South Asian-Inspired Athleisure with Astha Sinha

Bootstrapping from day one, disagreeing with a sibling co-founder, making opportunities for yourself anywhere

Hello! I am Astha Sinha a freshman at Vanderbilt University. I am studying Computer Science, and I find my creative outlet in dance. I co-founded Yustha Yoga, a South-Asian inspired athleisure company, with my sister Ayushi Sinha this year. Check us out: https://yustha.yoga

We would love to hear about why you co-founded Yustha. How did you initially get into designing south asian-inspired athleisure? How has the journey been since?

One day, my sister Ayushi and I were talking about how South Asian culture frequently gets misappropriated. Whether it was from “boho” prints or yoga, it was frustrating to see our culture stripped of its meaning. Therefore, we decided to start Yustha Yoga which is our South Asian inspired athleisure company. It’s been quite the journey since! We have learned so much about the market, customers, manufacturing and working with each other.

What do you spend your time on these days? What’s top of mind?

As a student, I split my time between school and extra curriculars. CS is hard, but I still find so much importance in making time for dance. I was formally trained in modern dance but have been able to explore so much more in college! Specifically, I joined the Bhangra team at Vanderbilt because I can learn so much more about Indian culture through dance.

What has surprised you most about building a D2C athleisure brand?

I didn’t realize starting a D2C company has such a low barrier to entry. Even though there are many expenses from running our website, ads, or samples, it’s still within our budget. Yustha Yoga has been bootstrapped since day one. Though more assessable, it is still difficult to get our name out there because we don’t have a middleman that can reach more people with their network. That’s when our personal network comes into play which I didn’t realize would have such an important impact. We grow when our friends and family spread the word about us.

What are Banarasi prints and what made you choose these specific designs as a focus? 

Banaras is a part of India on the Ganges River. There are saris from that region that our family has worn for generations. Therefore, we decided to design athleisure from the prints we are most familiar with and have the deepest connection to.

What are some opportunities and challenges in working with a sibling? 

Working with my sister has been such an amazing experience. We understand each other so well and think our personal connection has allowed our company to advance so much further. I can ask her for anything, and we can get over everything because we’re siblings. We might disagree, but it’s in waves and never presents a roadblock. As sisters, we always want to take care of each other, and knowing I’m supported allows me to do more. How well we know each other is so much more helpful than it could ever be stressful. 

Your brand has strong cultural roots. How do you pay homage to these roots while making these prints more accessible to non-south asians as well?

Our mission is to pay homage to the roots of South Asian culture. The best way to do that is increase awareness around the culture. The journey of buying from our brand requires each customer to understand our story and the story of each item of clothing. This way we can pay homage to the roots of our designs which is frequently missing when South Asian prints are used.  

In today’s world, consumers might be wary of cultural misappropriation. Are you taking any steps to mitigate those concerns?

We appreciate everyone who is hyper aware of misappropriating culture. However, I would like to point out the difference between wearing our athleisure and our story vs. buying clothes with South Asian prints from non South Asian brands.

What are the main ways athleisure and fashion are changing?

Fashion is changing to be more inclusive of athleisure which is growing in our ‘work from home’ era. Yustha raises the question of why do people have to choose between style and comfort? Black leggings are an athletic wear staple, but they are boring! We are tearing down the bounds of basic athleisure with our bold prints.

Can you tell us about your process of designing new athleisure?How do you come with a new design? What’s your creative process?

Designing requires a clear mind and is a long term process. I’m constantly looking at people’s clothing and style to see what I like and what stands out. I also experiment with my own style and see how Yustha can match that. Our first product was a pair of leggings with a blue design all over. Now, we are experimenting with two-toned designs and patterns down the sides. We want out athleisure to stand out in a crowd with sophistication. I think the bold prints matched with fitted clothing achieve that goal.

Why start with athleisure as the medium to share south Asian prints?

We first started with athleisure because that is closely related to yoga which is part of Hinduism and our mission is to increase awareness. This also increases access to those who are not South Asian, but still can be a part of our community. It ended up working well for us because athleisure is a growing market.

Do you have any advice for your younger self?

Young Astha was adventurous (lol), but I think I would tell her that you can make opportunities for yourself anywhere! It sounds like a broken record to say “Take advantage of every opportunity” because the opportunity isn’t always there or is taken from you. I wish I wasn’t so scared of failure at a young age because that’s restricting. I would encourage myself to look deeper into what I want to do and make that happen instead of settling for what already exists. Though not always successful, it’s important to learn from every experience and remove the fear of failure to enable maximum growth.