Dean Jerrehian: Aligning Business and Yogic Principles
How a family business became a leading producer of stylish, high-quality, and eco-friendly yoga mats and built a community of true fans.
JadeYoga is a family business run according to the timeless values of providing products of the highest quality and superior customer service. Headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, they have been a producer of yoga mats known for being stylish, slip-free, eco-friendly, and loved by yogis across the globe since 2000.
For the previous century before that, the company was a respected maker of oriental rugs and rug pads. Their successful transformation is an inspiring story of adapting to serve market needs while maintaining focus on putting customers first. I spoke to Dean Jerrehian, President of Jade Industries, Inc. to learn more.
For ease of navigation, I’ve divided this interview into the following sections and edited for clarity.
- The JadeYoga Story
- JadeYoga and Social Responsibility
- JadeYoga and the Global Yoga Community
Part 1: The JadeYoga Story
What are the origins of your family business?
The story of our company harkens back to 1904. My grandfather had moved to the United States where he set up an oriental rug business. He was only sixteen, but the young age even helped him to blaze a new trail and begin the Jerrehian Brothers firm. The business became rather successful. He gained respect and popularity because of the quality and service; values which have always been in demand.
In the 1960s, my father joined the business. Having got work experience, he clearly defined the problem of oriental rug buyers around the world. Unfortunately, at that time, the dealers did not produce rug pads that could provide cushion and prevent oriental rugs from slipping. This is how my father identified a unique opportunity. He produced the natural rubber rug pads that had to go under area rugs. This solution changed the industry.
Every time I sit at my desk, I take a glance to the picture of the oriental rug store built by my grandfather. The slogan written on the wall under the name, “Rugs of Quality” has set the foundation of our business today — our core values of providing the highest quality and outstanding service.
How did your company get into yoga mats?
I remember listening to the story about B.K.S. Iyengar who arranged a demonstration while traveling in the United States. The oriental rug was slipping, so his student took away the rug, exposing the natural rubber mat underneath and the problem was instantly solved.
Then, over the years, we noticed we were getting an increasing number of orders for our natural rubber rug pads from people and companies in the yoga space. After experiencing how awful PVC yoga mats were, a light bulb went off, and I started to look into the opportunity seriously.
In 2000 we set up the business of JadeYoga. As Jade is a family business, the initials J-A-D-E come from our names; my mother Jackie, my two sisters Amy and Ellen, and me, Dean.
At that time, yoga mats were made from the cheap plastic or PVC. They were slippery and toxic. Building on our experience making natural rubber rug pads, we worked to design a superior yoga mat. Natural rubber is not only eco-friendly, but it also possesses superb cushioning properties and high resilience. After much hard work, our flagship yoga mat, Harmony, was born.
What was the initial reaction to your Harmony yoga mat?
To be honest, before we release it, we weren’t sure how it would be received. To understand if it was something that people would really want, we sent out nearly 500 samples. The response was great — we received about 300 phone calls! People told us they had never experienced anything as good as our Harmony mat.
People also appreciated our eco-friendly approach. As a former lawyer for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I know how fragile the Earth is and how important it is for us to take good care of it. By using rapidly renewable resources like natural rubber, we are helping keep the earth and ourselves healthy. Our yoga mats comply with United States environmental legislation as they do not contain any PVCs.
How have you grown the business since then?
Once people actually touch a JadeYoga mat, they immediately understand why it’s different. We, therefore, focus on getting samples into people hands. Nowadays, we work with distributors all over the world — selling into Asia, Europe, Australia and North and South America.
Of course, we operate in the twenty-first century, so we also sell our products via our own website and marketplaces such as Amazon.com.
What was the most memorable customer review you’re had?
That’s a difficult question because we’ve received so many beautiful letters from people over the years. Some people spend more time with their yoga mat than with any other inanimate object, except, perhaps, their phone. The mat becomes very important to them — especially when they are going through a difficult time.
We love to hear how the excellent grip of JadeYoga mats has helped people’s practice. If you don’t have to worry about grip, you can focus on technique.
