From the first yoga mats in the 1980s, the yoga mat market has come a long way. Now, more brands are popping up every day, each personalizing their mats in their own ways. Each brand has its own way of showing its diversity from others. So, they definitely have to know how to emboss a custom yoga mat.
Most yoga mat manufacturers put their logos by either embossing them with a machine or by putting vinyl decals on them. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of branding custom yoga mats. Today, we will show you how to emboss a custom yoga mat!
Prepare Your Logo Or Artwork!
Before the embossing process itself, you will need to prepare a design that you want to emboss on your yoga mat, right? If you don’t know how to make a design for your brand, you can contact a design company that specializes in that. Afterward, you can send the design to the yoga mat manufacturer!
Why do we need your logo? Well, we will sew this logo on the roller that is part of the embossing machine. With this part, we are able to transfer your desired logo to your yoga mat! Just remember, your logo or design will be darker than the yoga mat itself!
We Cut The Mat To Appropriate Dimensions!
After we have your logo ready, we still need to determine the dimensions of the yoga mat that will be ideal for you! Here, we consider three things:
- Thickness
- Material
- Size
When we look generally, there are three standard thickness levels for yoga mats:
- 6mm - these are for heavy yoga mats
- 4mm/5mm - this is the standard yoga mat thickness
- 1mm/3mm - for travel yoga mats
Of course, the difficulty of the cutting process will depend on the materials too. We have already covered everything about yoga mat materials here [insert link for yoga mat showdown post].
In the end, now that we know how thick our material will be, we are ready to cut the mat to your desired dimensions! Standard dimensions for yoga mats are 24” x 68”, for width and length respectively. One thing to keep in mind is that yoga mat width will always be 24”!
Now, we have cut your yoga mat, and are ready to emboss it! So, in the next section, you will finally learn how to emboss a custom yoga mat!
Embossing The Yoga Mat With An Embossing Machine!
Now, we have two options here:
- EVA Embossing Machine
- Ultrasonic Quilting Machine
Let’s break down the machine characteristics and process for each machine!
As its name suggests, the EVA embossing machine is the best for the lightest yoga mat material, the EVA. The machine works in a way that we put an individual yoga mat on a moving line. This yoga mat will then come inside a heating section so that it is heated enough to be able to absorb the embossment. Then, it goes out of the heater under a roller that can have an embossed logo on it or just some patterns.
Here is the video of the EVA embossing machine in action!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31yXiYTsIzA
Other than that, we can also use the ultrasonic quilting machine. It works in a similar manner to the EVA embossing machine. Of course, it doesn’t use the old-school thread and needle method, and rather opts for a heating procedure. We also put the yoga mat inside the line and wait for it to enter inside a heater. Inside this heater is the infrared system that will automatically align yoga mats so that all have the same design patterns.
Now, these two machines are essentially the same, minus the infrared system that the ultrasonic machine implements. Both of these are definitely more effective than the thread and needle method, because of automatization and cost-efficiency.
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Well, this is how we emboss custom yoga mats, short and sweet.
We at Disrupt Sports can design and deliver you the highest quality custom yoga mats, according to your taste. Try out our Designer tool to design your custom yoga mat. We can deliver these designs to your doorstep.
If you have any questions on how to emboss a custom yoga mat, feel free to reach us out via email or live chat!