On Friday October 19, Nike announced that the first place winner of their Circular Innovation Challenge was San Francisco yoga product startup Yogo for their entry presenting a collection of yoga props using Nike Grind Materials.
The products were: yoga bolster, yoga cushion, yoga mats and yoga block. Five winning teams in total were selected from teams presenting innovative uses for Nike’s ground up post-factory and post-consumer materials. Yogo will receive a cash prize and the opportunity to partner with Nike to produce a recycled product line.
For the Innovation Challenge, Nike teamed up with OpenIDEO, an SF-based design consultancy, to lead challenge entrants through a user-based design process whereby they interviewed and product-tested with users, and then rapidly refined concepts based on feedback. Business model concepts were specifically focused around a circular-economy model.
San Francisco Bay Area start up Yogo is a sustainable yoga gear company and the maker of an award-winning ‘Yogo Ultralight’ travel yoga mat using a patented innovative design to fold up small and secure for travel and everyday carry. The company was founded in 2014 to develop compact, sustainable gear accessible to both global and urban nomadic yogis. All current and upcoming products are either plant-based or recycled, and Yogo plants one food-producing tree with a poor community in Africa for every product sold.
“I was so happy to hear about this challenge, as Yogo is expanding our product line to include a variety of plant-based and recycled products, and it was perfect timing to receive help with the innovation process and experiment with the high-quality inputs from Nike,” said Yogo Founder Jessica Thompson.
“Yogo places function foremost, and uses innovative design to combine natural and recycled materials into objects that yogis love. It can be difficult to make big changes to the product production methods in yoga and fitness products more widely. We’ve been working hard at greening the supply chain and were really happy for IDEO and Nike to align with us in this mission.
“Yogo is committed to offering a full yoga product selection, but only within a sustainable framework. We are really excited to see what comes next in the Nike collaboration.”