Perhaps the funniest review we ever got was about our new Elite-S mat:
So a Manduka mat married a Jade mat, and they had a baby, and the baby is perfect. It has the density and weight of Manduka and has the non-slippery grip of a classic Jade. So if you were ever torn between the two or ever wished that Jade wouldn’t move as much — you’ve got it!
Do you make yoga mats for children?
Of course! Jade has come up with two natural rubber mats intended especially for children.
- Pathfinder is designed for ages six to eleven. It’s 24” wide x 58” long x 1/8” thick.
- Discovery is ideal for kids under five years of age. It’s 19” wide x 44” long x 1/8” thick and weighs only two pounds.
The kids are able to make a choice between two colors, Lavender and Slate Blue.
Part 2: JadeYoga and Social Responsibility
What is your company’s approach to social responsibility?
Our mission is to make the best quality yoga products and give back to the earth with every product sold — so everything we do is related to social responsibility. We have a fervent desire to make the Earth a better place and so have set up several giving programs.
- Buy a Mat, Plant a Tree: Taking into account the fact that Jade mats are made from the trees, we came up with the decision to plant one tree for every mat that had been sold. To accomplish this, we’ve partnered with the Trees for the Future non-profit organization and it has resulted in planting over one million trees.
- Color Causes: This is a program whereby we produce special color mats to raise funds for different issues. For instance, every autumn we make a call for the raising awareness of breast cancer by releasing pink mats. As well, we cannot ignore the problems of people suffering from autism, that’s why we have funded some topical projects through our Saffron mats. Finally, our pride and joy is the Teal mat. Every $5 from the sale of an item goes to ovarian cancer causes. We have donated over $100,000 to ovarian cancer research and support.
- Community Partners is a program we organize which brings yoga to places including schools, hospitals, shelters, and even prisons.
- Giving Days: We collaborate with several organizations that have a system of values close to our ones. For instance, every Earth Day we make donations to the environmental groups chosen by our company. Then, on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we make a charity directing some portion of sales to improve lifestyle of abused and rejected children.
Tell us more about your Community Partners program.
As we have observed many times, sometimes those who are in a crucial need of yoga cannot come to a class. Luckily, many yoga teachers are willing to volunteer in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, prisons, and shelters.
However, to be able to practice, those people definitely need mats. So, Jade gives away fifty mats every month to programs that cover such socially significant problems as home violence, human trafficking, veterans support, homeless people, prisons, rehabilitation of drug- and alcohol-addicted people, the physically or mentally challenged children, and refugees, as well as peace corporations.
Unfortunately, we cannot satisfy every request we get, so, we do our best to prioritize. So, we have limited our donations to various organizations to twelve demo mats. They are entirely new with invisible defects or have been in use for a year. One more option we offer to different yoga schools and community centers that help people in need is 10 percent off our wholesale price.
Part 3: JadeYoga and the Global Yoga Community
How has the yoga scene evolved since you established JadeYoga?
Yoga has changed in so many ways since then. The two most significant changes are the quality of gear available and that yoga has become much more accessible.
When JadeYoga started, most mats on the market were made with PVC. They were not only slippery and uncomfortable, but PVC is one of the most toxic plastics on the market. Once people discovered our natural rubber mats, they found that the grip, comfort, environmental, and health aspects were more than worth the added costs.
Concerning the practice of yoga, given its many benefits, it has really gone mainstream. It’s no longer something for the very spiritual, highly athletic, or extremely flexible. Nowadays, we see great diversity in both practitioners and teachers — there are first responders, military veterans with PTSD, addicts, people with autism, cancer, and arthritis, prisoners, people with limited mobility, people in their nineties, and amputees with prosthetic limbs. Yoga indeed is for everyone.
How has JadeYoga contributed to changing the perception of yoga worldwide?
JadeYoga has influenced the yoga world in three notable ways:
- Spreading awareness of the benefits of natural rubber yoga mats;
- Educating people to avoid yoga mats made of materials that are unsustainable or toxic; and,
- Demonstrating how business can bring good things to the world.
How would you describe your personal yoga practice?
Although my yoga practice has a long way to go, I enjoy it very much. For me, it is as much about peace of mind as anything else. No matter what has happened that day, I feel great after a yoga class.
To learn more about Dean Jerrehian and JadeYoga, please visit JadeYoga.com.
