selling yoga/pilates
Fit for Purpose?
With the increased popularity of yoga and Pilates, is the retail trade taking note? SGB speaks to Fitness Mad
W
ith a host of football clubs such as Bolton Wanderers and Charlton Athletic
claiming that practicing yoga and Pilates has extended the careers of their players and with other celebrities bringing out a selection of fi tness DVD’s, activities such as yoga and Pilates have never been so popular with customers 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 products available from supermarkets and do not realise the benefi ts of stocking quality product.” Both yoga and Pilates have
been recommended by medical professionals as an effi cient form of improving posture, 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. Fitness-Mad, whose sister brands included 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. “Our increase in sales has also been helped by celebrities such as Pippa Middleton who has spoken out about how Pilates and yoga has helped her gain the coveted ‘Rear of the Year award’!”
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 or Pilates into their stores to see if it sells well. Traditionally yoga and Pilates has been a very female specifi c market and therefore of little interest to the sports retail trade. But with the benefi ts now associated with sport’s performance, retailers can no longer ignore these types of fi tness products. With companies such as Fitness-
ignored by retailers up until about 5 or 6 years ago but now both are strong selling lines
Yoga and Pilates have previously been 36 |
SGB-SPORTS.COM
Mad reporting 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 publicity.
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