Archive for the 'business' Category Page 2 of 3

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

LuluLemon Opens In Brooklyn

Published on July 17, 2009 0 Comments

No doubt you already know quite a bit about LuluLemon, the unstoppable yoga and athletics clothing brand from Vancouver, Canada.

They went public in summer 2007, did well out of the gate, survived a manufactoring scandal (no seaweed in those stress-reducing, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying seaweed-containing clothes), and—in June this year—took a hit when their stock dropped. They publicly vowed to scale back their expansion.

Yet, they are still opening stores. Amazing.

Yesterday, July 16, they opened their first store in Park Slope, Brooklyn, (otherwise known as dyke and stroller land) 472 Bergen Street, between 5th and Flatbush. No deets or photos yet, (other than you can get a free class tomorrow, Saturday, July 18 from 10 -11).

But, you know, New Yorkers have to shop. Even Brooklynites. So expanding in New York is probably a safe bet.

A couple of months ago, they opened in Soho. Here’s picture of a spring Soho:

LuluLemon Soho

Before that, it was Union Square. They closed down their Flatiron storefront and opened officially in a more central-to-yoga location.

In January, staff moved store bits over to USWest. Chilly, chilly, chilly weather to carry maniquin busts around.

LuluLemon Union Square

Here’s LuLuLemon on a TimesSquare billboard, fall 2008!! These guys are serious!!

LuluLemon Times Square

photos from lululemon’s Flikr stream

Just one question:

What the hell is next?!!? (No, scratch that: when’s the sample sale?)(And how long should I save up before I go?)

Previous posts:

Yoga Clothes Go Starbucks

in Culture and business.

Yoga Licensing Issue: My *July* Update on Yoga Dork

Published on July 13, 2009 0 Comments

My update, now up on Yoga Dork!

My update on the hot issue of whether New York State will continue to target yoga teacher training programs to make them license-able under the State Education Department.

Find out what’s been happening—the good news (YANY is born!), the interesting news (Leslie Kaminoff writes a Declaration of Independence for Yoga), and the weird news (NYState returns pounds of paperwork to a studio—unopened!).

Go to Yoga Dork, a blog I follow and admire, to see my guest post on this issue.

Previous posts:

New York Times Reports on Licensing Issue

June update on Yoga Dork

Namaste, y’all!

in Culture, History and business.

Brent Kessel, Money Guru, Interviewed on Frugaltopia

Published on July 11, 2009 0 Comments

In May, I was excited to bring you news of Brent Kessel, a financial planner and yogi I encountered at the Yoga Journal conference in New York.

His book, “It’s Not About the Money,” has opened my eyes to the ways we bring our “issues” to money— in a similar way to how we bring our “issues” to the yoga mat. Only in yoga, thereIt’s Not About the Money’s a way to work them out. With money, secrecy and shame makes it hard to bring hidden habits to light.

Brent was kind enough to agree to an interview for another blog I work on, Frugaltopia, (which, as you’d guess, is all about frugal living).

I asked him a few pressing questions—about the 8 archetypes that profile the major habits/obsessions/hang ups people have around money, about what one thing we could all do to improve our relationship with money, and how we can avoid or work with our hang ups.

Here’s one question I asked him: Frugaltopia: Is there one archetype that seems to do better financially than others? Why is that, in your opinion?

To see his answer, and read the rest of the fascinating interview, go here, to Frugaltopia. (And then buy his book. Seriously, I’m willing to proselytise: finding Brent and his book is like finding a great teacher.)

Read the interview here.

Previous posts: “It’s Not About the Money,” May 2009

in Culture and business.

New York Times Reports on Licensing Issue

Published on July 10, 2009 5 Comments

Today, none other than Arthur Sulzberger’s 28-yr old son, A.G., reported on the still hot-ticket issue of licensing New York yoga studios. Thank you, A.G.! Your press helps the cause.

Yoga Association of New York (YANY) was officially ratified on Wednesday, at OM Yoga, at its second official meeting. For more news on what’s been happening since I last wrote, see my upcoming post on YogaDork. (I’ll remind you!)

Alison West

Alison West, president of the newly ratified YANY, teaching at her studio, Yoga Union. Photo for NYTimes by Ruby Washington.

For now, Sulzberger, who attended YANY’s first meeting, traces the origin of the conflict to the very creation of the Yoga Alliance in 1999. This attempt at self-regulation, according to Leslie Kaminoff of the Breathing Project, made yoga studios a sitting duck for cash-flow challenged government looking for new sources of income. (A government that thinks yoga’s popularity means that studios are raking in the big bucks.)

