Lululemon spent two years designing his new rug. He partnered with the Canadian Sports Institute in Calgary, Alberta, to study how people used their yoga mats. The team developed a kind of “heat map” of the zones of use, monitoring which points people touched the most during the practice. This data, combined with the analysis of worn areas on used yoga mats, gave the design team a clear picture of where the ripples should be placed and where the filler needed to be prioritized.
Most of Lululemon’s previous yoga mats were made with a rubber base layer covered with a surface layer of sticky polyurethane. According to Morris, the usual method of creating a three-dimensional surface like the ripples on the Take Form carpet would be by embossing – pressing a heated mold on the surface to make the material take shape. The problem is that Lululemon is unable to apply this process to its yoga mats, given its construction. The rubber base does not retain the matrix memory and the surface layer uses a type of porous polyurethane that melts with heat.
The solution was to develop a foam mixture that would harden and maintain its shape. This foam strip is then inserted between the rubber channel and the polyurethane surface. Lululemon does not describe exactly how this foam process works, citing its proprietary nature, but Morris compares it to baking a cake.
“Foams start out as a liquid and, as a cure, they foam,” he says.
The Take Form rug costs between $ 118 and $ 128 depending on the version and will be available worldwide on March 23.
Sanchia Legister demonstrates proper technique. Observe the placement of your hands and feet. Perfect!
Photography: LululemonThe market for new yoga mats – whether adorned with 3D ripples or not – is very different now than it was when Lululemon started developing Take Form. Spurred by the isolation of the pandemic, the demand for home fitness equipment exploded in 2020. But even with vaccines becoming more available and the world moving towards an appearance of normality, this trend of people prefer to sweat at home instead of at gyms and yoga studios they may not be leaving.
Alignment mats can be especially useful if you don’t have a yoga instructor hovering over you and actively monitoring your shape.
The equipment that offers this type of self-orientation fits into Lululemon’s strategy of fully embracing the trend of training at home. Although the company lost sales from its retail stores at the beginning of the pandemic, its online sales have increased. In addition, in June last year, Lululemon acquired the home fitness company Mirror for $ 500 million. Pairing an alignment aid mat with personal lessons transmitted directly to your home via the Mirror, comes very close to the yoga instruction experience in person. Now, if the company wants to jump into the next obvious yoga trend, it just needs to start selling a few goats.
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