How Posey Yoga Disrupted the Yoga Market During Lockdown
London based start-up Posey Yoga smashed onto the scene in February this year, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Throughout lockdown, Instagram feeds of the UK’s biggest influencers (Ferne McCann, Kady McDermott, and Katie Piper, etc) were dominated with Posey Yoga mats, with British Vogue splashing them all over their wellness edition. It’s hard to imagine a yoga scene without them.
Carlo and Rachel Schembri started Posey Yoga after arriving back in London from a long stint abroad, in Singapore and Dubai. Carlo previously had a commercial career in corporate events and Rachel had a marketing background, mainly working with technology startups.
Many large yoga brands operate without a core focus on sustainability so, from the outset, that was going to be a core value for the brand, with the intention of bringing vibrancy, fun and colour to yoga products — an industry so often associated with minimalism.
The colours used on the mats are chosen from the emotion colour wheel, that provoke certain states of mind, helping yogis to achieve the intention of their practice.
The co-founders were prepping for the launch of their new luxury, eco-friendly yoga mat brand as Coronavirus was creeping into the headlines of every newspaper.
“We were initially prepared for slow, steady growth and with the onset of COVID-19, we thought that was the best we could have hoped for. Now we’ve been propelled forwards and it’s all hands on deck to keep up with the demand.“
Rachel Schembri, Co-Founder of Posey Yoga
The outlook for the economy and small businesses was bleak and it seemed like the worst possible time to be starting a new venture, especially as, in typical start-up fashion, there were no cash reserves, no safety net and no plan B.