Physical yoga products: Are they worth selling?

By Hannah Moss

Profitable Yoga business - physical products

Yoga products can boost your brand awareness and income, but selling them can take a lot of time and effort. Find out if it’s worth it in our helpful guide.

In this article you'll find...

Thinking about creating your own range of physical yoga products? It’s a great idea in theory and can be a brilliant way to boost brand awareness for your yoga studio or teaching business. There’s something powerful about seeing your logo on a yoga mat, a water bottle, or even a pair of leggings worn by your students. But, before you start dreaming of shelves stocked with your brand’s products, it’s essential to weigh up the pros and cons, and decide if it’s worth your time and effort.

In the final part of our Running a successful yoga business series, we dive into the world of physical yoga products to help you work out if this is a revenue stream worth pursuing.

What kind of yoga products can you offer?

If you run a physical yoga space, you’re already at an advantage. Having a studio gives you the opportunity to sell a variety of yoga products directly to your students. Consider items like yoga mats, clothes, bags, water bottles and other accessories. These are all useful items for yoga practitioners and can be sold under your brand name or sourced from other well-known brands.

Creating your own brand of yoga products allows you to put your studio’s name on the items that your students use and love. It’s more about brand awareness than making a lot of money, though. For example, if you create a line of yoga mats or branded bags, those products become mobile advertisements for your business every time they’re carried outside your studio.

Of course, before jumping in, it’s essential to consider whether the potential gains justify the effort involved. Let’s dive into some key considerations.

Can you make money selling branded yoga products?

It’s easy to get carried away by the idea of seeing your logo on a range of yoga products, but let’s not gloss over the fact that it can be time-consuming and costly to set up. Before embarking on this journey, you need to carefully weigh up whether it’s worth your while. Think about the time and effort involved versus the markup you can realistically expect. The difference between the cost of producing the products and what you can sell them for (i.e. the markup) is often quite small.

Yoga products can indeed boost your income, but it’s unlikely to be a major revenue stream unless you can sell in large volumes. If your primary goal is to increase brand awareness rather than turning a big profit, then creating your own products can still be a worthwhile venture. However, if you’re looking for a significant income boost, it’s important to manage your expectations.

Important factors to consider before getting started

If you do decide to create your own line of yoga products, there are several practical considerations to bear in mind:

Logo design: You need a clean, simple logo that translates well to different products. Intricate logos can look great on a website, but they don’t always print well on fabrics or textured surfaces. Opt for a logo that’s bold, clear and recognisable at a distance or at small sizes.
Colour matching: This can be tricky. The colour that looks perfect on your computer screen might look completely different when printed. On top of that, you’ll be limited by the colours available for the products themselves. It’s best to keep things simple and choose colours that are easy to match across various materials.
Minimalist options: If creating a range of yoga products feels overwhelming, why not start small with something like stickers. Branded stickers can be applied to water bottles, notebooks, and even yoga mats. It’s a low-cost way to begin introducing your brand on physical products without committing to a full line.

The pros of selling your own yoga products

There are several benefits to selling yoga products, even if you’re not planning to become the next big yoga lifestyle brand:

Additional income stream: While the profit margins may be small, it’s still another way to generate revenue for your studio or yoga business. If you’re already running a successful business with full classes and a busy schedule, the extra income from selling yoga products can be a welcome bonus.
Increased brand awareness: Branded yoga products help keep your business top-of-mind for students, even outside the studio. A student carrying your branded yoga mat or wearing your studio’s T-shirt at the gym acts as free advertising.
On-demand printing options: If you’re worried about managing stock, you can consider on-demand printing services. This means you don’t need to store products on-site, as items are only created when someone makes a purchase. While it can be more technical to set up, it eliminates the need for physical storage space.

The cons of selling your own yoga products

As with anything, there are some downsides to consider before diving into the world of yoga products:

Time-consuming to design and launch: Developing products takes time, especially if you’re creating custom designs. You’ll need to manage the whole process, from designing logos and selecting products to setting up your online shop and handling customer queries.
Upfront costs and storage: If you’re not using on-demand printing, you’ll likely need to pay for stock upfront and find space to store it. There’s always a risk that you won’t sell all your products, and you could be left with unsold inventory.
Low profit margins: The markup on yoga products is often small, which means you’ll need to sell a significant volume to make the effort worthwhile. This is why it’s important to focus on brand awareness as the primary goal, rather than relying on physical products to drive your revenue.

