Everybody Loves a Yoga Mama

Julia King, 38, is part of an emerging class of women whom marketers call Yoga Mamas. These middle- and upper-income mothers are more style- and brand-conscious than their parents. AOL news has this story today.

“No matter their income, they spend like lottery winners on their babies and toddlers. In the process, they’re revolutionizing the baby-products market and forcing manufacturers and retailers of all sizes to adjust.

From the start, they are focused on active, fashionable, and fit pregnancies, and then on the fitness and well-being of their offspring. They tend to be more educated and have more disposable income to spend on fewer children than past generations. As a result, the $27 billion infant and preschool products business is growing more than 4% per year, faster than the overall toy, apparel, and furniture industries.

Marketers say the evidence is in the brisk sales of premium-priced products: Burt’s Bees Buttermilk lotion is $8.99 and a top seller at drugstore.com; $11.50 buys a 2 oz. jar of popular California Baby Calendula Cream at Whole Foods Market; Italian leather toddler shoes are $129 at Nordstrom; Bugaboo strollers Yoga moms love for ergonomic design and brand cachet are $700 and up.

Bigger spending is fed by an attitudinal change toward motherhood. Superfit mothers-to-be flaunt their bulging bellies in cropped tops and low-rise jeans. “Soccer moms are passé,” says author Katherine Stewart, whose recently published first novel, The Yoga Mamas, follows a group of fashion-obsessed mothers through spas and baby boutiques. “They are no longer content to be lunchbox-packers, and want to make motherhood a personal statement.

“Because they are so heavily networked — socially and technologically. When a campaign gets one as an advocate, says Joe Trippi, it’s really getting a message to dozens more…The Yoga mom is the center of the megaphone today.”