” “We made it very, very easy for them to do what they’re doing right now,” said Leslie Kaminoff, founder of the Breathing Project, a nonprofit yoga center in New York City, who had opposed the formation of the Yoga Alliance. “The industry of yoga is a big, juicy target.” ”

Sulzberger continues, “In New York State, though, teachers fought back, complaining that the new rules could erode thin bottom lines, contradict religious underpinnings and, most important, shut down every school in the state during an eight-month licensing period.”

“It basically destroys the essence of yoga, to control and manipulate the whole situation,” said Jhon Tamayo of Atmananda Yoga Sequence in Manhattan, shortly after receiving one of the warning letters from the state. “No one can regulate yoga.””

The dispute is far from over. But there’s a sense that YANY, at least, is in it for the long haul. And, in the immediate, there is some light at the end of the tunnel—stay tuned for my report via YogaDork! (With pics and docs)

(On another note, A.G. Sulzberger’s piece marks a nice departure from the usual isn’t-that-weird tone that a lot of articles on yoga take. Thanks again, A.G., for taking the cause seriously.)

in Culture and business.

Yoga Licensing Issue: My Update on Yoga Dork

Published on June 16, 2009 0 Comments

I’m excited to have a guest blog post on YogaDork today! Yoga Dork is one of my very favorite yoga blogs out there, covering yogic issues with sincerity, humor, pizzaz. (Others think kudos are due, too: YD got a great mention in Yoga Journal this month!) Thanks, YogaDork!

The issue at hand: as you know, in early May, New York State launched a smack-down on yoga teacher training programs, suddenly requiring them to apply for costly licenses, and to cease and desist services until all paperwork was done. Needless to say, there was a big freak out.

Lots has happened since then. To get the latest on the licensing issue, the changing case of characters, and the power of unity in yoga, go to yogadork.com and read my post!

Hasta la vista (and watch for more guest posts on YogaDork about the licensing issue).

in Culture and business.

“It’s Not About the Money”

Published on June 5, 2009 5 Comments

One of the things I enjoyed at the Yoga Journal conference in New York, May 14 – 18, was coming across new, brilliant manifesters of yoga. One was Brent Kessel. After his presentation, I bought his book. I took it on vacation. I read it on the beach. I love him.

True, possibly only I could read a book called It’s Not About the Money while supposedly relaxing. But I did find his ideas exciting (and he’s a good writer). I loved the notion that we live out unconscious stories about money—and we don’t need to. As in yoga, we just need to wake up!

As an experienced financial planner and a long time ashtanga yogi, Kessel is in a rare position to speak to yogis about money—and be heard. We yogis don’t really seem to want to talk about brass tacks. Unless we’re forced to, by, say, opening a studio, or trying to make a living as a yoga teacher.

But the aversion to seeing—with eyes wide open—that our yoga exists in a money-driven world, is just a form of avoidance. In fact, in some images of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of abundance, she is surrounded by gold coins.

Our (Westerners) discomfort putting money and yoga in the same thought seems to work us up into a knot. Do we understand why? Not really.

Lakshmi

So, I’m looking forward to Kessel’s workshop tonight at East/West books in Manhattan, from 5:30-9:30.

Now that I understand his system, I’m ready for the experience. What money type am I? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What stories do I tell myself about what I can and cannot have? How are they holding me back? To me, this seems as yogic a workshop as meditation or pranayama.

I wish everyone abundance and prosperity—and freedom from whatever stories are driving you. Even if we don’t care about being rich, we do want to get free, right?

East/West Books: 212-243-5995, 78 Fifth Avenue @ 14th Street

in business.

Heavy Hitters of Yoga Biz at First YJ Conference

Published on May 15, 2009 0 Comments

I walked around my Brooklyn neighborhood tonight trying to come back to earth. Breathe! I just got done with the 2-day “Business of Yoga” workshop at Yoga Journal’s first conference in New York. I am way overstimulated.

Judging from my texts and tweets from Thursday and Friday, I am super glad that I do not run a yoga studio. What a headache! I’m a writer not a marketer!

And yet, I do run yoga retreats, and I do want to write more about yoga and business (and the business of yoga).

What I learned: the (global) recession doesn’t stop people from opening yoga studios. When Bob Murphy of MindBodyOnline (the next inline to be a big stats provider to the yoga world) asked who was planning to open a studio, about half the people in a room of, oh, 50 -70, shot up their hands. Jeez.

