Surfing legend Gerry Lopez partnered with yoga brand Manduka in the latest brand/athlete ... [+]
Statista data shows that since 2023, the number of Americans who practice yoga at least once a year declined, denoting a 1.8% decrease from 2022.
With that in mind, brands like Manduka are working to get those numbers back up—thanks in part to new partnerships aimed at attracting new audiences.
This latest brand-building effort, spearheaded by the brand’s CEO Pamela Levine, is taking the brand into uncharted waters–quite literally–with a new collaboration and tie-in to the world of surfing.
The strategy behind this new venture is to connect with an audience of surfers who value physical activity and profound connection rooted in mindfulness, balance, and the pursuit of inner peace.
To do that, Manduka enlisted the help of Gerry Lopez, a surfing legend and passionate advocate for the transformative power of yoga. The partnership resulted in a special line of yoga mats called the Manduka x Gerry Lopez collection, which launched on April 4th.
Known as "Mr. Pipeline," Lopez, now 75, brings to this partnership a deep-rooted connection to both surfing and yoga. To kick off the collaboration, Manduka set up at Jack's Surfboard Pro, a surfing event held in Huntington Beach, California dubbed 'Surf City USA.'
The activation’s goal was to introduce Manduka to this new audience with a Lopez-led yoga session and the collaboration’s product line available for new yogis to try firsthand. "It's about finding harmony and stillness, regardless of your story," Lopez said.
By allowing this audience of surfers to get hands-on with yoga and the associated equipment, the brand’s hope is that this audience will discover a new practice they can integrate into their daily routines.
Manduka isn’t the first brand to enlist a well-known athlete to serve as a brand ambassador, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The strategy is similar to what other retailers have found success with, wherein a notable athlete and public figure is brought into the fold with a brand in hopes of reaching and connecting with a new customer demographic.
We see similar approaches in partnerships like the Venus Williams x CorePower Yoga collaboration, as well as with the work done by Athleta and ballerina Simone Biles. Both allow these brands to lean into the trust, rapport, and social proof that comes with public endorsements from these athlete partners.
“With Lopez embodying the spirit of both surfing and yoga, the collaboration represents a natural synergy between two disciplines that celebrate mindfulness and flow,” Levine said.
If you ask Michelle Wiles, CEO of Embedded Brand Strategy, the real value of these types of ambassadorships is the positive perception they build with audiences.
“Ambassadorships are often quantified in media (how many followers does this celebrity have, and how much reach will we get?), but often the real value is in associations and perception,” she said.
In Manduka’s case, the one-two punch of enlisting a well-known surfer and creating community-building moments where first-timers can get hands-on with the equipment and practice of yoga, they get closer to their big-picture goal of getting more people on a yoga mat.
Looking ahead, Manduka has its sights set on fostering ties with other adjacent sports in the future, recognizing the universal benefits of yoga for athletes of all disciplines. "Now, more than ever, our world needs yoga," Levine said.
