I am a creature of habit when it comes to some things, including shower mats, which I bought and replaced for years from Bed Bath & Beyond. They worked, so I didn’t think too much about them. But when it recently came time to replace my old shower mat, my go-to store had shuttered.
I had to look elsewhere.
First I tried Target, where I found a stylish-looking, bright blue bathtub mat. Yes, it was cute. No, it didn’t stay put—it squinched up under my feet no matter how carefully I spread it out and suctioned it in place. It was so very bad that I drove all the way back across town to Target the next day just to complain about how bad it was (and return it).
At that point, I remembered where I work, checked our guide to shower mats, and ordered a blue Gorilla Grip Bathtub Shower Mat. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t immediately think to buy our top pick.
But the Gorilla Grip mat showed me that I didn’t have to be disappointed. The mat does its one job—it keeps me from slipping—without causing the many other problems and annoyances that I’d tolerated in my old standby.
I’m happily back to being a creature of habit, and I bet I’ll never buy another shower mat but the Gorilla Grip mat ever again.
Staff pick
This mat is the grippiest underfoot and one of the easiest to clean of those we tested. But its suction cups don’t work on textured or tiled surfaces.
Did I realize, when I ordered the Gorilla Grip mat, that the flaws that annoyed me about each of my previous bathtub mats—the dingy look that the clear ones inevitably took on, the way stray hairs would wind themselves inextricably around the suction cups, the way those suction cups would sort of work but sort of not, and require me to reposition the blasted thing every third shower—were avoidable? That there was a better way? The Gorilla Grip way? No, I did not.
But I quickly learned.
Did the stray hairs that used to create a murky Sargasso Sea underneath my old bath mats just magically vanish? Or are they quickly finding their way to the drain rather than loitering for days? I don’t know which, and I don’t care.
The suction cups that on other mats had minds of their own, wandering off like distracted toddlers, stolidly stay put here, unless I actively want to move the mat.
(Another embarrassing admission: I don’t follow the advice we give in our guide to hang the mat to dry after every use. Although I’d suggest that you follow our guidance, so far I’ve seen no mildew in my California bathroom, and it’s been eight months.)
The Gorilla Grip mat is not slick or slippery underfoot, though I can’t say that I’ve ever had that problem with other mats, either. It comes in about 20 colors, some opaque and some see-through, as well as clear, so if I get bored with the blue, I have options.
I read in our guide that the Gorilla Grip mat doesn’t work as well with tiled or textured tubs or showers as it does with smooth surfaces. I guess that means I won’t be getting a tiled or textured tub or shower, should I ever manage to swing a bathroom renovation.
One other very minor drawback is that the Gorilla Grip mat is a simple rectangle, with no neat half-moon cutout for the drain, as my old Bed Bath & Beyond mats had.
I’ll live.
This article was edited by Katie Okamoto and Megan Beauchamp.
