Design Highlights

Everyone who knows just enough about yoga to be dangerous assumes that we’re all young tall slender white limber vegan Buddhists. And no wonder — that seems to be what’s on the cover of every single yoga magazine, ad and website. But as we all know, the truth is much more complex. I’m white, sort of, but I’m not exactly THE paragon of young, tall, slender, limber or vegan (though I was for a while). Nor am I Buddhist, though I find a lot to admire about the Buddha himself, and Buddhism in general. I respect the tenets of Buddhism, and I subscribe to...

Hello again, my finely feathered friends. It’s already the middle of the month, and in two weeks we’ll have to say goodbye to our September collection and welcome our October collection. (If you’re thinking about buying one of our September mats, you might want to make your move sooner rather than later, so you don’t forget. Hint, hint :-) In the meantime, however, we thought we should highlight one of our favorite designs from this month’s collection: Minnesota Home. This one is clearly special to us based on the description alone: Big Raven is a proudly Minnesota company. We grew...

Two weeks ago we introduced our new Zodiac Collection, last week we (re-)highlighted our Ragnar Collection, and this week we introduce yet another new collection: Our Women Rock! Collection. Like its sibling Ragnar collection, our Women Rock! collection is aimed at both yogis and runners (a group of athletes who probably need yoga more than any other.) Yoga is not just for “yogis” — it’s beneficial and complementary to nearly every athletic endeavor, but especially to runners. You might think “sure, I can see how doing yoga before a big race would loosen up a runner’s leg muscles”, but the importance...

Today we’re highlighting one of our more unusual collections of yoga mats — our Ragnar Collection. What, you say, isn’t Ragnar all about running? But I’m a yogi! Well, it turns out a lot you yogis are also runners, and vice versa. And yoga mats aren’t just for yogis — runners need mats for stretching before and recovering after… and for sleeping on in the case of Ragnar races, which are usually overnight (which is why one of their events is called “Chase the Moon”). This weekend, runners are racing along the St. Croix river from St. Paul to Duluth, Minnesota,...

This week’s design highlight is part of our permanent collection due to its enduring, year-round popularity. Designed by our daughter, Hannah, our Donut Worry, Be Happy yoga mat depicts your Earthly post-yoga reward. Something to focus on during practice. Your drishti, if you will. When my team first came to me and said, “You know what we need? A doughnut yoga mat,” I was… well, I was more than a little skeptical. Doughnuts and yoga? But they finally convinced me that it’s a thing and that it’s a thing we need. So Hannah sat down and designed one. She was...