Average annual profit at a yoga studio: 17%. Yes, ladies and gents, it’s still a labor of love.

And as Connie Chan, founder of Levitate Yoga (which, at 7 months pregnant, she just sold) outlined, owning a studio means dealing with: lawyers, accountants, landlords, NY State, and the Feds, and that’s even before you’ve auditioned teachers, painted your walls, and installed check-in software. Oy!

And then there are the licence centers that offer teacher training programs. (See Yoga Dork’s astute rundown of the complex—and exceedingly compromising (perhaps crippling)—issue.)

People have come from Russia, Poland, Germany, Canada, Brazil and other parts of South America to learn how to either run their existing business better or how to start on the right foot.

Charlie Barnett who left finance in America to open Yoga Flow in Sao Paulo said he couldn’t imagine doing some of the (very practical) things that the (very experienced) presenters were suggesting—such as drawing up a budget for his studio. In Brazil, he said, things are about 15 years behind. (Not to mention that you have to monitor the banks down there (money disappears from your accounts) and internet service (including networked servers) cut out at least once a day, leaving you, jack-of-all-trades to get systems up again).

As has been the case til recently in the US, in Brazil mingling money and yoga is very much frowned upon. But still a studio’s gotta survive.  Ganesh Das, managing director of Jivamukti Yoga School, suggests thinking of money as necessary energy, “At Jiva, money is a form of energy that the center needs so we can use the school as a platform for change in this world. Therefore, you have energy coming into our school through purchases that keep operations going, and it goes to teachers as energy that then goes through their teachings and then comes back to us in a circle.”

In fact in the US, says Brent Kessel, financial analyst, ashtangi and YJ columnist on money, says we’re moving away from an Innocent/Idealist/Caregiver dominated way of running studios. As more people make career changes midlife, they’re bringing more level-headed (Guardian), entrepreneurial skills (Empire Builder) attitudes to running yoga studios. (For example, see Yoga High and Mala Yoga in New York.)

Ana Forrest’s marketing manager Lynann Politte showed us how to brand: color! image! message! consistency! and Beverley Murphy (Bob’s wife) demoed guerilla marketing techniques—yes, those postcards *do* have an effect; yes your most dedicated students are worth your love and attention; yes, you do need to have specials if you want revenue.

All in all it was a pretty interesting couple of days, but as I drift towards bed I’ve got dollar signs in my eyes where there used to be meditating yogis. Guess that’s the bottom line talking, huh?

in business.

Yoga Clothes Go Starbucks

Published on April 12, 2009 6 Comments

After reading Yoga Dork last week, I have to admit that my love affair with LuluLemon must come to an end. It’s embarassing. The clothing is so well made, lasts forever, fits well, breathes well, but it’s just too trendy.

When LLLMN set up shop in NY in 2006 (I wrote about it for TimeOutNY), I knew my time was running out. True to form, they quickly swept the city. As a Canuck, I’d already begun wearing their clothes in 2002, when no one here cared. (Vancouverites cared though; my friends called it attire for teeny-boppers. They couldn’t believe I wore it; they wouldn’t go near it themselves.)

But now it’s like I’m a freaking ad. It’s just not cool. (And you can’t black out that ubiquitous shiny silver logo, I’ve tried.)

Now, just to cement my fears, Forbes announces that Christine Day, former head of Starbucks’ Asia Pacific Group, is heading up LuluLemon as CEO, making the standardized latte culture–standardized yoga culture link ultra clear. Uh oh.

Forbes says, “Lululemon fits Day’s easygoing personality and seriousness of purpose. And, like the one-time coffee juggernaut, the yoga-centric clothing company focuses on cult-like customer loyalty; thorough, mandatory staff training on new products and customer service; and innovative marketing.”

Sigh. Innovative, yes, but just a bit too clubby.

Luckily at Easter brunch today I heard about Yoga Army, an LA-based yoga wear company. Only problem is, none of their dresses look like anything I could wear to class. Yoga Army is a “yoga look” for out on the town. “Yoga street,” as one of my brunch companions noted. (But how “street” is a red-silk, one-shoulder dress at $594? Or a fringed-leather vest for $200?)

Yoga Army

Yoga Army was smart: it dispensed with the yoga.

Not so for the LA labels Beyond Yoga (at the mind-bending URL, www.iambeyond.com), OmGirl (includes a T with a charity bent), all mentioned in Los Angeles Magazine, March 2009, where lifestyle and yoga creepily creep together.

