S
SHOPPE
Made to Move THIS LOCAL ATHLEISURE BRAND WILL FIT YOUR ACTIVE LIFESTYLE, AND THAT’S NOT A STRETCH WRITTEN BY: MARISA THRASHER PHOTOGRAPHED BY: DAMIEN NOBLE ANDREWS Five years ago, Joe Kudla, a former collegiate athlete who suffered from back pain, had one of those “a-ha” moments. Upon a friend’s suggestion, he started taking yoga classes to ease his back pain. Kudla fell in love with the practice. However, he quickly realized there was a severe lack of athleisure options for men to choose from, and the idea for Vuori Clothing was born. “Men make up 30 percent of yoga practitioners so we thought it would be an easy sell since there weren’t a lot of options in men’s yoga clothes that wasn’t an ‘afterthought’ by established brands. In addition, those brands were competing on price and not quality,” stated Kudla.
F
Fast forward to 2014. Kudla started his own line, Vuori—pronounced Vee-or-ee—to fill the void in the market. The brand originally focused on men’s yoga clothes, but when their initial sales were slower than
anticipated, the team needed to delve deeper into what their customers needed. “To our surprise, we had a slower start. We realized guys weren’t spending time shopping in yoga studios...or for yoga clothes, period,” he added. “We spent time thinking about it and concluded that if we were going to be successful, we needed to focus our efforts on our customer. We had to understand them better. Once we did that, the business really started to grow. We found a recipe that worked.” Vuori launched an e-commerce site a few years ago, and now they have opened the flagship store in Encinitas. His second store opened in June in Manhattan Beach, and there are plans to open a third location in California later this year. Most recently, Vuori has expanded its collection to include women’s items. “We built a brand inspired by the active, coastal lifestyle,” he said. “What keeps me going is the desire to reach more people to send a positive message about leading that healthy and active life.”
Team Player • Kudla was a lacrosse player at the University of San Diego while pursuing a degree in accounting. Model Citizen • On the night of Kudla’s graduation from USD, he boarded a flight to Italy to work as a model for designers Versace and Dolce & Gabbana. Native Knowledge • Vuori hosts in-store events including workouts, art shows, workshops, etc. Follow them on Instagram @vuoriclothing to stay in the loop and catch the next event!
VUORI CLOTHING 625 S Coast Hwy 101 Encinitas, CA 92024 760.815.3372 www.vuoriclothing.com
128
LOCALE MAGAZINE