This year 17,000 people, blessed Wanderlust in glorious Lake Tahoe. I am beyond exhausted yet all I can do is grin, turn on my computer and share my unforgettable experience. This is my first year in business with Bloom Bras. We began shipping in March and each day I obtain new information like a sponge. As I was packing up the booth to head north, I pulled together a rough inventory plan based on my perception of who would be attending. We cover the range of 28C (size 1) 50K (size 9) with a unique line of sports bras designed to lift not squish. Traditionally, the middle sizes sell the best, but what would happen next left me speechless!
CEO Elyse & friend Maria at the Bloom Bras tent courtesy of @Bloombras
Every beautiful soul, that found our majestic booth, became our biggest evangelists. Profound, they began bringing their friends in between class to hear our story, see our products and kept coming back for repeat orders. So exhilarated they had to share with distant loved ones. This was the beginning of the true meaning of building a tribe. With such heartfelt emotions in the air, women began sharing their emotional journeys. One amazing woman broke down in tears. She had gained a bit of weight and she had given up on trying to find a bra to exercise in. Her story was so remarkable it was repeated over the duration of wanderlust by dozens of yogis. By the end, women were coming by to give my friend Maria and I hugs for finally creating a product for women that works. Even those who did not purchase reminded us that this was the true meaning of Finding Your True North which was the theme of this year's festival.
Festival Goer Stephanie Rose in Tadasana pose courtesy of @inspiredbystephanierose
We sold out mid-festival of our size 9 and only had one size 8 left!!! Never In my wildest dreams, did I expect such a turnaround. Other brands marketing materials were filled with godlike creatures straight out of the movies with rock hard abs, flowing hair and not a lot of curves. There were also plenty of participants that reflected this image. However, a good portion of this year's festival goers were real women of all age groups who had varying shapes. We were brought together over our love of yoga, music, and the mountains. However, it was our mission that made me personally feel the biggest connection to the community. When we started to see the reaction and the demographic, I was overjoyed with emotion. This is what it means to be a lady of Bloom Bras.
Unforgettable moments from wanderlust courtesy of wanderlustfestVerified
On a side note, here are some crazy statistics that I recently learned about yoga & women from my experience*.
Yoga is the fastest growing form of exercise increasing 14% annually
15,785,000 Americans practice yoga
$9.3 billion is spent annually on yoga products up 74% over 5 years
70% of women in the US now wear above a D cup
I was unable to find a sports bra that worked for me and yet, we were the only vendors at Wanderlust speaking to these women. Let's change the world two boobs at a time.
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