SF welcomes a new yoga studio that doesn’t just cater to ‘the able-bodied, straight, white folks who practice yoga’
The pandemic hit San Francisco’s small business landscape like a celestial body striking the Yucatan Peninsula — which is to say the past year brought a mass extinction event to local restaurants, bookshops, and fitness studios. Alas, COVID-19-necessitated safety protocols ended up shutting hundreds of Bay Area restaurants and dozens of fitness studios in San Francisco.
Those independently-owned gyms that did manage to hang on did so by embracing online workout classes and outdoor sessions (but even hosting those events proved difficult to fiscally sustain). But nevertheless: San Francisco has since reopened, giving way for new businesses to open, some of which were ideated amid the pandemic.
HAUM, the Mission District’s newest LGTBQI+-owned and people-focused yoga studio, is one such company.
The team behind HAUM — among them, Danni Pomplun, the studio’s founder, who’s dedicated years to teaching yoga and has helped support the city’s yoga community for over a decade — began ideating the business back in 2020.
Then Covid-19 came down like said meteoroid above. Even throughout what Pomplun describes as his own “dark depression” that was born from months of sheltering in place, the vision of HAUM grew clearer.
“As time unfolded I realized [the idea for HUAM] was something bigger than my San Francisco studio apartment living room,” Pomplun says. “HAUM was created as a way for us to transition into a new future, together.”
And that required moving into a larger space, more specifically inside the 500 suite at 2973 16th Street.
HAUM prides itself on being an LGBTQ+ owned and operated venture, focusing on inclusivity and transparency. From a now-closed Indiegogo campaign, HAUM raised over $25,000, funds that went to things like making the space as inviting as possible and helping enroll all teachers and staff in anti-racism training.
HAUM has also made it clear that it will not be another space that “just caters to the able-bodied, straight, white folks who practice yoga.” (Fuck. Yes.)
“We are creating a space that welcomes and embraces everyone,” Pomplun adds.
HUAM is adamant about building a business model that gives back to the community, as well. During this past weekend’s soft opening, 100% of sales were donated to Mission Neighborhood Resource Center (MNRC) — an SF nonprofit that provides services for those suffering from homelessness.
HAUM’s first-ever class raised over $6,000 for MNRC.
“Haum is my offering to our community to connect again,” Pomplun says. And based on the successful opening, its words HAUM has actually backed with actions.
We look forward to getting very sweaty and centered in the summer weeks to come.
