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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.

Punk Rock Yoga? from Seattle, My Friend

Published on June 30, 2009 1 Comment

I started this post thinking that Sadie Nardini’s Bon Jovi Yogi was in direct competition with Seattle’s (new-to-me) Punk Rock Yoga. But, as so often happens when posting, the more I dug around the more the story changed.

In fact, it seems that Nardini’s New York Fierce Club (yoga studio) offers a version of Seattle-based Kimberlee Jensen Stedl’s punk stuff. (Offered by Brian Williams  though his bio isn’t explicit about it.)

Created in 2003 (yikes! how did we miss it?) Punk Rock Yoga is offered once a week for the rest of the summer at 20/20 Cycles in Seattle (as well as locations in Boston, Las Vegas, Missoula, Toronto, and —wait for it—Weisbaden, Germany).

PRY is designed to liberate yoga from the rigid, elitist, body-slimming aerobics-wannabe exercise routine it has become—says creator Kimberlee Jensen Stedl (see her earnest, but somewhat rambling mission statement).

She covers a lot of territory without giving much idea of what happens in a Punk Rock Yoga class (we’re *dying* to know!). It has live music (sometimes), a community vibe, and—almost totally against the spirit of punk—a rock’n'roll sensibility.

(By the way, anyone read Iggy Pop’s brilliant put-down of rock’n'roll this week in NYMagazine? So good.

NYM: Have you grown weary of rock and roll?
Not necessarily, but I’m really irritated.

NYM: How come?
I think it’s now officially the world’s worst form of music. Even a mid-level cumbia band in Venezuela sounds better than the biggest-selling rock bands.)

Even more sadly, there are no pictures.

So, plucking again from the mission statement: Stedl explains, “For several months while taking both yoga and belly dance classes, I noticed that I would leave the belly dance classes feeling joyful and connected with the other participants, while I would leave the yoga classes feeling cold and isolated. I sensed this was due to the complete detachment from everyone else in the room that occurs in most yoga classes. What I needed was a more balanced approach, whereby at least a portion of the class was dedicated to connecting with others.”

(That’s why everyone has dyed blue hair that stands, glued-up straight in perfect Mohawks?)

“These observations drove me to incorporate community-building aspects into Punk Rock Yoga classes, such as adding partner poses into each class and incorporating more group activities into our classes.”

“The more I taught and the more I immersed myself in the professional yoga community, the more I carved out a mission for Punk Rock Yoga: I want to scrub the elitism and rigidity out of modern yoga.”

Okay—but it’s hard to imagine true punks being inclusive, flexible socialists. Unless I’m really, totally getting it wrong. (What does punk mean these days to Seattle-ites?)

Whatever it means, I would really like to see gloved hands (YogaToes–“yoga grip hand gloves”?), blue Mohawks, old Doc Martins, and safety pin earrings and nose rings moving through sun salutations. That surely would be a yoga democracy.

Or, would it be anarchy?

Related Posts:

Bon Jovi Yogi, January 2009

Fierce Club Opens in Nolita, March 2009

in Culture.

Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough

Published on June 28, 2009 0 Comments

I don’t often practice ashtanga anymore, but last Friday I needed to move. I needed something familiar and not to heady. I decided to take a led class just up the street from me where the teacher was good.

About 2/3 of the way through the zillion jump-backs and chaturangas, a car stereo outside the street-level studio started pumping out Michael Jackson. And we had him–crackly, staticky and super loud–for the rest of the class.

I’ve been hearing yoga teachers around the city talk about playing MJ in their asana classes. If you’ve ever had a yen to play Thriller in yoga, this is your week.

We could all probably do with a dose of  Don’t Stop til You Get Enough (a possible theme to any great yoga class) or The Way You Make Me Feel as we absorb the loss and celebrate MJ’s genius.

R.I.P.

Swaha!

in Celebrity and Culture.

Pattabhi Jois Memorial NYC, June 14, 2009

Published on June 17, 2009 3 Comments

Sunday, June 14, ashtangis and the greater yoga community of New York City gathered in Donna Karan’s gorgeous Urban Zen space in Manhattan’s West Village for an evening of remembrances celebrating the life and legacy of Shri K. Pattabhi Jois.

Entering Urban Zen for P. Jois Memorial

The white space was hung with long yellow scrims that caught the late afternoon light and brightened the windowless space. The black cushions on the floor were strewn with the petals of red roses, and garlands large and small framed sepia-toned pictures of Guruji at the front of the space. Food was served the back–delicious spicy popped rice with chutney, and samosas and chai.

Jois the father

Four hundred people had RSVPd. Those who came were a good-looking bunch, with a lean, clean, healthy glow. Many had young children with them.  It was a grown-up yoga community, one that has weathered their initial zeal for yoga and matured into seasoned practitioners.

