Yogamatata is the realisation of a dream, to make a changement in an industry filled with bad ethical and environmental practices, by proposing high performance yoga accessories and yoga mats, with an elegant design. Our brand and its products are respectful of the environment and of the people who make them. These values ​​are the essential elements of Yogamatata’s DNA : No greenwashing, no blah-blah! Only sincerity, quality and transparency.This is Yogamatata’s “raison d’être”, because your trust is precious for us!

So let’s start by directly telling you : we are not ethical enough. We are not ecological enough, either. We humbly recognize that we will never be perfect, but there is one thing we can promise : we’ll always do our best to improve every step of production on ethical outlook and will always put these values at the forefront of all our choices.

Because we already do our best, doesn’t mean we’re ignoring this troubled industry’s constant problems. We’ve already identified many potential areas for change and improvement, that our small business does not allow us to implement yet. However, little by little, the bird makes its nest and if Yogamatata continues to grow, we will have the power to accomplish more impacting changes.

Our goal is to completely reconsider the production and marketing chain of yoga mats, we have great ambitions and expectations. Although, it’s not possible to transform an entire industrial sector by snapping your fingers. Just having good intentions is not enough. Therefore, our plan is to move the lines little by little, over time and as and when our capabilities.

That’s why we’ve launched Yogamatata trying to be as ethical and as eco-responsible as we can, facing the realities of the field and our financial means. This is already enough to place Yogamatata in the lead of yoga mat brands, in terms of values of ethics and eco-responsibility, but it’s still not enough for us. There are still so many actions to take, to ensure a production that corresponds to not only our values but also those of yoga!

We have a lot of work to do. This sector needs to be reconstructed. With your wonderful and endless support, we can achieve our goals to build a better industry of yoga products!

Production places and production ethics of our products :

Our products are manufactured in several countries: Portugal, India, and China.

• Yogamatata products that are produced in Portugal :

This is the case of all our recycled yoga mats and all our yoga bricks. We have worked for a year and a half with our Portuguese partners to develop this range of mats based on recycled materials, which are also sourced in Portugal! The European production guarantees the respect of the European legislation in terms of working conditions, and the raw materials of these ranges also come from Portugal!

• Yogamatata products that are produced in France :

Our cold process soaps and herbal teas are handcrafted in France, by small companies that we have selected for their know-how and their commitment to eco-responsibility! The raw materials are always organic. The soaps are made in Paris, and the herbal teas in Auvergne!

• Yogamatata products that are produced in India :

For our yoga mat bags and yoga straps, we have chosen to work with an Indian workshop with a fair trade certification (WFTO: World Fair Trade Organization) and organic cotton with GOTS certification. The cotton itself is also fair trade certified. We chose to work with this workshop to be able to offer a range of products that are not only ethically created, but also of high quality, while remaining affordable!

• Yogamatata products that are produced in China :

All our yoga mats (except recycled yoga mats) are made in China. Why China? Because it is the only country having the machinery and the know-how to produce our yoga mats in vegetal materials (cork and natural rubber). The machines to make yoga mats from natural materials are complex and expensive, and creating our own yoga mat factory is far beyond our current capabilities! So we have to work with a manufacturer: only China was able to offer us yoga mats made of cork and natural rubber, the materials we wanted to use for their technical quality and their lower ecological impact, and with an irreproachable quality level. It is not a question of cost: our yoga mats are much more expensive to produce than the vast majority of yoga mats that you will find on the market.

Moreover, as far as we know, the yoga mats currently produced in Europe are all made of plastic (PVC, TPE). There is no industry in Europe that produces non-slip yoga mats made from vegetable materials, except for the Portuguese manufacturer with whom we have developed the recycled yoga mat.

Ethical, what does it mean ?

Just because we choose to work with a factory located in China does not mean that everything is necessarily opaque and dubious. This is not the case: China has evolved so much in recent years! As a factory of the world but also as a world power, it has put in place a lot of legislation to regulate the working conditions and management of companies and their local impacts. It is therefore possible to know exactly under which conditions objects are produced in China. However, few companies do this. This is a pity!

We therefore work with an independent ethical auditing company, which inspects our manufacturer for us. Indeed, controlling the ethics of a production unit is a real job: to know which are the local social regulations to respect, the rules and equipments in terms of security (protection, evacuation…), of energy and waste management, the normal or abnormal practices…. We know that going on site even regularly is not enough to ensure the conditions of production: we do not know the local legislation to respect, the rules of safety, hygiene, good and bad practices: each to his own, we therefore leave this work to professionals who provide us on request a very precise inventory on the following points:

• Health, safety and hygiene
• Waste management
• Child labor
• Working hours, remuneration and bonuses
• Company practices

According to our latest report as of August 2019, our manufacturer has been rated as follows (10 being the highest score):

– Health, safety and hygiene: 9.5/10

– Waste management: 8.8/10

– Child labor: 10/10 (as of July 2019, the youngest employee is 20 years old and has been employed since January 2019)

– Working hours, remuneration and bonuses: 9.3/10

– Company practices: 10/10