Hi there – 

I’m Andrea Vidal, founder of Pure Practice. I created Pure Practice in 2010 after being introduced to hot yoga while visiting mum in Byron Bay. At the age of 32 I was a latecomer to yoga, but I loved it passionately from the very first class.

I didn’t own a yoga mat so I would borrow one from the studio, but wow… it smelled horrible! So I went to Kmart and bought a yoga mat of my own - surprisingly within a month this mat also began to smell.

I did some research and found out that the bad smell on yoga mats is caused by bacteria and that this bacteria was also making the mat unhygienic… I was intrigued…

Around this time my acne flared up again. I dipped back into that familiar feeling of being overly self-conscious, trying everything I could to prevent breakouts. I wondered if putting my face on my unhygienic yoga mat was making my skin worse.

I spent the next six months obsessing over yoga mats… what types of bacteria lived on them… what infections could people catch… could a smelly, dirty yoga mat make acne worse???

At the end of all my research, two problems became crystal clear: 

1. Yoga mats were incredibly hard to keep clean and because of that they were the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

2. The vast majority of yoga mats sold in Australia were made from standard PVC – a plastic foam that could be more environmentally friendly.

I felt like people needed a solution to these problems… I felt like I needed a solution to these problems!

So I wondered…

As the problem was bacteria… could an antibacterial yoga mat be the solution? Could that yoga mat also be made from a more eco-friendly, non-toxic material??

I researched more, and contacted the Swedish company that makes Dyson’s antibacterial hand dryers and The North Face’s antibacterial base layers.

We talked about my idea and in late 2010 began prototyping an antibacterial, non-toxic, biodegradable yoga mat. The trials were a success! I went on to have my yoga mat certified and endorsed by 6 of the world’s leading product quality and performance testing agencies. 

In 2011, I patented my yoga mat and with prototype in hand, I flew to Taiwan where I chose the manufacturer that I’m still with to this day. 

In 2016 I broadened my range to include an antibacterial hot yoga towel made from recycled plastic bottles. This towel is endorsed by the Global Recycled Standard and has so far diverted 1,500 used plastic bottles from our oceans and landfill.

I really love what I do and consider myself lucky to work on this business every day. I’m proud of the products I’ve created – I’m proud of the time that I put into developing them and how steadfastly I stuck to my core principle of creating products of the highest quality, that truly look after both people and the planet. 

Thank you for reading my journey. You can always contact me directly if you have any questions at andrea@purepractice.com.au.

Andrea Vidal

Founder