Inventory by store type

Inventory management for Shopify yoga apparel and gear brands

Yoga brands sell a small set of styles in a lot of sizes and colors, which turns a simple product line into hundreds of SKUs to track. SteadyShelf helps you keep each one in stock without tying up cash in sizes that sit on the shelf.

The inventory problems yoga apparel and gear brands run into

  • Size curve imbalance. Leggings and tops sell unevenly across sizes, so a style can look "in stock" overall while mediums are sold out and XL sits untouched.
  • Color and print cycles. Limited-run prints and seasonal colorways sell fast then get discontinued, so reordering the wrong color after a print sells out wastes a PO.
  • Fabric and dye lot variation. Reordering the same style later can bring slight color or fabric differences, so timing reorders before a run fully sells out matters more than in basic apparel.
  • Mat and prop bulk and freight. Mats, blocks, and bolsters are heavy and bulky, which pushes suppliers toward larger case packs and can slow down container shipments.
  • Accessory long tail. Straps, blocks, bags, and towels move slower than apparel but still need shelf space, so it's easy to over-order low-velocity accessories because the case pack minimum is large.

Seasonality and demand

Yoga apparel and gear sees a reliable January spike tied to New Year fitness resolutions, a secondary bump around September back-to-routine season, and steady gift demand in November and December for mats, blocks, and accessory sets. Many brands also see smaller lifts around specific launches, like new print drops or collaboration collections, which behave more like a product launch than a seasonal pattern. Plan by placing apparel and gear POs early enough that stock lands before January, since overseas production and shipping for printed leggings or mats can take a while, and build in extra safety stock for core sizes (S-L) going into that peak since stockouts there cost the most sales.

Suppliers, lead times and minimums

Apparel is usually made by overseas cut-and-sew manufacturers, often in print-on-demand or dye-sublimation runs, with lead times that stretch out for custom prints and minimum order quantities set per color per size run. Mats, blocks, straps, and bolsters typically come from manufacturers or importers with set case packs (for example, mats often ship in cartons of 6 or 10) and overseas suppliers often take several weeks for production plus transit. Some brands also use domestic blanks suppliers for basics or private-label printers, which usually have shorter lead times but higher per-unit costs and sometimes lower minimums.

Worked example

Say your 5mm yoga mat in Charcoal sells 3 units a day on average. Your supplier's lead time is 20 days and you keep 5 safety days, so your reorder point is 3 x (20 + 5) = 75 units. You currently have 40 mats on hand and 20 already on order. You want 30 days of cover, so order quantity = 3 x (20 + 30) - (40 + 20) = 150 - 60 = 90 mats. Since this supplier ships in cartons of 10, SteadyShelf rounds that up to 90, already a clean multiple, and drafts the PO at that quantity.

Try it with your own numbers in the reorder point calculator, or size your buffer with the safety stock calculator.

A simple system to start this week

  1. List every size and color as its own variant so forecasting and reorder points are tracked per SKU, not per style.
  2. Enter each supplier's actual lead time and case pack size, including separate entries for print-on-demand runs versus standard colors.
  3. Set safety days higher for core sizes (S-L) in leggings and tops since stockouts there hurt sales the most.
  4. Review the weekly reorder email before the January and September demand lifts, not after sales start climbing.
  5. Mark discontinued prints and colors as inactive so old SKUs stop generating reorder suggestions.
  6. Track fabric or dye lot changes outside SteadyShelf and note them on the PO or with the supplier directly.

How SteadyShelf fits yoga apparel and gear brands

SteadyShelf handles the hard part of yoga apparel inventory: tracking reorder points and quantities across dozens of size and color variants per style, and rounding orders to each supplier's case pack. It does not manage multi-location stock, so if you split inventory between a warehouse and a retail studio, you will need to handle those transfers yourself. It also does not track lot or dye batch variation, so matching colors across production runs is still something you coordinate directly with your manufacturer.

$29/month flat, unlimited products and suppliers, 30-day free trial.

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More: inventory management by store type · inventory glossary · Stocky alternatives

FAQ

Can SteadyShelf tell me which size in a style is about to run out, not just the style overall?

Yes. SteadyShelf forecasts and sets reorder points per variant, so a specific size and color combination is tracked on its own, separate from the rest of the style.

We run limited edition prints that never get restocked exactly the same. Does SteadyShelf handle that?

SteadyShelf will keep forecasting and suggesting reorders for a print SKU as long as it is active. Once a print is retired, mark it inactive so it stops generating order suggestions, and set up the new print as a new SKU with its own sales history.

Does SteadyShelf track expiry on things like cork mats or natural rubber props?

No. SteadyShelf does not do lot or expiry tracking. Most yoga gear like mats, blocks, and straps does not have a strict expiry date, but if you stock items that do degrade (like certain natural rubber or cork treatments), track production or receiving dates separately and rotate stock manually using that information.

Let SteadyShelf do this math for every SKU

Order-by dates per supplier, seasonal forecasts and draft POs for your Shopify store. $29/month after a 30-day free trial.

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