Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Beyond Yoga's long-running Manhattan pop-up creates a live learning system for consumer brands. See how retail testing and local programming drive pipeline.
On September 17, 2026, Beyond Yoga opened a 2,300-square-foot pop-up at 108 Fifth Avenue at 16th Street in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The retail space is scheduled to operate through early January 2027. The 21-year-old brand, owned by Levi Strauss & Co., describes the location as its most significant New York retail and community presence to date. According to WWD, this extended activation follows a weeklong Club Beyond experience the brand ran in New York in 2024 to test the market.
Rather than maintaining a static presentation, the Flatiron space is designed to change throughout the fall and holiday seasons. The pop-up carries women's and men's collections spanning active, lifestyle, and performance categories. Shoppers can also find seasonal outerwear, fleece, and limited-edition New York City merchandise created specifically for the location. The space operates with a rotating assortment of products to support locally inspired programming and special experiences.
To support physical movement, the location features a dedicated downstairs studio for workouts. Beyond Yoga is bringing its Club Beyond programming into the space through weekend movement classes. These sessions feature New York instructors from local fitness studios. Partnering trainers include Ali Brunson and Makena Diehl.
SotoMethod and Pvolve will also host regular sessions. Other scheduled partners include Jada Covington and Natural Pilates. Stakt and DanceBody founder Katia Pryce complete the current instructor roster. The location offers more SKUs than the brand's earlier New York pop-up and opened with a Beyond Yoga coffee cart on Fifth Avenue.
The programming calendar extends outward into the neighborhood. Beyond Yoga plans to host the first East Coast edition of its "Seek Beyond: Open Air" series on October 17. The event begins at the pop-up with a community walk and run along the West Side Highway before continuing to the Edge observation deck. The brand is also actively pushing its Glowzone line within the retail space.
Modern Retail reports that this high-impact performance fabric took two years to develop before launching in July. Glowzone is designed for activities including strength training, hot yoga, cycling, and running. The line uses compressive, moisture-wicking, and four-way-stretch characteristics while providing UPF 50+ protection.
To build momentum, Modern Retail reports that Beyond Yoga seeded products to fitness influencers and ambassadors. The brand used this strategy for trial and feedback instead of relying on a traditional advertising push. This tactical approach places physical product testing at the center of the marketing plan.
We design mobile activations and roadshows that accelerate consumer trial, build trust, and boost retail velocity during 90-day product launch windows. When we review the Beyond Yoga model, we see a live learning system that any consumer brand can adapt. CPG and beverage brands often rely on short bursts of physical marketing to drive pipeline. However, a prolonged activation hub provides a far more stable environment for gathering real consumer data.
By operating continuously through January 2027, the brand gains the ability to track repeat visits and monitor sales by event cohort. A traditional three-day trade show often generates a chaotic flow of unregulated foot traffic. A structured pop-up allows marketing operators to control the entire environment and test different assortments in real time. We apply a similar philosophy when planning multi-region campaigns.
Many brands treat physical activations as an afterthought to their digital marketing efforts. They rely heavily on social media to build awareness but fail to capture the actual moment of purchase consideration. A long-running physical space forces a company to connect digital engagement with real-world product education. When you bring your audience into a physical location, you can observe exactly how they interact with the merchandising displays.
Brands that invest in designing experiential launches beyond awareness see stronger retail sell-through. Our structured approach transforms initial product trial into sustained consumer confidence and retail performance. Putting a new technical product like Glowzone into the hands of fitness ambassadors mirrors how a food brand seeds a new snack item to retail buyers. The physical footprint acts as a controlled testing ground for the broader business strategy.
Shifting from a one-week event to a four-month retail operation changes every logistical requirement on the ground. A longer timeline demands ongoing inventory management, strict permit compliance, and consistent field staffing. You can no longer rely on a small team of traveling brand ambassadors for a single weekend push. You must build a reliable local network of trained staff to maintain the physical environment day after day.
Integrating local partners like Pvolve and Natural Pilates adds further operational complexity. Field marketing teams must coordinate partner standards, scheduling rules, and customer data capture requirements. Every weekend movement class must translate into a natural product trial pathway. If an attendee takes a fitness class but never approaches the checkout register, the activation fails to generate a measurable Return on Investment.
We manage end to end Costco roadshows that bring brands to shoppers through live demos, real conversations, and measurable sales impact. That same level of operational discipline is required to run a multi-month Manhattan pop-up. The brand must also manage complex supply chains to keep the rotating assortments fresh. We store your sampling product and event gear, then ship, track, and coordinate delivery nationwide so every activation stays on schedule.
Managing a temporary flagship requires this exact logistical precision to ensure the right products arrive for specific weekend events. Marketing directors must create separate reporting structures for daily retail traffic versus dedicated community event attendance. Properly tracking these metrics separates genuine business impact from mere crowd generation. To build a highly effective model, operators must integrate a measurement framework for proving experiential ROI.
This Manhattan location also serves as a strategic testing ground for wider geographic expansion. Beyond Yoga has recently opened stores in Manhattan Beach, California, and Scottsdale, Arizona. The brand has additional locations planned in Denver and San Clemente later in the year. Using a pop-up to measure demand by customer origin and purchase behavior gives the brand concrete data before committing to permanent real estate. Brands testing new regional markets can plan mobile roadshow tours and pop-up activations to capture these same insights.
Beyond Yoga CEO Nancy Green views the physical location as a critical bridge between online audiences and real-world connection. Green told WWD that physical retail matters to company growth, but that each space should feel like an extension of the brand's community. The goal is to build a location that functions as much more than a conventional transactional store. Green noted that New York has been one of the brand's largest e-commerce markets and is home to one of its most engaged communities.
The Flatiron pop-up allows these digital consumers to interact with the brand in person. Customers can physically assess lighter-weight performance options and participate in locally relevant programming. This localized expression builds loyalty while generating immediate retail feedback for the executive team.
When you evaluate your upcoming retail marketing schedule, are you building temporary spectacles, or are you structuring a predictable environment that captures data and justifies its own footprint?
The most effective live retail experiences stop treating the physical world as a billboard. They become quiet proving grounds for long-term business strategy, generating clean product feedback that digital environments simply cannot replicate.
Marketing leaders launching long-running pop-ups require structural discipline to turn local community foot traffic into predictable revenue. When low quality leads from crowded trade shows and unfocused retail events drain your field budget, Makai restores clarity. Through our Engagement Marketing capability, we turn audiences into participants with live and digital experiences that invite people to try, share, and act.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
