A California yoga mat made from the same leather as NFL footballs is aimed at athletes, but devoted yogis say it doesn’t fit with their philosophy

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Yoga, for many practitioners, is a practice of finding spiritual and bodily harmony. It’s not an expensive activity. Most yogis use a mat – which usually cost between $20 and $50 – but otherwise, all you need is some floor space.

But now, an LA-based company called Baller Yoga is offering a mat made from the same premium leather from which NFL footballs are made. Its tagline is “For athletes who have everything and desire nothing”.

And its price? $1,000.

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Baller Yoga founder Cedric Yau, a “speculator and information liberator” according to his LinkedIn page, whose main career is in data consultancy for a New York hedge fund, was on a yoga retreat in Bali when he became frustrated with the “cheap slippery mats” that he was using.

“When I got back to the US I spent a couple of weeks testing out a whole bunch of different mats,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The leather is sourced from Horween, the tannery which supplies the NFL and the NBA with the leather used for its balls. Photograph: Baller Yoga

His first plan was to do an online review series for yoga mats, but said when he realized that the key thing needed was solid grip without stick, “I remembered footballs have that property … so I thought it would be cool to make a yoga mat out of football leather.”

The leather is sourced from Horween, the tannery which supplies the NFL and the NBA with the leather used for its balls. “The leather sourced is a byproduct of the meat production industry,” Yau said. “We do not believe in killing animals for their skin.”

Some yoga practitioners have expressed skepticism of the approach.

“It certainly would not align with our philosophy – a thousand dollar yoga mat?” said Cassie Jackson, a teacher at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in San Francisco. “I mean – most of us are vegan.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Baller Yoga founder Cedric Yau. Photograph: Baller Yoga

“The old yogis practiced in caves, they didn’t have sticky mats. This is part of capitalism, in my opinion,” Jackson said.

According to Yau, however, the Baller Yoga leather mat is aimed specifically at athletes. “We are seeing more and more athletes, football players, come to yoga,” he said. “The message, as a company, is more people are looking at yoga as a form of exercise and a way of enhancing athletic performance. We start from that angle. We are not really looking at the vegetarian, vegan angle.”

“That being said,” he added, “we do draw fire from militant vegans.”

He said that they had accused him of not doing enough research into yoga before launching his product. “We’ve received emails – ‘how dare you’ – one guy was like ‘you guys didn’t study the yoga sutras’.”

“For the most part it’s something we knew we would take fire for, but at the same time … there are a lot of people who look at yoga as a form of exercise and totally ignore the spiritual aspects. You could call this the secular yoga community.”

Upon reading about the Baller Yoga mat, Jackson, the yoga teacher, responded by reading out a quote by B K S Iyengar, the founder of Iyengar yoga: “When yoga is only outward-facing, exhibitive, and self-gratifying, it is not yoga at all.”