Representing the yoga world were Alison West (Yoga Union), Leslie Kaminoff (Breathing Project), Michelle Demus (Pure Yoga), Hari Kaur (Golden Bridge), Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman (Urban Zen), James Murphy (Iyengar Yoga NY), Carlos Menjiva (Jivamukti), and someone from Bikram yoga.

Jois teaching

On the walls around the space, photos of Guruji, his family, his students, and his travels over the years played in a continuous loop. After Eddie Stern, Jois’ long-time student, director of Ashtanga Yoga New York, introduced the evening, three Hindu priests changed a part of the Upanishads, 18 minutes of piercing, passionate sound meant to disperse the elements back into the world, to help Guruji on his journey. In the background of this austere music, was the sound of children chirping and playing.

Videos of Jois

“When a great person is born into the world, he affects everyone,” said Stern. “Regardless of whether they follow his teachings or not.”

Other speakers mentioned Pattabhi Jois’ generosity as a teacher, the inclusiveness of his sangha, and his “sympathetic joy”—his availability to all who had even just a flicker of interest in trying yoga.

“He took complete delight that someone was growing through their yoga practice,” said John Campbell, long-time student.

Ruth Lauer-Manenti, a senior Jivamukti teacher, relayed the story of how she first went to Mysore to practice with Pattabhi Jois. “Sharon Gannon [director and co-founder of Jivamukti] had just come back from Mysore. She was thin, thin, thin. She looked kind of green and she had a dislocated shoulder. She said, Ruth, you gotta go. So I went the next day.”

” ‘Yes you can’ was his message—it’s what so many of us took from him,” said Lauer-Manenti whose practice helped her to heal from a near-fatal car accident.

“He always wanted you to do your best, including making it to his birthday every year.”

Memorial

Jois believed—in fact, he lived the idea—that yoga is the science of transformation: 1% theory, 99% practice. Yoga is mind control: controlling your helter-skelter thoughts and practicing love (plus a 2hr, 6-days-a-week, demanding asana practice) instead.

As he famously said, “Do your practice and all is coming.”

in Celebrity and Culture.

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.

YJ Conference a Whole Lot of Fun

Published on May 16, 2009 2 Comments

When I signed up for the Yoga Journal conference, I was sad knowing that I could only attend one workshop at a time. How to choose? Ana Forrest? Shiva Rea? Rodney Yee? David Swenson?

But each one has been so good that I’ve forgotten any regrets. How could I think of anything else when Gary Kraftsow —a man with sweet gravitas—is explaining the cakras?

Kraftsow teachingKraftsow’s Cakra chartGary KraftsowGary Kraftsow w/ student

Or, when Roger Cole shows us the four ways to stretch a muscle. It’s more than interesting, it’s riveting. (We did mostly hamstrings, which I’ve overstretched on this body.) Dive deep, bring up pearls.

I’ve also really appreciated the humor here—Judith Hanson Lasater is a firecracker sending hilarious (and too true) comments fizzing and popping around the room faster than a Catherine Wheel. (“I gave up the idea that you could make anyone do anything when I had kids.”)

She seems to instantly read bodies. Then she instantly—with permission—tells (or shows) the owner what’s going on and how to work with it. Trust the body, she says, it’s trying to tell you something. (She was able to tell me something about my stuck left pelvis—a puzzle that’s eluded me for years.)

Also a laugh a minute—who’d have guessed—eminent professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Robert Thurman. Buddha’s First Noble truth? Life sucks! How to detach yoga students from their obsession with the body? Tell them to watch The Matrix or Star Trek.

Reasons to meditate on happiness for all beings? “If your enemy was happy, do you think he’d be running around enemying on you? You want him to be happy!”

This humor would not resonate as well without presenter’s deep knowledge and abiding passion for their subjects. And, I have to think, their fearlessness in the face of dark or ugly news: we’re all going to die. They seem to get that, as much as anyone can. We humans are infintessimally insignificant.

And their self-driven, but not (seemingly) self-ish desire to know more, be more, grow more, enter more fully into some nourishing mystery seems to help as well.

Thurman: yoga’s true meaning: to yoke yourself to ultimate reality (nirvana, bliss) and unyoke yourself from limited reality (suffering).

The original purpose of asana: to get the body settled for meditation. This is not news. But it was fun to hear it from him. And in case you are wondering, Patanjali agrees with Buddha—life does suck!

in Culture and Health.

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.

Yeeehaw! Cow Girl Yoga

Published on May 10, 2009 3 Comments

Every year there are articles about doing yoga outside. I’ve written about it, too—as a detractor.

B.K.S. Iyengar says we need a clean, open space, free of bugs and other distractions to practice yoga–this often does not describe the great outdoors!

Flies and bees buzz around your head, needles and leaves fall in your eyes, creepy crawly things appear from the earth and then swarm your feet. On a New York rooftop, the noise of horns, engines, and shouting is often unnerving.

