Beyond Yoga Uses ‘Progress Over Perfection’ to Win as a Challenger Brand

Beyond Yoga stands out by promoting a “progress over perfection” philosophy with its Seek Beyond platform, resonating with consumers seeking authenticity and joy. Backed by Levi Strauss & Co. , Beyond Yoga benefits from the agility of a fast-growing brand combined with the solid infrastructure of a 160-year-old company.

The brand has moved beyond traditional activewear into dresses, outerwear and versatile lifestyle pieces. CMO Katie Babineau shared details about how physical retail is booming and the brand’s social-first storytelling approach.

In a premium activewear market growing faster than its mass-market counterpart, Beyond Yoga is betting that a “progress over perfection” philosophy — and the infrastructure of a 160-year-old parent company — can set it apart from a crowded field of competitors. Katie Babineau, CMO of Calif.

-based Beyond Yoga, said that rather than viewing the competitive landscape as a threat, the brand sees it as validation. “We don’t really see it as a zero sum game,” Babineau said in an interview on the Retail Remix podcast. “What we’ve seen in the data and the research is that the premium activewear category is actually the fastest growing.

And the consumer, the customer, is really open to discovering new brands and they’re really open to challenger brands, which we believe we are.” To understand where the brand could stand out, Beyond Yoga conducted community research — gathering input from customers, community members and thought leaders.

What the team heard was consistent: consumers were fatigued by messaging centered on perfection and performance. “What we heard overwhelmingly was this opportunity for a place in the market that showed up as permission to chase joy and focus on progress over perfection,” Babineau said.

“People were a bit burnt out, exhausted and wanting permission to fail, to believe in trying new things.” What Does ‘Seek Beyond’ Mean? That consumer insight became the foundation for the brand’s Seek Beyond platform, launched in July 2024.

The initiative debuted with a campaign featuring actor Issa Rae, chosen because, in Babineau’s words, she “really embodied this growth mindset.” The response was notable. “We saw tremendous response — 100% positive sentiment, which you just don’t see online nowadays,” Babineau said.

“We were really overwhelmed by the positive response and it really worked hard for us in bringing new audiences into the brand.” But Babineau is careful to frame Seek Beyond as more than a marketing campaign. It functions as an internal operating principle as much as an external message.

“When I came to Beyond, there was a real need for the internal team as well to understand what is our purpose, what do we focus on every day,” she said. “It influences everything we do from how we think about product and how we service customer support calls. That growth mindset really is about internal behavior and external behavior.”

This year, the brand extended Seek Beyond into real-life experiences. A spring event planned around the March equinox brought the community together for movement and a musical performance in partnership with Sophie Tucker. The event generated content that was distributed through digital channels to reach new audiences beyond those who attended.

Under the Levi Strauss Umbrella Beyond Yoga was acquired by Levi Strauss & Co. in 2021, and Babineau credits that relationship with enabling a pace of growth that would otherwise be difficult for a brand of its size.

“What it allows us to do is move quickly with the support and infrastructure that Levi’s has — being a 160-year-old legacy, historic brand, they’ve got solid, steady infrastructure that we can lean on from time to time when needed to scale systems or deliver quicker speed to market,” she said.

The organization gives Beyond Yoga the agility of a high-growth company with the stability of a large parent — a balance she called “outstanding and best in class in go to market.” Expanding Beyond Activewear Product expansion has been another front of growth.

Beyond Yoga has moved beyond its core activewear offerings into categories including dresses, outerwear, fleece and lifestyle pants — items designed to take the customer from workout to work to special occasion. “For Beyond Yoga, it was always about the promise of getting people beyond the mat,” Babineau said.

“Some of the new categories that we’ve launched, like dresses or outerwear or fleece or lifestyle pants, truly do allow people to go beyond the mat now.” The brand’s approach to expansion is anchored in its product DNA. “The fabric has to be the best thing that you’ll wear all day,” Babineau said. “We want that promise of comfort, versatility.

We know that softness has always been a part of our product DNA, so we want that to be true in any new fabric that we introduce.” Early signals have been positive. “As we roll out these new categories, we’re continuing to see strong momentum there and growth for the business,” she said. Bri