Jade Yoga – Hotel Yoga Products / Hotel Meditation Mats / Hotel Exercise Mats

JadeYoga’s Mission

Jade is committed to making the world’s best performing, most environmentally friendly hotel yoga products and giving back to the earth with every product sold.

Jade is everything you want in a yoga mat – cool colors, incredible grip, great comfort and eco-friendly. Jade mats are made in a sustainable manner with natural rubber tapped from rubber trees, a renewable resource. Unlike other mats, Jade hotel exercise mats contain no PVC, EVA or other synthetic rubber, and are made in the United States in compliance with all US environmental, labor and consumer protection laws. And, through our partnership with Trees for the Future, JADE PLANTS A TREE FOR EVERY MAT SOLD – with over 2 MILLION trees planted so far.

Jade Yoga’s History

The story of JadeYoga really starts over 100 years ago when Dean Jerrehian’s grandfather emigrated to the United States in 1904 and began an oriental rug business, Jerrehian Brothers, at the age of 16. He quickly turned this business into one of the most well-known and well respected rug dealers in the country by focusing on quality and service.

Dean’s father followed his father into the business in the 1960s and founded Jade Industries in 1974 to solve a problem for oriental rug buyers around the world – there were no high-quality rug pads to go under fine oriental rugs to provide cushion and prevent them from slipping. The solution to this problem was natural rubber and Jade began making natural rubber rug pads to go under area rugs.
In fact, the birth of JadeYoga really brought yoga mats full circle as one of the first known yoga mats was a rug pad. As the story goes, B.K.S. Iyengar was in the United States doing a demonstration on an oriental rug, but he was slipping – a student took away the rug – leaving the pad and the first yoga mat. Strangely, the yoga mat that became the norm from here was made with cheap, imitation plastic – or PVC. It was also annoyingly slippery – almost useless for most practices and likely toxic.

“JadeYoga began in earnest in 2000 after we learned of the fundamental problem with most yoga mats on the market at that time – they were slippery”

JadeYoga began in earnest in 2000 after they’ve learned of the fundamental problem with most yoga mats on the market at that time – they were slippery. As they were already making natural rubber rug pads, they approached the problem from that angle and developed Jade Harmony, the first natural rubber yoga mat.

The Beginning

Jade sent out something like 500 samples and got nearly 300 phone calls – an incredible response. People had never seen anything like it and were thrilled to be able to get a yoga mat that actually gripped. In addition, natural rubber has better cushion and resilience, making it more comfortable. Finally, tapped from rubber trees, natural rubber is a renewable resource and our mats are made in the United States in compliance with U.S. environmental laws and contain no PVCs – making our mats the first “green” and non-toxic yoga mats.

Directly across from Dean Jerrehian’s desk today there is a drawing of the oriental rug store his grandfather built. On the wall, outside under the name is the business’s slogan “Rugs of Quality”. Just as his grandfather built the oriental rug business on quality and service, Dean and his team try every day to do the same at JadeYoga.  Jade is still a family business – in fact the initials J-A-D-E stand for Jackie (Dean’s mom), Amy (his sister), Dean, and Ellen (his other sister). And they are still devoted to quality and service.

What JadeYoga cares about

It is an embarrassingly long list.

Eco-Friendly
First, run by a former lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there is no question that making eco-friendly hotel yoga products is our number one priority. Lucky for us, made right, natural rubber is both the most eco-friendly and best performing yoga mat you can get.

We Plant a Tree for Every Mat Sold
Second, we are committed to giving back to the earth with every one of our hotel yoga products we sell. We want to leave the earth a better place than when we found it. As our hotel meditation mats come from trees, we decided to give back by planting a tree for every mat sold. And since 2006, through our partnership with Trees for the Future, we have done just that, planting over 2 Million trees so far.

U.S.-based Production
Third, we make our hotel yoga products in the United States. Given the many new stories we hear about tainted products coming out of China (where almost all other hotel meditation mats and yoga mats are made) as well as working conditions there, this was not a hard decision for us. With U.S.-based production, we can be sure of what is going into our mats – as well as how workers are treated. “American-made” still means a lot to us. It means we can be assured of compliance with US environmental laws, US consumer safety laws, US worker safety and US wage and hour laws. It also means quality. As a family-owned company, we do not have to answer to shareholders and can put our customers and our employees ahead of profits. While dollar costs may be lower with hotel exercise mats made in China, it is just not worth it.

Share Yoga with Others
Fourth, through our “Community Partners” program we also try to help out many very special people and organizations trying to bring yoga to those who might benefit from it, but might not otherwise have a chance to try – from schools to prisons and from hospitals to shelters. To find out about some of our partners, click here. To apply for a grant for your organization – perhaps for a single mat for a raffle or auction or for a dozen hotel exercise mats to bring a class to a group in need, click here. JadeYoga encourages everyone to think about what more they might do.

Dedicated Causes
Fifth, we have some causes and organizations that are very close to us. For example, every Earth Day a portion of our sales goes to an environmental group our community helps select and on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we give a portion of our sales to help support abused children. From time to time see us release special color hotel meditation mats to raise awareness and funds for other causes. For example, every fall we release pink and raise money for breast cancer awareness, education, research and support. We also have raised money for autism though our Saffron mats. By far our most popular special color has been teal. $5 from the sale of each of the Teal hotel exercise mats goes to ovarian cancer causes. In fact, thanks to the support of our customers, we have been able to donate over $100,000 to ovarian cancer research and support.