A Men's Yoga Brand Learns the Real Meaning of Flexibility With slow sales, yoga brand Vuori realized it had a branding problem.

In the fall of 2008, after years of beating himself up playing football and lacrosse, Joe Kudla took up yoga. But he couldn't find much to wear. "Out of 17 million people doing yoga, six million were men—the fastest-growing demographic," says the 40-year-old Kudla. "Yet there was not one brand targeting that market."

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It was a weird contrast to, say, surfing, an activity for which Kudla says four million surfers are served by 50 clothing brands. So Kudla did some napkin math, borrowed $300,000 from family, friends and the bank and, in spring 2015, launched the startup Vuori ("mountain" in Finnish), to produce men's yoga clothes—moisture-wicking, quick-drying tops, shorts and pants.