As the retail landscape continues to shift toward experiential and community-driven spaces, activewear brands are finding innovative ways to test new markets before committing to long-term brick-and-mortar leases. For Beyond Yoga, a temporary footprint in the heart of Manhattan has proven that a permanent presence in New York City is not just a possibility, but an inevitability.
When asked why the rapidly growing brand opted for a temporary location rather than a permanent storefront for its recently launched New York retail venture, CEO Nancy Green offered a straightforward explanation.
"Oh we will," Green said regarding the pop-up location, which officially opened its doors in September and is slated to welcome shoppers through January. "It’s a great way to explore and to learn and sort of test out the area. But yes, eventually we will have a permanent home."
While corporate leadership is keeping specific financial metrics and performance data for the temporary New York shop under wraps, Green expressed strong satisfaction with the ongoing results. She noted that the company has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from both loyal digital customers and new shoppers discovering the brand on the streets of Manhattan.
Situated in New York’s bustling Flatiron District, the current retail activation draws heavy inspiration from Beyond Yoga’s earlier 2024 pop-up, which occupied a nearby space in the neighborhood. While that inaugural foray into the New York market was primarily designed as an exercise in brand building and local community engagement, this year’s iteration offers a significantly more robust, fully realized shopping experience. Alongside a curated product assortment tailored specifically to the fast-paced New York lifestyle, the location features a dedicated studio space capable of hosting fitness classes, wellness gatherings, and various interactive brand activations.
These live activations have already begun drawing crowds. Most notably, the store hosted a high-profile "Open Air" event on a recent Saturday, which combined a neighborhood community run with an exclusive live musical performance by pop singer Natasha Bedingfield. For Green, events of this caliber embody the core philosophy of the brand—a philosophy she describes as "owning joy" and "celebrating progress over perfection."
"A lot of people and players in this space are emphasizing performance and high performance," Green said, reflecting on the broader athletic apparel market. "We’re not about that. We’re about actually enjoying the experience. … I think that joy is very, very important and needed right now in the world."
While this uplifting philosophy functions effectively as a high-level brand platform, it is far from just corporate messaging. The ethos is woven directly into Beyond Yoga’s physical store strategy, influencing everything from architectural choices to customer service models.
It was all yellow
Across its growing portfolio of 20 retail locations—which includes the seasonal New York pop-up shop—Beyond Yoga has established a distinct and vibrant visual signature. The stores are, by and large, splashed in yellow. Depending on the specific location, the cheerful hue might coat the exterior facade, wash over the interior walls, or wrap around both.
"We activate through color, and we have a very unique point of view on color, and that is part of the joy," Green explained, underscoring the psychological and emotional impact of the design choice. "Yellow is a joyful color."
Beyond serving as welcoming sanctuaries for purchasing activewear, Beyond Yoga’s physical stores are intentionally embedded into the social and cultural fabric of the neighborhoods they call home. This community integration involves strategic partnerships with local fitness groups, run clubs, and wellness practitioners. These alliances not only lend immediate organic credibility to Beyond Yoga’s product line—such as its signature soft leggings and loungewear—but also feed authentically into the brand’s foundational purpose: supporting and uplifting the everyday active lifestyle of its clientele.
"We create a really important experience I think, that is very human and inclusive and fun and joyful," Green said. "The brand is very much about joy, so you can feel that in the store."
At its core, however, the primary function of Beyond Yoga’s expanding store fleet is to provide digital-first shoppers with a tactile, human-to-human method of interacting with the brand. Because New York consistently ranks as one of Beyond Yoga’s largest and most lucrative e-commerce markets, establishing a physical footprint in the city was a logical next step. The merchandise assortment inside the Flatiron District space has been meticulously curated to resonate with the distinct tastes and preferences of local urban consumers.
"We know we need a permanent home in New York, probably more than one," Green remarked, noting that the overwhelming demand witnessed during the initial 2024 pop-up made it abundantly clear that the brand has cultivated a deeply loyal following in the tri-state area.
This data-informed approach to market selection mirrors how Beyond Yoga has traditionally mapped out its physical expansion. The retailer originally launched its brick-and-mortar operations in Santa Monica, California, before gradually expanding its footprint across the rest of the state and the broader West Coast. As a company rooted in Los Angeles, those initial localized decisions naturally placed retail storefronts in close proximity to the highest concentrations of its existing customer base.
In the years since, Beyond Yoga has continued to scale its physical retail operations by relying heavily on a sophisticated, data-driven strategy. This analytical framework continually prioritizes markets that demonstrate the highest density of e-commerce web traffic and digital purchasing power. This exact methodology guided the brand’s calculated expansion to the East Coast approximately a year ago—a strategic move that Green confirms has yielded highly successful results.
Like many direct-to-consumer and digitally native brands making the leap into physical retail, Beyond Yoga has observed a noticeable halo effect. Opening a brick-and-mortar store in a specific market consistently triggers a measurable lift in digital e-commerce sales within that same geographic region.
"You’re creating an ecosystem, a customer ecosystem, and many of these markets, we also have wholesale — whether it’s through studios or some of our larger accounts — and so they all support each other," Green said, highlighting the interconnected nature of the brand’s distribution channels.
Wholesale partnerships continue to serve as a vital discovery channel for Beyond Yoga. According to Green, wholesale accounts play an indispensable role in introducing the brand to new consumers, particularly in geographic regions where Beyond Yoga may never establish a dedicated corporate storefront. Meanwhile, the brand’s proprietary retail locations focus intensely on serving existing digital shoppers by delivering an immersive, high-quality, in-person brand experience.
Looking ahead, the executive team believes the brand has substantial headroom for continued physical growth.
"This brand can have many stores. It’s a premium brand, needs to be in the top markets where the customer is shopping," Green said. "Every year we’re growing, and so the markets that today might not be right for a store, three years from now they might be right as the brand grows and as we build awareness."