Based in Torquay, a stone throw from Bells Beach is the delightful Yogi Peace Club. This brand primarily consists of yoga clothing, yoga mats and yoga accessories for the lovers and curious participants of the worldwide health and wellness phenomenon.
Living in a coastal town, owner Emma Barr draws inspiration from her local surroundings and landscape for her design creations. Taking note of the colours and the prints of the coastal town, Yogi Peace Club design their mats “based on beautiful artwork” using a local Australian artist. It is highly important to Emma that her products are functional yoga pieces that allow customers to feel connected to nature and the beach.
From the wide range of beautifully designed yoga pieces on offer, customers are taken by the yoga mats, making them the highest selling Yogi Peace Club products on offer. The popularity of these mats is a testament to the amount of thought put into creating them. A careful consideration that goes into their designs? “We try to think about the earthy girl, the bohemian girl, the girl that wants to be fun, the girl that wants to be more low key and serious, the yogi that wants to have the full performance mat. Each print is definitely for a different personality.” The best thing about having Yogi Peace Club? For Emma, it is the flexibility of being able to be a mum as well as share her love of yoga to the public, without having one impact on the other. This is a goal many business people strive for. However, like all business owners Emma has been faced with challenges, “I don’t think people understand how much time goes into running a small business, how much patience it involves and how much risk you have to take.
The hardest challenge is being patient and learning from the things that you do right and things that you do wrong.” The warm reception of customer feedback has revealed that what customers have loved most about Yogi Peace Club is what the brand represents. It is important for Emma that the brand provides products, mats and clothes that people love and “making sure we are authentic to yoga.” To ensure customers are getting the very best, Emma bases her products off what she herself as a yoga teacher would like to be using. As well as her and her team of fellow yoga teachers testing every item before it is released to the public. “We test everything and make sure everything works, so it’s not just really beautiful but it’s really functional.” As a brand that aims to connect its audience with nature and the beauty of the beach, having products that are sustainable is an important value that goes into the creations at Yogi Peace Club. The brand strives to provide customers with long-lasting products that meet the requirements of yoga lovers throughout. For Emma, having a background working in the fashion industry, this includes providing high quality products to the public.
“I see that as an integral part to being a sustainable brand, if your making things that don’t fit properly people are not going to wear them, therefore they’re not going to have them for long period. To be truly sustainable is to provide quality products that last.”
What is the long term plan for Yogi Peace Club? “Stay true to the brand, stay true to yoga, understand the customer, understand the demographics and be flexible with the products.” It is Emma’s hope that one day the brand can collaborate with Internationally celebrated yoga personality Kathryn Budig. Often sporting the cover of Yoga Journal the “rock star yogi” is a favourite amongst fellow yogi’s. Owning a business can be challenging however it is the idea of being open minded but staying true to your vision that will move your brand forward. “What matters is you know the direction of your brand and you stay true to that. With any small business you have to be flexible.”