November 2008 | Urban Essentials

Once Upon A Yoga Mat

By Andrea Manitsas and Rob Sidon

Looking to spice up your practice? Meet Yogamatic. Pick from a gallery of original artwork or upload your own pic. The image you choose will be printed in water-soluble ink on a mat fashioned from (biodegradable and latex-, rubber-, and toxin-free) Thermo Plastic Elastima, and five percent of what you spend will go to benefit Global Green. Fido’s portrait could keep you motivated through 108 sun salutations, no? $85, yogamatic.com

Into The Wild
Make a date to cuddle up and sleep soundly under the stars. A single Skinny Fish sleeping bag diverts more than 85 16-ounce soda bottles from the landfill. With recycled insulation, shell, lining, cord and storage sack, the bag boasts 97 percent total recycled content. $179.95-$189.95, bigagnes.com

Mother Lovers
Forget trees; Hugg-A-Planet! These educational globes are soft for cuddling, brightly colored to keep a child’s interest, detailed for learning a little geography along the way, and perfectly round for a good game of catch. They may be especially made for kids, but we’re getting one for the office, that way we can spend our breaks hugging the earth (or Mars, if that’s what you’re into). $19.95, huggaplanet.com

Wind It Up
No electrical outlet? No problem. With the SideWinder portable cell phone charger, you can go off the grid and still reach out and touch someone. The lightweight SideWinder provides five to six minutes of crank-generated talk time or up to 30 minutes standby, in addition to an LED emergency light. And just think: valuable cell phone minutes will be tougher to squander if you have to crank each time you use your phone. $29, gaiam.com

Power in Your Pants
The new Pants to Poverty Festival of Colours line of ethical undies draws its candy-colored inspiration from the Holi Festival — the spectacular party that erupts on India’s streets each year. So you better believe they put some oomph where the sun don’t shine. Replete with organic cotton and dyes that are fully recycled within the factory, each pair is fair-trade and sweat-free, because no one likes pesticides, chemicals or exploitation near their netherparts. $14, pantstopoverty.com

The Taste That Refreshes
Ditch the high fructose corn syrup, aspartame, sucralose and phosphoric acid without saying sayonara to soda for good. Sugar-free Zevia is sweetened with Stevia, that lovely native rainforest herb which is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. You can finally get your zero-calorie, guiltless fix in flavors of lemon-lime, orange, cola and ginger root beer… in recycled aluminum cans, we might add. Free samples abound on their website. zevia.com

Pure Love
The name is no hyperbole. 100% Pure is actually just that. The only cosmetics line we’ve found made from fruit pigments, 100% Pure is all-natural, vegan (minus the pesky honey for you diehards) and free of synthetic fragrances, parabens, toxins, thickeners or emulsifiers. With the number of times we gloss-up each day, you know we’re tossing these tubes in our purses. $13, 100percentpure.com