In studios across the world, yoga enthusiasts are rolling out Bowern’s luxury mats.
“When people go to yoga, they’re wearing these incredible printed yoga pants and I thought, why not make yoga mats just as beautiful?” says the company’s founder Danielle Bowern.
The Sydney yoga devotee launched the business in 2016, believing that the love for colourful active-wear could extend to yoga mats.
Her printed mats quickly grew popular among the local yoga community and global success soon followed.
Bowern yoga mats. Source: Supplied
“We have quite a large following in China, and an emerging market in the US as well,” says Ms. Bowern.
“At the moment, we’re growing 100 percent month on month, which is very exciting.”
The 29-year-olds career journey began when she landed her dream job as a morning weather presenter at Sky News.
“When I got the gig, I was like this is the dream and I’m just going to give up everything for this because I wanted it more than anything in the world.”
But the 3 am wakeup calls started to take its toll on Ms. Bowern, physically and emotionally.
Danielle Bowern at Sky News. Source: Supplied
After 12 months, she felt she couldn’t go on.
“As much as my head wanted that, my body couldn’t sustain it, so it was a very hard decision for me to leave that,” she says.
“Part of the decision was doing yoga, I used to do it to de-stress. The more I did yoga the more I realised that this dream I was willing to give up everything for wasn’t really my dream after all, which was a very hard thing to come to terms with.”
During her career hiatus, Ms. Bowern booked a Skiing trip to the US, where her life took a dramatic turn.
“On the second last day I was going down a run and I broke my knee.”
“It was a very bad break. I was flown home two days later, operated on in Sydney and then on crutches for four and a half months. I pretty much had to learn to walk again. It was very hard.”
Time in recovery forced her to reassess her goals and ironically, it was Danielle’s immobility that set Bowern Yoga in motion.
Danielle Bowern leaving hospital following her knee surgery. Source: Supplied
“I decided to put 125 percent into the business and I just had my laptop in bed and I was reaching out to so many people.”
Ms. Bowern’s passion for watercolour painting became the key to the business, as she brought her art to life in the form of a yoga mat.
She recruited local artists to turn her paintings into digital files which were then sent to China and printed onto mats.
They’re 100 percent biodegradable and made with a recyclable tree rubber base and a microfibre suede top, which provides a firm grip.
“We’re a non-slip yoga mat. You don’t want to be slipping anywhere because some of the poses are really challenging,” explains Ms. Bowern.
Weeks later, prototypes were sent back to Sydney and the sales process began.
“Everything was brand new, everything was a challenge.”
“When I was fully working and able I started to go and meet yoga studios and introduce myself, and my product and see if they would get on board.
“I met with this one studio and I brought in the mat and I was so excited.
“All of these three yoga teachers came in and they’re like ‘no, no one would ever buy this product, why would anyone buy this product.’”
But Ms. Bowern persisted and eventually proved her critics wrong.
“We went to Wanderlust in April 2016, a yoga festival, I was still on crutches and we had 50 mats and they sold out within an hour.”
And they’ve continued to sell since.
Danielle Bowern launching her mats at Wanderlust in 2016. Source: Supplied
Charlotte Dodson, Miranda’s Kerr’s yoga teacher is among the growing list of celebrity fans.
Renowned fashion designer Alexander Wang is another.
“He’s very much known to have his finger on the pulse of the latest designer’s right around and the world and he reached out to us for his showcase,” Ms. Bowern explains.
“So we sent over a whole range of mats and we were in his Paris fashion room which was very exciting.”
Yoga attracts people from all walks of life and Ms. Bowern says that’s what drives the business.
“I took into account a lot of the people I met along the way, who did yoga,” she explains.
“There was a lot of city folk who were goal driven and knew what they wanted. Then there were a lot of dreamers who spent their time by the ocean and nature. And then there were a lot of other people who were obsessed with urban design.”
“So I thought I can’t just create this one mat for all these people because they’re all so different.”
Bowern Yoga offers 11 different designs, with each one made to suit different personalities and moods.
“Fine Lines is plain white with thin black stripes. That was designed for people [who like] like the simplistic things in life,” says Ms. Bowern.
“The sports-luxe really covers people’s love for flowers, the outdoors, and nature. Then we created this mat called shady palms that everyone has jumped onto. Lots of bright greens and white.”
She says the latest collection has a European feel.
“It’s called the Dolce Vita collection, it is Italian inspired and I really wanted to get this messaging right to our audience.
“When I was in Italy everyone slows down.”
That, perhaps symbolic of the business’s message today.
“When we first began, I had this desire to see it grow and grow, and now it’s changed – I want to see more people do yoga and follow their dreams.”