How to sell yoga products online

If you’re ready to sell your yoga products, you’ll need an online presence that makes it easy for your customers to buy from you. Here are a few things to consider when setting up an online shop:

Choose an ecommerce platform: To sell yoga products online, you need a way to display your products and take payments through your website. A popular option is to use a third-party ecommerce provider, like WooCommerce or Shopify. These platforms usually enable you to embed widgets onto your website for a seamless shopping experience, otherwise be prepared for additional development work to integrate them into your site. They also require a significant investment in setup time, and WooCommerce in particular features a lot of settings you’ll probably never need. They also offer a wide suite of (often paid) add-ons for additional functionality.
Or opt for custom integration: Alternatively, you might choose a more customised approach, such as a payment form built in Gravity Forms combined with a payment processor like Stripe. This means the shopping experience is fully contained on your own site, without the need for a third-party provider. But you’ll likely need some technical assistance to set this up.
Consider your website structure: Whichever ecommerce option you go for, it’s important that your online shop is carefully positioned within your site structure. It needs to be prominent enough for customers to find easily, without interfering with your core business functions like booking classes or workshops.
Invest in high-quality product photos: Your products need to look appealing online, so clear and attractive photos are essential. You should always include detailed product descriptions with technical specifications where necessary. If you’re selling clothing, you should also provide a comprehensive sizing guide. This will help to reduce the likelihood of returns and enhance the customer experience.
Prepare for a time-intensive setup: Getting an online shop up and running involves a fair amount of work at the start. However, once it’s set up, it can be a relatively low-maintenance source of revenue.

So, should you create physical yoga products?

Ultimately, the decision to create and sell yoga products should be based on your current business situation. If you’re already running a thriving yoga studio or have a busy teaching schedule with full classes and workshops, then physical products could be a nice addition to your business model. But don’t try to compete with the big brands! The key is to avoid creating more work for yourself unless you have the capacity for it.

For smaller studios or solo yoga teachers who are still building their client base, it may be wise to focus on your core offerings first. Ensure that your classes and workshops are consistently well-attended before turning your attention to physical products. Remember, while yoga products might feel exciting to sell, because you can physically hold them in your hand, they shouldn’t take priority over the primary revenue-generating aspects of your business. Make sure you’ve already mastered these aspects first, by reading the other posts in our Running a successful yoga business series.

Pro tip: Don’t do it on your own! If you can partner with a designer, manufacturer or existing distributor of similar products, this will help with all the expertise needed. But, of course, will probably increase your costs.

“As a yoga teacher and designer myself, I know first hand how much time it takes to design, market and promote physical products. While it feels very satisfying to wear a t-shirt I’ve printed myself, this could just be an expensive vanity project if you don’t have the right skills yourself!" – Guy

Examples of our clients’ physical products

Anahata Health Clinic

Anahata Health Clinic in Brighton, UK, has a physical space for their yoga classes, saunas and therapies. This means you can either buy their products from their online shop page, or physically from the clinic itself. They use MindBodyOnline for their class and therapy bookings, which means they already have a platform for selling physical products too. The shop landing page lists all the products available, with an image and brief description. When you select an individual product, you can then read a full description and click through to MindBodyOnline to make a purchase.

Ashtanga Yoga Leeds

Joey Miles of Ashtanga Yoga Leeds has created a series of yoga products that are available to buy on his Downloads page. Although most of these are audio files, two of them are physical products in the form of a chart and poster related to the Ashtanga primary series.

He uses a WordPress plugin called Easy Digital Downloads with a shipping addon and PayPal integration to manage the purchasing and distribution of both types of products.

Yoga Products: Ashtanga Yoga Leeds' Posters

Modern Savage

Our own creative director, Guy Anderson, also runs a motivational and coaching business for men and fathers. He’s designed a range of men’s and kids’ clothing, which he sells via a custom setup using Gravity Forms with Stripe. He uses an on-demand print service to keep costs low and eliminate the need for storage space.

Yoga products: Is it the right time to dive in?

Adding a range of physical yoga products to your business can be a wonderful way to increase brand visibility and offer something extra to your students. However, don’t be tempted to launch your own line of products just for the sake of it. Make sure you’re in a position where you can take on the extra workload and be prepared for the possibility that it may take time to see a return on your investment.

Start small, keep things simple, and remember that your primary focus should always be on delivering the best possible yoga experience for your students. The yoga products can come later, once you’ve built a strong, thriving business.

What’s next?

That’s all folks! We’ve now come to the end of our Running a successful yoga business series, so be sure to head back to the beginning if you missed any of the previous articles.

You can also search through the content of our ethical marketing blog if you’re looking for other marketing related insights.

Or, for more targeted and personalised help with your yoga business, why not book a free consultation? We want to help you share yoga with more people, so you’ve nothing to lose!

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