Author: Swaroopa Iyengar
Publication: Outlook
Date: June 17, 2002
Introduction: America's on a yoga
high, churning out sundry paraphernalia as also music, clothes, books and
holidays
APU, the convenience store owner
in The Simpsons, might just be losing his status as the Indian stereotype
in the US. And though Patel still owns his roadside motel, and Punjabi
cab drivers in Manhattan still give free airport rides to Indians returning
home, and cut-rate 18-hour-slogging software engineers continue to swamp
Silicon Valley, India is now best known in America for an export of a different
kind: one that has made the whole country stand on one leg and salute the
sun- the art and science of yoga.
Yoga is everywhere. The younger
generation goes to yoga class to get that much talked-about "yoga butt".
Older people go to yoga to break
their habitual aspirin intake. Whatever their reasons, people walking down
the block to yoga studios to attend a quick "lunch-hour" yoga session,
mat-bags slung over their shoulders, is a common sight in the financial
districts of major cities across the continent. And while most Americans
who practice yoga do feel it is awakening their spiritual side, it is also
helping develop and sell an entire range of products-some new, some merely
repackaged. Yoga seems to be one of the coolest brands around and yoga
merchandising is a range-mats, videos, music, rugs, bolsters, scented oils
and even getaways.
The evidence is all around. Walk
into any of the 165 Discovery Channel stores around the country and you'll
see a wide range of yoga products. "We started to stock yoga props a couple
of years ago," says Roxy Gribben, marketing manager, Discovery Channel
Stores. Now it watches its yoga blocks, straps, instructional videos and
digital video discs (DVDs), balance balls, cotton meditation mats, travel
kits and yoga towels fly off the shelves in no time. Not surprisingly,
such products get prime display spots in their stores. "We identify trends
in the market and found yoga to be extremely popular. And yoga products
are great because they fit right in with Discovery Channel's programming,"
says Gribben. "We have had phenomenal sales in the past two years and interest
seems to keep growing."
The Discovery Channel stores retail
mainly for Gaiam, one of the largest manufacturers of yoga products in
the US. The yoga "sticky" mat, Gaiam's most popular product, costs between
$18.75 (Rs 919 assuming a dollar is Rs 49.05) to $44 (Rs 2,158). "Most
doctors these days recommend yoga to anyone who goes to them with complaints
of aches and pains. Schools have incorporated yoga as part of their physical
education curriculum and pregnant women do yoga for an easy birth. We do
sell at least one mat a day at each store," says Mary Westlake, sales associate
at the channel's store in Berkeley, California. "We also sell 3-4 blocks
($14.50 or Rs 711), a couple of 'Pune' straps ($8 or Rs 392) and yoga balance
balls ($29.95 or Rs 1,469)." Gaiam also does online sales of yoga products
like the $18 (Rs 882) sandbags ("Place the ten pound sandbag on your thighs
or abdomen to bring awareness and attention to your breathing"), $55 (Rs
2,679) cotton 'Mysore Practice rugs' ("Special rugs traditionally used
for Astanga yoga practice for centuries in Mysore, India") and $60 (Rs
2,943) 'yoga bolsters' ("Completely let go in each pose").
Why the craze for such yoga "props"?
"We use the props because we get our initial instruction with their support,"
says Tristen Schmidt, a first-year student of the yoga instructor program
at the Berkeley Yoga School. "And I guess we buy all the other stuff, the
chanting tapes, the aromatherapy candles because it fits into the whole
concept of yoga as a relaxant."
Companies that make athletic training
wear have also hitched their products on to the yoga bandwagon. Nuala,
a high-end line of exclusive yoga clothing designed by Puma and model Christy
Turlington, is extremely popular amongst yoga practitioners.Nuala yoga
pants are priced at $138 (Rs 6,768) and their yoga cashmere sweaters cost
$315 (Rs 15,450). Puma retails the line to exclusive apparel stores and
yoga studios across the nation. "A lot of people buy specific yoga wear
because sometimes it is made out of organic cotton," says Amy Grei, who
runs the inhouse store at the Piedmont Yoga Studio in California. "Sure,
they are basically athletic gear but I guess it is designed to supplement
the breathing that is important for yoga and it could be easier while trying
to hold an intense pose."
