Collection: Yohola Yoga

Family-Owned | World's First Cork Yoga Mat | Made in the USA Since 2013

Yoloha Yoga began in 2013 in a surfboard building shop in Ocean City, Maryland, where founder Chris Willey—an Annapolis-native avid surfer and yogi—hand-crafted the world's first cork yoga mat out of passion, innovation, and a deep commitment to sustainability. Chris's discovery of cork came from experimenting with eco-friendly materials to add grip to surfboards, finding that cork outlasted and outperformed any other natural material while providing a non-slip surface even when wet, eliminating the need for environmentally-unfriendly wax. When he started slipping on traditional foam mats at Dawn's Yoga Vibez studio in Ocean City—where he was introduced to yoga and found the same euphoria as surfing—a light bulb went off.

Working late into the night in his garage with his parents, Chris hand-laminated cork and recycled rubber layers together to create the first 200 prototype mats. The minute teachers at the local studio saw them, they grabbed the cork mats before students could get their hands on them—Chris knew he was onto something special. In April 2014, Chris picked up his first production batch while still working full-time in marketing. When one mat flew off the trailer on the drive home and survived completely intact, it was the sign he needed—the next day, he gave his two weeks' notice.

Ten years later, Yoloha has grown from a humble family endeavor into an internationally-recognized brand headquartered in Charleston, SC, where they opened their first yoga studio in 2018. Every cork mat and prop is prototyped and hand-inspected in their warehouse before production, ensuring the highest quality while meeting rigorous sustainability standards. Cork oak trees are never cut down—their bark is carefully hand-stripped by skilled artisans providing fair-wage jobs, and harvested trees absorb five times more CO2 as they regrow their bark over nine years. Partnering with Germany's HEXPOL, Chris spent years developing Plant Foam—combining ethically-sourced Brazilian sugarcane (55%) with non-toxic EVA foam to create mats made with up to 83% renewable materials, USDA-certified, with a goal of reaching 100%. Proud partners of carbonfund.org for carbon offset initiatives, Yoloha ships in 100% recycled, recyclable paper and cardboard packaging with zero single-use plastics, proving that sustainability and high performance can coexist beautifully.