Seane Corn’s hands and forearms dig into her sticky mat. Inverted, she moves from forearm balance, her legs perpendicular to the floor, into full scorpion. Her upper arm muscles twitch and tremble with strain, her skin glistens with sweat. The only thing audible is her furnace-like breath, and it is powerful. Corn’s concentration is impeccable; within seconds her chest opens, her back arches, and her toes land gracefully on her crown. This fifteen-second sequence is part of a television commercial witnessed by more than twenty-five million television viewers across America. Corn’s only line is, “I breathe.” She utters it seconds before the screen blackens, save the famous Nike swoosh.
Yoga is mainstreaming. An estimated eighteen million Americans practice yoga regularly. It has spread from studios and gyms to schools and hospitals, to homes via video, and even to the workplace. American yogis have access to any and every type of yoga imaginable. Practitioners unfurl their mats to traditional Hatha, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Kripalu, Vini, Flow, and Kundalini classes nearly every hour of the day. In fact, you can get as equally complete a yoga education in California and New York as you can in India.
In America the market has long been the barometer of mainstream acceptance and clearly yoga is hitting its stride. Yoga entrepreneurs gross millions of dollars annually. New studios open every month, retreats are en vogue, and yoga clothes and accessories are sold hand over fist. Major corporate interests have gotten wise and are trying to capitalize on yoga’s popularity. Recently, yoga images have been used to peddle shoes, cars, banks, skin products, technology, and even insurance. This suggests an intermingling of the ancient, divine science of yoga and the 21st century corporate mind. Enter Nike’s yoga goddess.
Corn, thirty-five, took her first yoga class in New York City from David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti fame. She moved to Los Angeles in the early 90s, and soon began working behind the desk of a local yoga studio, before enrolling in their teachers’ training at the behest of her instructor. Describing her early years of yoga she says, “all of a sudden someone turned on the light.” Today her classes are packed and she is in demand at retreat centers and conferences across the country. But when she thinks back she says, “I never expected to make money doing this.”
Nike came to yoga for precisely that purpose. “We’re moving into areas we haven’t been in the past”, says Scott Reames, Nike’s Senior Manager for Public Relations. “Yoga is a good example of that.” Wieden & Kennedy, Nike’s ad agency, believed Seane Corn to be perfect for the Nike Goddess campaign launched in 2001. Though immediately enticed when approached, Corn’s decision was not easy. She was well aware of Nike’s dubious global human rights record. Nike convinced Corn that they had made great strides in their manufacturing practices. She also resonated with the campaign strategy which featured everyday women. “Nike’s influence and yoga’s heart isn’t a bad marriage”, she reasons. “It was my intention to bring them together and hopefully people who would otherwise be prejudiced against yoga might be interested.”
Nike is the latest in a stream of businesses working to capitalize on yoga. Searches on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office database uncovered 484 trademarks filed by businesses using the term yoga. Om is utilized by 217 and stretch is used by a whopping 730 businesses. Even saints and Hindu gods and goddesses are not immune. Buddha has been co-opted by 103 companies, Shiva is employed by 37, there are 31 records of Kali, 23 of Krishna, and even 2 of the relatively underemployed deity, Ganesha. One can easily argue that commercialization is becoming invasive. Has yoga become a new, misleading form of packaging? Corn does not see it this way. She says, “Yoga is penetrating corporate consciousness.”
Corn has recently completed her contract with Nike and formed a relationship with a new corporate partner that proves her point. Gaiam, a NASDAQ listed, publicly owned corporation seeks to embody the balance between the soul of yoga and the capitalist spirit. Founded in Boulder, Colorado in 1998 by a former Wild Oats executive, the company currently grosses over $100 million annually. It is their goal to become the source for individuals and businesses interested in natural health, ecological lifestyles, personal growth, and sustainable commerce. Gaiam develops and markets a host of products including yoga videos, props and books; home and outdoor products; organic clothing; and even solar technology. In a sluggish economy they continue to become more profitable. Their most recent annual report suggests a gross increase of more than 16 percent. Corn is developing a line of Vinyasa Flow yoga videos and DVDs for Gaiam, and while Nike enabled her to promote the image and physicality of yoga, she sees this as an opportunity to spread the seeds of physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wellness.
“Gaiam wants me to talk about God, faith, forgiveness, and love. People are hungry for some depth beyond the physical aspect of yoga and Gaiam recognizes that is the direction the market is headed. Our culture is ready to embrace these deeper ideas.”
It is difficult to straddle the line between the commercial and spiritual, and it is too early to tell whether Gaiam should be considered a model for corporations of the future. Still, their marketing of holistic products and practices is unique and progressive. They have proven that companies who cater to the “yoga market” can thrive while maintaining a respect for the environment and their labor force.
Work It
At some corporations yoga’s increased popularity and visibility has led to on-site yoga programs. Harman International, manufacturer of JBL speakers, employs more than 1,250 workers at their Northridge, California headquarters. Kathryn Samaltanos, a Los Angeles based yoga instructor, commutes to Northridge weekly to teach a lunch-hour yoga class. Her open-level yoga class is frequented by a core group of dedicated yogis who have attended since its inception nearly two years ago. The students include factory workers, engineers, and executives. All of them were yoga first timers.
Debbie, fifty-one, and a thirteen-year veteran of Harman International, took the class because she wasn’t able to relax. “I was getting too revved up”, she says. At first, meditation was especially difficult for her. Today, the stillness of yoga is what she values most. “Learning to breathe properly has helped me calm down”, she explains. “I’ve learned to become more gentle with myself.” Kathy, the assistant to Harman’s CEO, came to yoga class with a profound habit of slouching. “My posture has absolutely transformed”, she says.
Samaltanos, who has also brought workplace yoga to teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District and is on staff at UCLA, believes that the effects of yoga can transform an office atmosphere. “Yoga gives employees time to decompress and return to their jobs centered and calm. This is especially beneficial for people who work in high stress environments. It gives them perspective and instead of reacting to stress they can be objective and move through challenging situations with clarity.”
The Harman class is an outgrowth of a wellness program created by Tere Filer, Harman’s Wellness Coordinator. It is funded by Harman and their health care providers, Health Net and Kaiser Permanente. In addition to the yoga class, the wellness program offers a full-service gym, weekend hikes, professional nutrition consultations, and massage therapy. According to a report published by Health Net, Filer’s efforts at Harman have improved morale and production, reduced absenteeism, and cut down the number of worker compensation claims.
By Adam Skolnick
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