Artist-Made Yoga Mats

Artist Katie Merz of Brooklyn has created her own yoga mats for sale at Merz Mats.

She writes, "After years of looking down at a blank yoga mat and feeling somewhat grim, I decided to pick up a sharpie and sketch out some characters onto my own mat. I needed to laugh. The result is here. The mat is a classic navy blue 1/8″ sticky mat with my characters screened in white. They are latex free, extremely durable and washable and measure 68″ x 24″ x 18″."

 Cute Christmas present anyone? Learn more here.

Custom-made Yoga Mats

Also check out the more expensive (and slightly ridiculous) YogaMatic for custom made yoga mats. Featured yoga mat designer this week: Calvin Klein! No kidding.

Says Kevin Carrigan, Creative Director of Calvin Klein Performance, “My design for the Calvin Klein Performance yoga mat is inspired by Warrior 1, one of the most fundamental and beautiful yoga poses. We purposefully wanted the design to incorporate bold, graphic lines which create a fearless silhouette that embodies strength, balance, and courage.” I'm sure you did. Ah, the courage to purchase designer yoga mats.

Non-designer images present the possibility of practicing on the face of the Dali Lama (who is not a yogi, by the way) or on an image of oversized granola or on a field of donuts or on an anime still or on the word "yoga" imitating the Keith Haring sculpture "love."

Jeesh.