Win a UNIT NINE python print yoga mat

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or you know, just not on social media), UNIT NINE  is an Australian brand that has been seriously shaking up the sports accessories market since their launch in December 2016. Their gear is super high quality, fun and unique, and they’re looking to inspire people to get moving and have lots of fun while doing it. I had a chat to their founder Anna Whiteside to learn more about the brand and how it came about. Oh, and I convinced her to GIVE AWAY ONE OF THEIR SIGNATURE YOGA MATS. The competition is super easy to enter, and all the details are at the end of this post.

Why did you start UNIT NINE?
There were three moments that ultimately led to it: 

• I was trying to find a yoga towel to buy and all I could find was something in a drab coloured yoga towel that I didn’t love and which was hideously expensive
• At yoga one night I was becoming super irritated (not ideal in a yoga class!) at my new yoga mat which had an exceptionally strong rubber smell.  I didn’t want to get close to it, which is pretty hard to do in a yoga class and so I left the class super annoyed and very un-zen like.
• I recently started doing one-on-one sessions with a boxing trainer and I was looking for new boxing gloves and all I could find were gloves with huge brand logos slapped all over them, and I mean everywhere…. not my style at all!

You can see a theme here, basically I do a lot of training and a lot of shopping… haha, and so UNIT NINE came about as I couldn’t find what I was looking to buy in the local market.

Where does the name come from?
Its where we live, where the business was born and products were designed.

Can you tell me a little about how you started the business?
Firstly, I became very good friends with Google and researched and read as much as I could whilst speaking to as many people as possible. Once we found manufacturers we made sure we were crystal clear on what we wanted, what we did not want, and what we expected out of the relationship.  We made lots of iterations of the product to ensure we got the product we wanted.

Why did you decide to lead with the yoga mat?
I was doing a lot of yoga at the time and as mentioned I could not get my hands on yoga gear I liked – they either smelled of rubber or I didn’t like the prints they came in.

Can you tell me a little more about the yoga mats? They feel different to other mats that I’ve used.
We wanted to create a luxe high-performance yoga mat with modern, cool designs and that didn’t contain any nasties like latex, silicon, PVC, phthalates. So to begin with, we spent our time finding a manufacturer who could produce a mat to our quality standard before we even discussed the prints we wanted. Once we had the right quality we shifted our focus towards looking for the unique prints we desired. Our mats are ideal for most styles of yoga, but the hotter and sweatier it is the tighter they’ll grip, as the grip of the suede-like top is activated by sweat or by sprinkling some water on it. It’s also ideal for relaxing yin yoga or a stretching session.

What’s your favourite design or product in the range?
I am obsessed with our python print, so it’s our black python boxing gloves and our white python yoga mat (which is what we’re giving away today!). And we’re currently working on some new ideas… so watch this space!

What’s your favourite way to train?
Exercise has always made me feel good so I played lots of sports in school and have given it all a go at one stage or another… from Pilates and yoga to HIIT, boxing, strength training and running!

Win a UNIT NINE python print yoga mat (RRP $115)

*please note that this competition is now close. The winner was Megan, who has been contacted *

To enter, comment below with your favourite stretch or yoga pose and why you love it.

Competition is open to Australian residents only and closes 5pm Sunday 23 July. Winners will be announced here on the blog on Monday 24 July. By commenting below you authorise us to sign you up to the Lazy Girl Fitness free fortnightly email newsletter.