As always, your final choice when purchasing will come down to which of those three criteria strike you as most important. As we note in our guide to foam rollers, purchasing a quality item that suits your goals and expectations is key to securing a tool you’ll ostensibly use (and enjoy) for a long time.

The Performance Dry-Grip is nearly identical to our former latex-free runner-up pick, Gaiam’s Athletic Duramat, which is now discontinued. We felt pleasantly grounded in standing poses, the mat providing enough cushion to root into, but adequate support to avoid a sinking feeling. I am a bit of a slackpacker and I like having neat lightweight kit that barely fills my boot and allows me to set up camp really quickly as a base for 2 or 3 days solo hillwalking. But our hatha instructor was not impressed with the traction; and though our hot yoga instructor thought it was decent on her trial run, she preferred the JadeYoga Voyager. The Vango Thor has an ultra-padded seat meaning that there’s no discomfort on the backs of your legs as you rest – you certainly cannot feel the frame through the material.If you have a home office, finding a chair that makes your desk time more comfortable and healthful is a worthwhile endeavor. There is a standard drinks holder in the right armrest which can hold a 500ml bottle of ale, and also an awesome cooler box in the left – perfect to keep a couple of tinnies chilling on a hot day! The rubber B Mat Everyday 4mm (no longer widely available) we tested had a grippy surface with a subtle texture that felt nice and locked our hands and feet in place, but it was almost too much of a good thing: Pivoting between poses (such as a high lunge to Warrior 2) proved tricky because our feet stuck. The dual-material makeup does the job well, though we found the rubber side to be even kinder to the knees. We were hooked on this chair from the moment we removed it from its drawstrung bag and unfolded the legs – you literally sink into it and never want to get up again.

The feet are worth mentioning too – a bit like snow shoes, the Kingcamp uses enlarged feet which don’t sink as easily into muddy ground – an important consideration in the UK! The natural rubber Manduka eKO SuperLite got great reviews from our instructors for its portability.This is the luxury version of the Dometic Firenze and we really love the comfort and materials on offer. But this chair doesn’t have the Gesture’s cleverly designed recline mechanism or the Aeron’s iconic looks, and ergoCentric lacks the long-standing reputations of those companies. In this case there are three poles emanating from the rear feet rather than the usual two – this provides greater stability than cheaper alternatives. Durability and materials: A lot of minor things can go wrong with a chair—the arms could come loose, a knob could crack, or a piece might break off entirely. The Lululemon mats aren’t light to carry around—an issue if you’re walking or biking to class but less so if you practice at home.

In terms of extras there is not much to talk about unfortunately – there are no drinks holders or cooler pockets which we’ve seen in some of the other chairs on test.We’ve dropped the Orson down a couple of points because of this and also because your Grandma would probably not be able to use the chair (or at least get up from it! Unfortunately, our yogis didn’t agree on the quality of its traction—it satisfied our hatha instructor but had the hot-yoga instructor complaining about slippage from the get-go.

The Kulae tpECOmat Ultra mat is made of a TPE material with an extra-plush 8-millimeter (5/16-inch) thickness. Let’s face it, there’s not much point going camping to a campsite if you haven’t got a chair of some sort to sit on. The only thing it marginally fails on is the folded size – you will have to make a judgement as to whether that is an important factor in your particular circumstances.If you’re into the space-age design, the Sayl comes in a range of color options, to make it blend in or stand out.