But here’s a kind of outdoor yoga I might get into: Cow Girl Yoga!

In Montana! Horses! Meadows! Wildflowers! Smell of saddle soap!

Big Sky Yoga Retreats in Bozeman, not far from Yellowstone National Park, offers 5 days in the wilderness to “improve your saddle skills” (hello!) as well as your asana practice and overall well-being.

Cow Girl Yoga

Photo by Larry Stanley c/o Big Sky Yoga 

BSYR says, “Imagine a week of yoga and horses – a girl’s dream come true. Explore how both can put you in touch with your potential and teach you a lot about yourself. We’ll practice yoga, spend time with horses, and kick up our heels in cowgirl-friendly Bozeman.” (Sorry, guys. Seems like this fun’s for girls only right now.)

First Cow Girl Yoga retreat of the year is May 31 – June 5. Followed by 3 more through the summer, as well as several long weekends.

The only downside is the expense ($2,750 for 5 days, plus travel and car rental) and the corporateness of it. It is after all, Cow Girl Yoga™. And you know how the combo of corporate and yoga gives me the willies.

(But then they just go over the edge by partnering with Dude Girl —an outfitting company for dudettes on horses and yoga mats–!)

in Culture.

May Brings World Laughter

Published on May 3, 2009 0 Comments

I didn’t understand one iota of Laughter Yoga at all until I saw scenes of it in Kate Churchill’s movie, Enlighten Up! (A small group of older Indian men and women stand around doing simple stretches and laughing helplessly. It was absurd—but also sweet and simple, and utterly harmless.)

Yesterday in Central Park under changeable skies, the New York chapter of Laughter Yoga celebrated World Laughter Day. Who knew?

yoga laff in the park

According to World Yoga Day’s web site laughter, “directly impacts one’s electro-magnetic field and creates a positive aura around that person. When a group of individuals laugh together, they create a collective community aura.”

Back in New York, the New York Daily News reports: “There’s certain things you can’t do while laughing: fighting, arguing, being mad.”  True!

“For two hours, the group convulsed with laughter, ignoring trivial problems like the economic crisis or the flu pandemic.” A good way to spend your time!

According to Wikipedia, after 11 years in existence, Laughter Yoga now has 6,000 clubs spread over 5 continents. Its originator, Dr. Madan Kataria, of Mumbai, India, says that laughter can unite the world and bring world peace.

Yeah–a lot better than a a bag of anthrax could. Laugh away!

in Weird and World.

Ocean Breezes for Navy Lady

Published on May 1, 2009 0 Comments

Phew, this one’s heavy–with a happy ending. From the Wall Street Journal.

In the early 1990s, Paula Puopolo was a trained anti-submarine helicopter pilot rising through the ranks in the Navy. Impressive.

In September 1991, she accompanied her boss to a military convention at which 200 fellow aviators—as a part of a sketchy hazing ritual—ambushed her as she came out of the elevator. They passed her from man to man, groping and fondling her in a drunken, testosterone induced hysteria. (Oh no!)

Puopolo’s complaints did not see justice done—in fact she was transferred and ignored until she went to the press. This was the early 1990s, remember. The military wasn’t so willing to deal with sexual harassment and assault.

Paula Puopolo in old flight suit in her Florida garden

photo credit: Mackenzie Stroh. Paula Puopolo meditating in her Florida garden, wearing her old flight suit.

Military career ruined, Puopolo sued for damages.

Though she ultimately won the case and a respectable settlement, Puopolo spent much of her life in tears, taking prescription pills. She suffered the defense attorneys’ slanderous accusations as well as the hostility of her home town and naval comrades.

That’s when she started doing yoga.

“I figured if I could trade 10 seconds thinking about my hamstring for 10 seconds worrying about the trial, it was a good swap,” she says. As the trial progressed, her yoga sessions grew longer: “It became a 90-minute window in the day when I didn’t cry,” says Puapolo, in the WSJ.

Eventually, in 2008, she used money from the settlement to open Ocean Yoga whose mission is “to empower our students to find and explore their path to health and well-being so they may feel better through safe, compassionate yoga teachings.”

Something she knows about first hand, I’d say.

In fact, she says yoga—inspired by John Friend’s Anusara Yoga—helped her stop taking medication and eased her anger at the attackers.  “The philosophy opened me up to the idea that I could really stop hating so much stuff.”

“Everybody’s got a story, everybody’s got something that really deeply informs the way they move for the rest of their lives,” she says. “In yoga you can work through the story to your benefit, you can use it to rise up. But in the Navy, those events? Tough s—, keep moving.” ”

In teaching yoga she says she does much the same thing as she did in the military—strives to be “a good leader and to get the best  from the people around her.”

A tough row to hoe, but lucky students of Ocean Yoga.

Hari Om Tat Sat, Paula.

in Culture.
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