And once-small companies such as Blue Canoe and Hyde (Hyde has product endorsement from Deepak Chopra front and center on their home page) seem to aspire to similar ends as the now gigantic LLLMN—so does that make buying them just the same sin under a different label?

(And speaking of labels, the price-tags on all of these organic, single-source, almost edible threads are s-t-e-e-p—no cheaper that the Big Lemon’s.)

So, what’s a non-label-loving girl to do? Take refuge in American Apparel and call that anonymity? Wear Nike like a rebel?

in Culture and business.

Inappropriate Yoga Guy “Edits” Yoga Journal

Published on April 3, 2009 2 Comments

To mark April Fool’s Day, Yoga Journal sent out a fake press release announcing that Inappropriate Yoga Guy, the crotch-grabbing, breast-oggling liability called Ogden, would be installed for a 6-month editorship at Yoga Journal, the giant of yoga magazines.

Of course, it’s a traffic-driving spoof to get a younger demographic on to the magazine’s site. It’s also an ad for the 5-part web series on Odgen at the helm at YJ. View the laugh-out-loud trailer here:

Beginning last Wednesday, the first episode of the series is available on the YJ Web site. See episode 1 here. ( See episode 2 here!)

Notable excerpts from the YJ press release: ”Tough times demand creative solutions. In a surprise move that is already rocking the magazine industry, Yoga Journal Magazine announces it has hired Ogden, also known as “The Inappropriate Yoga Guy,” as its new editor.

Ogden, the YouTube sensation, already has millions of fans who have watched him bumble his way though yoga classes, offending his female classmates and annoying those around him.”

Anyone who can dream up the cover line ‘Yoga and Knives: What Took Us So Long?’ is truly a publishing genius,” says Patricia Fox, Yoga Journal’s General Manager.

“It’s no secret that in this economy, magazines have taken a hit. We are certain that Ogden’s unique character and consistent record of thinking outside the box will not only increase revenue, but also bring tens of thousands of new users and readers to our website and magazine.”

With Ogden’s high-jinx now front and center on the ultra-yoga corp’s site, maybe we’ll see a jump in the number of dudes doing yoga. Or, ahem, checking it out.

(FYI about 700,000 more men were practicing yoga in 2008 compared to 2004, according to—you guessed it—Yoga Journal’s own demographic studies.)

in Culture, Trends, Weird and business.

Are you a “Whole Foods Woman”?

Published on March 22, 2009 0 Comments

Do you do yoga?

Do you have “eco-guilt” (it drives you to buy expensive products because they are green and good for you)?

Must you have a reusable water bottle?

Is buying conventionally-grown produce a betrayal of your core values (even when organic is twice as much)?

 If yes, then you might be a WFW–a Whole Foods Woman. 

The “Whole Foods” woman (in New York, at least) has existed since the supermarket/lifestyle chain opened its NYC location on 14th street in Union Square a few years ago. Once we got over the shock of having a centrally-located grocery store that was clean, offered edible produce, and wasn’t overrun with rats, we started to develop preferences and tendencies never before possible. (Goji berries? Organic flax seed oil? Say wa?) 

WFW’s counterpart, according to this article on Sigg water bottles, is the “Geek Chic” guy, who is still proudly into Radiohead and Converse sneakers (so over already). (Although, I think the write might be off about this pairing. The WFW seems like a single professional, whereas the GCG seems like he just graduated from high school. Or am I really in denial about the differences between men and women?!?!)

One thing the writer is definitely *not* off about is the crazy profits on Sigg water bottles. This Forbes article is  worth a read. Since 2005, Sigg has enjoyed 130% increase in sales each year. The article says, “At $70 million, the U.S. market represents over 70% of Sigg Switzerland’s overall sales.” Yikes, guys! We forget that doing good, going green, still makes someone a lot of money: We are all just consumers after all. Bummer.

And get this: they jacked the price by 25% to make us buy the damned bottles. Yes, we’re all a little bit gross. 

True confession: I own a Sigg bottle. It is cute, but also heavy, and I don’t love the narrow mouth. Maybe if I had the best-selling, Bollywood-influenced design called “Maha,” though, I’d feel differently. For now, I prefer to sip from the wide-mouthed Nalgene when I’m at my desk.

(I’m just racking up bills pursuing my consumer rights to sample them all, aren’t I?)

in business.
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »