California Apparel News

Yogasmoga and its relatively new line of yogawear for men and women are taking baby steps to open a chain of retail stores across the country by counting heavily on California for its success.

The New York company’s first outpost opened last September in upscale Greenwich, Conn., but its second emporium launched in November in the well-to-do Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood.

Next on the list of about 10 stores scheduled to take shape soon are spots in tony Beverly Hills this summer and the equally affluent Newport Beach, Calif., at the Fashion Island mall, where a store will open this fall. Currently, the company is negotiating a lease for a 4,000-square-foot space in La Jolla, north of San Diego, and eying retail leases in San Francisco and San Jose. This year the company hopes to see revenues approach the $10 million mark.

“I think California is a special place for us,” said Rishi Bali, who launched Yogasmoga with his younger sister, Tapasya Bali, in 2013 as an online venture. “I feel that California has this certain dynamic that fits the ethos of Yogasmoga, and we want to connect with people in their journey to wellness.”

Yogawear and activewear are some of the fastest-growing apparel categories as American consumers embrace a comfortable mode of clothing that fits in with their exercising and daily routine. In three years, Lululemon, the publicly traded apparel and retail company known for its fashionable yoga togs and workout clothes, has grown from a $1 billion venture in fiscal 2012 to a $1.8 billion behemoth in fiscal 2015. In contrast, Levi Strauss & Co. saw its revenue remain relatively flat from $4.76 billion in 2011 to $4.75 billion in 2014.

While overall U.S. apparel sales were level in 2014 compared with 2013, activewear was the clear driver across all consumer apparel segments, especially among women, where sales increased 8 percent, according to a study released early this year by The NPD Group. “Casual and ‘athleisure’ have taken on a life of their own,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group in Port Washington, N.Y. “This is no longer a trend. It is now a lifestyle that is too comfortable for consumers of all ages for it to go away anytime soon.”

This trend was not lost on Rishi Bali, a man who tends to look at the numbers. For nine years, he worked at Goldman Sachs, primarily in the derivatives division and with other complicated financial instruments. “Goldman Sachs taught me to paint broadly,” Bali said. When he decided to start his own company, the idea of yogawear just “kept picking at me.”

Bali and his sister come from a mystical region of India in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. Their hometown, Dehradun, is close to aRishikesh, known as the yoga capital of India.

Bali may have a Wall Street background, but he has done his share of yoga. “We understand the yoga lifestyle and what it brings to people,” he said. “We are not just a product company.”

With that in mind, Yogasmoga is tossing aside the cookie-cutter mentality of retail and making sure that no two stores are the same. The Brentwood store covers 2,500 square feet and uses reclaimed wood in many parts of the space on San Vicente Boulevard. The rough concrete floor was polished to give it a granite look, and a special space is set aside for yoga sessions. “Each store is designed individually,” said Bali, who is Yogasmoga’s chief executive officer with his sister taking the title of chief operating officer.

No loose threads

Yogasmoga, which sells its own products in its stores and online, manufactures all its clothing in the United States.

The majority is made in Fall River, Mass. “In Fall River, we work with a factory that was pretty much left for dead a couple of years ago,” the Yogasmoga co-founder said. “Our execution is really high quality. So we need to work with people who have handled technical fabrics for years and years.”

The company is also doing some manufacturing in Northern California, which means that retail prices are slightly higher than for yogawear made in Vietnam or China. Yogasmoga crop bottoms go for $88 and leggings are $155. Racer-back tops fetch $75 and tank tops cost $56.

Southern California mills have been instrumental in supplying a majority of the high-end and top-performing fabrics used in the Yogasmoga collection. Fabric is very important to the company, which goes by the motto “no loose threads.”

“We work with the top guys in Southern California in fabric innovation,” Bali said. “Unlike companies that use fabrics coming off the mills, we pride ourselves on understanding the yarn that goes into our fabric. We don’t use generics like nylon or polyester. We use Aurum, which is a blend of Supplex and Lycra.” Aurum has more moisture wicking. Other proprietary fabrics are called Koura and Airh.

“We add our Yogasmoga sauce to how the fabric feels and behaves,” Bali said. “We will say to our mills, ‘Make it 10 percent softer and get pilling up to our standards.’ Then the mills go out and try to hit those stringent expectations that we have.”