Bacteria!
14 years ago it was bacteria, believe it or not, that planted the seed for this business.
I had begun practicing yoga at a Bikram yoga studio in Byron Bay. As I was still in the early stages of giving yoga a go, I hadn’t yet invested in buying my own yoga mat, relying instead on borrowing one of the studio’s yoga mats each time I practiced.
I quickly noticed that these communal yoga mats had an intense “off” smell to them but was puzzled to see the studio’s teacher clean the mats after each class. The mats were being cleaned so why were they so smelly?
After doing some research, I discovered that the bad smell on yoga mats is caused by bacteria. When bacteria are present and multiplying they feed on organic materials (proteins and lipids found in sweat, for example) and as they metabolize these materials they produce chemical compounds as byproducts – these compounds include fatty acids (i.e. butyric acid – this produces a rancid or cheesy smell), amines (i.e. putrescine – this produces a rotting smell), sulphur (i.e. hydrogen sulphide – again this produces a rotting smell). To be crude, bacteria are exactly the same as us – we are both living creatures that consume food and as a result output offensive gas!
Why are yoga mats so susceptible to bacteria infestations?
Yoga mats have revolutionised the way that people practice yoga and exercise.
For all their advantages though, yoga mats do come with one large-ish disadvantage - they are very hard to keep truly hygienic.
They’re big… so washing them in a washing machine isn’t practical, and using an effective, proven disinfectant like undiluted bleach to wipe down a yoga mat would in the long-run erode the surface of the mat.
The methods commonly used by people to sanitise their mats (tea-tree oil sprays or antibacterial wipes) are only mildly effective.
As a result bacteria have been shown to thrive on yoga mats with some types of bacteria, yeast and fungi, being able to survive on yoga mats for several days. Common pathogens such as ringworm, staph, E. coli and athlete’s foot have been detected on yoga mats.
If you bring your own mat to class, consider that it will come into contact with the studio’s floors, which are frequented by many bare feet and the sweat from lots of people. This means your mat will pick up and carry home bacteria from those floors.
The issue is exacerbated in hot or Bikram yoga settings, where the moist environment further promotes microbial growth.
You only need to do a quick google search to see the numerous articles written about germs and yoga mats – even Oprah wrote one here: https://www.oprah.com/health_wellness/how-dirty-are-yoga-mats
The online publication MIC even went so far as to call yoga mats “fomites” - a biological term referring to any inanimate object susceptible to spreading infection[1].
So if bacteria is the problem… would an ANTI-bacterial yoga mat be the solution?
After observing the issues that my yoga studio had with keeping their mats clean and talking to friends who had picked up fungal infections and skin rashes from the communal mats they’d borrowed at their local yoga studio, I embarked on a year long journey to develop an antibacterial yoga mat. This seemed to me like the obvious solution.
I reached out to Polygeine®, the Swedish company that makes Dyson’s antibacterial hand dryers and The North Face’s antibacterial clothing. We began prototyping an antibacterial yoga mat. The trials were a success with third-party testing certifying that my yoga mat kills 99% of bacteria (and by default their bad odours).
It was important for me to create a yoga mat that had its own in-built antibacterial protection, so that if you took this mat to a gym or yoga studio it would put a microbe shield between itself and its surroundings – protecting you and your skin when you lay on the mat and also when you took it home.
In 2011, I had my yoga mat patented and I have been selling it ever since. You can buy one here.
Andrea x
[1] https://www.mic.com/articles/140499/here-s-why-yoga-mats-are-hella-gross-and-why-you-should-avoid-borrowing-them