You run two yoga studios together, one in Wiesbaden and one in Hamburg, how did that actually come about and how long have you been doing it together?
Romana: I have been teaching yoga since 1999 and have been offering workshops and training since 2003. At the beginning I rented rooms externally because the yoga community wasn't that big at the time. After a few years, however, I had students come to me and the call for a yoga home grew, so I started looking for my own space. This is how the idea of UNIT Yoga came about. During this time, Holger also decided to join in. But it still took some time until we found the right rooms together...
Holger: I was working in sports management at the time and the desire to become more intensively involved with yoga and to pass on the teachings of yoga became stronger and stronger. When I decided to do something together with Romana in 2005, it happened very quickly: We found wonderful old buildings in Wiesbaden and started small.
Romana: Yes, you stuck our first banner yourself ☺. After a while we also received inquiries from other cities and offered yoga teacher training in Hamburg, among others. So more and more students came to us and asked why we didn't open our own studio in Hamburg because they would like to do more of “our” yoga. So we asked ourselves: “Why not?”
Holger: ...that was now 5 years ago and our 165m2 studio in Hamburg is bursting at the seams. That's why we have now found a new home in our favorite street in Hamburg Winterhude, on the border with Eppendorf, at Leinpfad 75. Here we have 2 large yoga rooms with 420 m2 of studio space. The large course room has 170 square meters and also has plenty of space for international guest teachers ☺
And so the old Hamburg villa became a light-flooded, bright and friendly yoga studio:
You two were in Los Angeles recently and took some great pictures there! What brought you to far away California?
Romana: In June we had our first yoga teacher Bryan Kest as our guest. We chatted and talked about our book project. We are currently writing a book about yoga after pregnancy. He was really excited because he had just become a dad again and the topic was very close to his heart. His wife just gave birth a few months ago and he offered to take photos with his wife and their 7-month-old son in LA for the book.
Holger: Of course we immediately said “yesss”, threw our summer vacation plans overboard and organized a great shoot. We actually shot for 2 weeks because we found great yoga energy, great light and great photo and yoga spots in LA.
Why did you choose OGNX as your partner for this collaboration?
Romana: The things are really beautiful, very comfortable to wear and are also made of organic cotton. We also share a similar philosophy. Our aim is to live yoga and pass it on in a modern and contemporary way. We want to convey joy and fun in life without being superficial.
Holger: ...and we personally have been concerned with healthy and sustainable nutrition for years, but also with sustainable clothing that is made without child labor and guarantees fair pay. We don't care where things come from and how they are produced, but we still want to wear modern clothes. The fact that the clothing is vegan is, so to speak, the “icing on the cake” for me.
And what does all of this have to do with your new studio in Hamburg?
Holger: After we have been “secretly” testing OGNX for ourselves for a long time now, we have decided to integrate an OGNX shop into our Hamburg studio! An extensive test phase was very important to us because we only want to pass on things to our yogis that we are 100% convinced of.
And lastly, we're interested in what your three absolute favorite parts of OGNX are!
Romana: For me it's the KeffiahLeggins, the Long Tank OM and of course the Namaste in Bed-Shirt.
Holger: The super comfortable Delux Pants and the Camouflage sweatshirt. As a native East Frisian and fat bread fan, definitely the Yogi by Nature shirt☺
We wish Holger and Romana lots of success and fun with the reopening of their Hamburg studio on Saturday, September 30th, 2017! Stop by when you're in Hamburg, you can win a great new yoga outfit from OGNX :)
You can get more information about the studio here
:)