Beyond Yoga

Overview

Beyond Yoga is the women’s yoga apparel brand that Michelle Wahler co-founded with Jody Gruber-Brufsky and led as CEO before Levi’s acquired it in 2021, according to Advice Line with Michelle Wahler of Beyond Yoga.

Current Profile

The episode gives Beyond Yoga a slow, wholesale-led growth history rather than a venture-backed one. For roughly its first decade the brand expanded through wholesalers, yoga studios, and some department stores, and Guy Raz frames it as one of the largest independent yoga brands before the acquisition. Wahler’s own advice is drawn from that period: patient category focus, product quality, and refusing adjacent ideas until the core business was fully served.

Key Characteristics

• Women’s yoga and athletic apparel brand with a nearly decade-long wholesale build.
• Studio and specialty-retail entry rather than a direct-to-consumer-only launch.
• Acquired by Levi’s in 2021 in a roughly $400 million deal in the source’s account.
• Used in the episode as the proof case behind Michelle Wahler’s bootstrap-first and focus-first advice.
• Product-standard anecdote: Guy replays the original interview clip about paying for a more expensive fabric because she believed every customer would want to wear it.

Evidence

• Founding and growth: Advice Line with Michelle Wahler of Beyond Yoga says Wahler and Jody Gruber-Brufsky started with women’s yoga apparel and grew slowly through wholesalers, studios, and department stores.
• Acquisition and exit: Advice Line with Michelle Wahler of Beyond Yoga says Levi’s bought the company in 2021 for about $400 million and that Wahler left in 2024.
• Brand position: Advice Line with Michelle Wahler of Beyond Yoga describes the brand as one of the largest independent yoga labels before the deal, with fabric quality singled out in the closing clip.

Qualifications

The revenue, scale, and valuation details are episode claims and are not independently confirmed here. The source does not cover Beyond Yoga’s post-acquisition performance, its current product range, or the terms of the Levi’s deal.

What Changed

• Created the page from the Advice Line episode to hold the brand’s bootstrap-to-acquisition arc separately from Wahler’s personal profile.

Relationships

• Michelle Wahler - co-founder and former CEO.
• Jody Gruber-Brufsky - co-founder.
• Levi’s - acquirer in 2021.
• Lululemon and Alo Yoga - comparable premium yoga and athletic apparel brands tracked elsewhere in the wiki.
• Sustainable Business Over Scale - growth philosophy the brand’s slow wholesale build illustrates.
• Story Led Consumer Branding - adjacent brand concept, although Beyond Yoga’s episode evidence is product and channel led rather than founder-story led.