Published 13th January 2008 by Danuta Szarek - Translation by Adolfo Escat       

Handmade meditation cushions for a stylish journey into the self

Business stories, chapter 9: The cushion producer LifeArt benefits from the yoga boom in Germany.

His three employees work hand-sewing and filling his cushions in the premises of an old ivy-covered red-brick textile factory located on the outskirts of the rhenanian city of Stolberg. An ever growing number of people look for higher levels of relaxation through meditation techniques. Therefore meditation cushions like those produced by LifeArt are increasingly on demand and consequently orders flow in. However, manager and employees always find some spare time, when the there is too much pressure, to drink a cup of tea together.

Helge was born in Münster but has brought his quiet manners from distant latitudes. After finishing his studies of machine engineering in Berlin and working two years Helge Breite decided to travel to the far east. With his recreational student van he drove right up to India, then criss-crossed the Himalya mountains, met buddhist tibetan monks and began to practise himself meditation. Helge Breite came back to Germany later, where nothing had changed. But he was an altogether different person. He gave up his old profession.

One day he decided to return to India and found there a woman who was sewing a yoga cushion for herself. And in matters of self-discovery he found he also had a sharp nose for business. "One could sell this object in big quantities too" he thought to himself. Years laters and back in Germany again, Helge Breite sewed himself his first cushions and sold them to esoteric book shops. First he found interested customers in the region of North Rhenania Westfalia and soon later came others from the rest of Germany too.

Helge decided to edit a catalogue and soon later he opened his internet shop in 2000 when the product range reached a number of 200 variations in form, colour and fabrics. The beginning of his online business marked the end of Helge's camping adventures. In order to follow the growth of orders better he decided to expand and to relocate to an old joinery on the grounds of an old textile factory, he employed two more employees for the production line and from there on he cared only about the administration and the sales areas.

Today the warehouse is filled with a myriad of yoga mats neatly placed next to each other on the shelves. With the objective of doubling turnover again LifeArt began to sell online a new line of products: house accessories, natural cosmetics and ayurvedic teas. This new line of products is stored in a second warehouse.

As a managing director, Helge Breite knows his clientele quite well : "the middle classes, the upmarket stylish segment of customers and alternative circles", he cites. Among them he counts both individual customers and yoga studios but also, increasingly, midwifes, health professionals and even schools that order yoga cushions for their relaxation curses.

However, and owing to this phenomenal success, Helge Breite can not take care properly of his own rest as he would like to. "Too much to be done", he says. But immediately afterwards he stresses that he will soon take up his beloved meditation.