I bought a beautiful mat a couple of months ago and not cheap either from Joann's. The smell was awful; like a skunk. I left it in the garage, then outside, tried a few other things. The smell would not go away. The sad part was at first I had layed some material on top of it; it took over a week for the smell to leave the fabric! I returned it and bought one that passed the sniff test. The lady told me they have quite a few come back for the same reason. The Brand I bought is "DRITZ". It is a great mat and was about 10$cheaper than the other one.