hold stock and prepare orders for despatch. It seemed straight forward though we knew it would mean higher cost.

Most importantly we believed it would effectively and swiftly start our supply again and production would remain in the UK .

To ensure the continuity of production two utterly crucial yet complex fundamentals of our mat needed understood:

1/ working with the richness, and consequently the temperament, of our natural compound and 2/ understanding and achieving the design/the specifications of the finished mat.

Though we tried, there were no techniques shared between the two factories and so the team had to start from scratch. They were excited but quite baffled by our product. What we ask them to do in order to create the mat is the antithesis of their normal procedure. One needs to be sensitive when asking guys who have been working a certain method for 20 years to now do it the opposite way! That we also wanted to meet everyone and be present for any production was a novelty to them. Explaining the nature of our mat and the kind of company we are had to begin again. We were back at square one.

We knew how difficult, but therefore how special, a product we were asking to be made. Whereas most products made on this type of machinery can run at fairly high speed with little attention, our material runs very slowly and requires constant vigilance! In terms of profitability this is not attractive to any factory. The challenge however is. Along with our persistent dialogue and support in understanding their difficulties, the transition finally succeeded!

We cannot thank you enough for your patience over this period.

Having established these new working relationships we have unexpectedly been presented with another increase in production costs. Since 2003 we have absorbed as far as possible numerous unanticipated price increases (the biggest in 2005/6 when natural rubber as raw material doubled in cost but also several others as the production factory realised the conditions of manufacture as well as the endless increase in transport costs).

The ecoYoga jute mat was, perhaps still is, the pioneer of a changing yoga mat market. Now that production is stable again we wish to remain an example of a business with integrity and deepening awareness for a consumer society (and stable prices!) as well as continuing our valuable current relationship with you.

Contact info@ecoyoga.co.uk for bulk orders or for a scrolling list of international outlets click here