Yoga products are also getting more
and more esoteric. Yoga stores peddle a wide range of "accessories", books
and other Indian products like the $3.50 (Rs 171) rudraksh malas, $95-
150 (Rs 4,659-Rs 7,357) "hand-painted" Ganesh pendants, $15-40 (Rs 735-1,962)
silver earrings, $8.50 (Rs 416) incense sticks, and the $20 (Rs 981) Pure
Lakshmi scented oils. "People are always looking for yoga paraphernalia,"
says Grei. "Prana is probably our most popular brand of clothing and is
less expensive than other brands." Cheaper it may be, but Prana does not
quite qualify as off-the-street shopping. Its Lotus Halter ("an open-backed
design provides freedom of movement and secure coverage in any position")
costs $27 (Rs 1,324) and a pair of Swami Knickers ("made of lightweight
702 brushed cotton canvas that is both durable and butter-soft") sets you
back by $42 (Rs 2,060).
The Piedmont Studio is owned and
operated by Rodney Yee, a yoga instructor who has also developed his "own"
school of the art form, which he calls Yee Yoga. His studios boast of heated
bamboo flooring and a special meditation centre. "Meditation and chanting
are very in vogue these days," says Grei. The two top-selling albums in
her store are The Yoga of Sound, a three CD set by Russill Paul ($30) and
a kirtan album, One Track Heart ($17, Triloka Records) by second-generation
bhakt-yogi Krishna Das. Das' album includes excerpts from the Gita.
The average cost of yoga instruction
at any studio in the country is around $12 (Rs 588) for an hour-long session.
Upscale studios like Yee's charge $15 (Rs 735) while the trendy Jivamukthi
Yoga Center in downtown Manhattan (Christy Turlington practices there amongst
other New York celebrities) charges $16 (Rs 784) per hour. You know you've
"arrived" if you can afford to practice yoga at one of these places on
a Gucci yoga mat ("in black, printed 44 rubber") that the design house
sells to its very exclusive health-conscious clientele along with a body
fat measurement calliper.
Bikram Choudhury, a Los Angeles-based
yoga guru who wants to take yoga to the masses, conducts nine-week teacher
certification programs for $5,000 (Rs 2.45 lakh). Studios teaching Bikram
yoga are required to standardise their fee at $130 a month for 90-minute
classes. Most high-profile teachers like Yee and Choudhury also hold regular
retreats and yoga workshops in the US, Hawaii and Cuba. And since the White
House currently does not recommend a trip to India for even the most dedicated
yogi, these workshops are starting to get booked up to a year in advance.
Choudhury's retreats in Hawaii cost $1,500 for six days and a single day
at the Kripalu Yoga Retreat near Boston can cost up to $550. "Yoga is different
from aerobics or other classes I've done at a gym. I feel a spiritual connection
to yoga, and I feel so relaxed and somehow cleansed afterwards. I think
it would be the best kind of vacation to practice yoga for days on end,"
says Kristen Phillipkoski, a San Francisco-based journalist who frequently
attends yoga retreats across the country.
Will yoga continue to be a trend,
a crowd-puller, a spiritual coolant of sort for people in America? Or will
it give way to something like pilates and leave in its wake an array of
products without use? "I think yoga is here to stay," insists Phillipkoski"It
was always around and it is just more noticeable now. I'd never give up
what I get out of it. I don't think any one is in a hurry to rise out of
their shavasanas and rush back to the weight bench. Besides I wear my yoga
clothes to office too." From a 5,000-year-old psycho-physical discipline
with elaborate bodily postures, breathing exercises and meditation to a
hippy lifestyle statement, yoga has, indeed, come a long way.
