About Yogaware®
Over 40 Years of Handcrafting
Photo by Lynlee Sky,
owner Yoga Practice Center LLC
owner Yoga Practice Center LLC
Yogaware® began as a quest by founder Laura Roberts to
find something comfortable and appropriate to wear while doing yoga.
It was the late 1970s and the choices were limited.
As a sewer, Laura's solution was to make something. The result was a soft knit
short with a legband to hold the bottom of the shorts in place. It gave her legs
freedom of movement with no worries of unintended exposure. A perfect solution.
She began going to class wearing her new shorts and coordinating tops. Needless to
say, her yoga friends noticed and wanted the shorts too. Her creation became the
Yogaware® Legband™ yoga shorts.
Laura became fully immersed in Iyengar yoga, studying under Mary Palmer and Priscilla Neal.
Over the years she traveled to India three times to study at the institute in Puna. She also
began teaching at the Ann Arbor Y.
While teaching, she saw the need for specific types of props. This prompted the creation of
many other products, including a selection of corduroy-covered foam props, sandbags and belts.
She also began to carry sticky mats and blankets to create a "one stop shop" for yoga students.
Photo by Lynlee Sky, owner Yoga Practice Center LLC
Laura's daughter, Cindy Neam, took over the business when Laura retired in 2008. She has been working with
Yogaware® since 1996. Cindy's background includes owning a custom sewing & alteration business
and helping her husband run a pizza franchise. She brings to Yogaware® her creativity, love
of sewing, and her practice of yoga.
Cindy has been a student of Iyengar yoga since 1984. Over the years she has had the good fortune
to take classes with many of the wonderful teachers here in Ann Arbor, including Mary Palmer and
Priscilla Neal. She continues to study under Sue Salaniuk, Karen Ufer, and most recently, Alicia Rowe.
Click here to read about her life.