selling yoga/pilates
Mind, Body and Soul
With a string of celebrities launching yoga and pilates fi tness DVD’s, can retailers use yoga and pilates to boost profi ts?
W
ith football icon Ryan Giggs claiming that practicing yoga has extended his career and
with other celebrities bringing out a host of fi tness DVD’s, activities such as yoga and pilates has never been more popular with consumers seeking alternative methods to keep fi t. “Yoga and pilates have previously been
ignored by retailers up until about 5 or 6 years ago, but now both are strong selling lines” says Fitness-Mad’s Louise Bennett. “Both yoga and pilates bring diversity to a sports shop and complement mainstream sports as they can be used for conditioning and rehabilitation. “Some of the retailers are ignoring them
to their detriment. They tend to look at cheaper inferior quality products available from supermarkets and do not realise the benefi ts of stocking quality products.” Both yoga and pilates have been
recommended by medical professionals as an effi cient form of improving postural alignment, treating and preventing back pain and speeding the recovery of muscle and ligament damage. As a result, retailers should treat yoga and pilates products as an aid to improving performance in other
sports as well as outright tools to improve general fi tness. Fitness-Mad, whose sister brands include
Yoga-Mad and Pilates-Mad, aim to off er high performance fi tness equipment at aff ordable prices. Their niche brands are currently among the market leaders in their fi elds.
“Our yoga and pilates sales are up
year on year and we have been asked by customers to develop the two kits we now have available; these are proving to be very popular and will help people as they start out with pilates or yoga” said Louise Bennett. “More and more people are realising the
benefi ts of both with one of the best selling fi tness DVD’s being the Ryan Giggs Yoga DVD which has certainly infl uenced the resurgence in yoga from a male perspective.” One such product that is currently selling
well is the Spectrum yoga kit. Designed for beginners or improvers looking to start or get back into yoga, the set includes all the yoga props you need for practice, including blocks, a brick and a yoga belt to help those who are less fl exible to modify yoga posture to suit their own ability. This type of product could be useful for retailers looking to introduce yoga and pilates gradually into their stores to see if it sells well. Traditionally yoga and pilates have been seen as a very specialist female fi tness market and therefore of little interest to sports retailers. But with the benefi ts now associated with sport’s performance, retailers can no longer ignore these types of fi tness products. They should no longer be seen as specialist to women only as men will benefi t equally as well. With companies such as Fitness-Mad
reporting on an increase in trade, retailers currently not selling yoga and pilates fi tness equipment need to act quickly or risk missing out on this boom in popularity.
mainstream sports as they can be used for conditioning and rehabilitation. gg
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SGB-SPORTS.COM Both yoga and pilates bring diversity to a sports shop and complement
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