Nicole and Gerry Wienholt, founders of Yoga Pod Inc. and owners of the first studio in Boulder, relocated their home to Longmont a year ago and are bringing the yoga experience with them.
The couple opened the Boulder studio in 2010 eventually growing to a multi-state franchise company six years later. The Wienholts decided they didn’t want to scale the company through franchising anymore, and only open Yoga Pod studios that they owned.
While still operating the Boulder Yoga Pod, The Wienholts will own and operate the Longmont sister-studio at 2201 Ken Pratt Blvd, that’s set to open Jan. 8, 2022. They plan to teach in both locations.
“We're so excited to come into Longmont, as a location that we own,” Gerry said. “To take everything that we built in 11 years in Boulder — the passion that we have for the yoga practice, the yoga discipline, the yoga principles in our lives. I mean it is everything to us, and it's been so incredibly rewarding this last decade, that we want to replicate it now in our hometown. We moved to Longmont a year ago. We love it here, so we want to bring Yoga Pod to our community where we live, just like we did in Boulder for the first decade.”
The Wienholts kicked off the Yoga Pod Longmont endeavor with a groundbreaking celebration and happy hour last Friday. Donning white hard hats, Nicole and Gerry delved golden shovels into the dug-up floor in the new location.
The empty building will be transformed into a two-room studio with locker rooms, a small retail section and lounging area. Large floor-to-ceiling windows will fill the yoga classes with natural light.
The groundbreaking event served as a way for the Wienholts to connect with the Longmont community and meet new and old friends.
We're really enjoying getting to know business owners, and we wanted to invite them to a special happy hour that we could provide them with refreshments, beer, wine and non alcoholic beverages, and just kind of bring the community together like that,” Gerry said.
The couple dreamt of opening a studio in their new home prior to the COVID pandemic, Nicole said. Yoga Pod Boulder had to pivot its business model during pandemic restrictions on gyms and fitness studios. In March 2020, the Wienholts invested in filming equipment and software to live stream classes.
Though there won’t be filming equipment installed at the Longmont Yoga Pod, clients will have access to live stream classes and the online on-demand library, Nicole said.
Students of Boulder or Longmont locations also have access to either physical studio. Boulder offers 94 classes and Longmont will have 65. Gerry said there’s a class about every 15 minutes between both studios, starting at 5:45 a.m. to around 7:30 or 7:45 p.m.
“We’re trying to stagger them a bit so that the membership has a lot of value to both locations,” Nicole said. “We're just really trying to make the schedule really work for everybody. Try to catch those that need to commute to work early in the morning and those that want to practice later at night, or drop the kids off at school and get practice in while they have their free time.”
While renovations take place in Longmont’s Yoga Pod, the studio will host four free community classes called Pod Hatching events. Classes will be held across the parking lot from the Longmont studio in the former The Wild Game Entertainment Experience building at 2251 Ken Pratt Blvd.
The first Pod Hatching is this Saturday Oct. 23. The free vinyasa yoga class will be accompanied by live music from DJ Matt Kapinus, a gift give-away and snacks and refreshments.
Other Pod Hatching events planned are a restorative Yin yoga class with a live violinist, and a silent disco. Events are planned on Oct, 23, Nov, 13, Dec 11 and the grand opening day Jan. 8, 2022.
To celebrate the Longmont studio, and second location owned by the Wienholts, Yoga Pod Longmont is offering a discounted membership of $89 as opposed to $108. The “Founding Member” price is effective until the Longmont studio opens and applicable to Longmont residents.
“Now that we're here, and discovering all the little cute little spots in Longmont we're just really excited to be able to bring Yoga Pod here and watch our community here grow like it did in Boulder,” Nicole said.
