If high-quality sweatpants and tank tops were not enough to attract the Yale masses to the newly opened boutique on Crown Street, lululemon athletica is now offering free yoga classes. The boutique sells upscale yoga-wear for men and women and opened at the end of May.

Manager Allison Bradley said the Hew Haven location is a showroom rather than simply a store.

Bradley said the Hew Haven location is a showroom rather than simply a store.

“We offer complimentary yoga so that our community can access the gift of yoga and the benefits it brings your life. Our showroom is a destination for our community which is made up of not only students, but athletes, yogis, and professionals” she said.

The New Haven Showroom, as it is called, sells everything from women’s underwear to men’s vests, making it a one-stop shop for workout enthusiasts and fashionistas of both genders.

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The store is located at 204 Crown St., a three block walk from Old Campus, but many Yale students are hesitant to frequent the store due to the high cost of the items.

But many Yale students are hesitant to frequent the store due to the high cost of the items.

“Lululemon has very high quality things, but you can find comparable clothes from other brands for cheaper,” Kristen Leung ’14 said.

Leung says she is more likely to purchase women’s workout clothes from Ryderwear or Under Armour, because she can pay half the price without sacrificing quality.

A standard pair of pants from lululemon costs $98.

Other students take issue with the schedule of the yoga classes, claiming that it is incompatible with the typical college student’s life.

“I wouldn’t get up at eleven Sunday morning for a yoga class,” Aaminah Qadir ’14 says.

Qadir, like many Yale students, said he would prefer to take advantage of the many yoga classes offered by the University.

Berkley college is hosting daily yoga classes at five o’clock in the multipurpose room and special Wednesday night candlelit yoga sessions. The classes are one hour long, and are taught by a diverse staff of undergrads, graduate students and visiting fellows, according to Berkeley’s website.

Some students have gravitated to the candlelit yoga from ten to eleven on Wednesday nights.

“Whether my plans for the night take me to Toad’s or Bass, candlelit yoga is the perfect way to clear my mind, so that you can focus wholeheartedly on the task at hand,” Cristina Vere Nicoll ’14 says.

For those seeking a more professional experience, New Haven boasts a full slate of yoga studios that charge for classes.

Fresh Yoga, located in downtown New Haven, offers private instruction, teacher training, workshops, and standard yoga classes. The classes cost sixteen dollars for drop-ins, but the studio has reached out to Yale students, featuring the student discount rate of fifteen dollars.

But while lululemon might not be the foremost yoga destination, sevral students interviewed said they do appreciate the importance of exercise clothes, and look to lululemon for dependable quality.

“It’s important to have comfortable clothes to work out in, especially now that its getting colder, so I’m excited to shop at the new lululemon store,” Margaret Van Cleve ’14 said.

But males appear to be tougher to convince.

“The name is enough to deter me from ever walking into that store,” Ike Silver ’14 said. “That’s where my mom buys her yoga clothes.”

The lululemon brand was founded in 1998 by Dennis Wilson.

Correction: October 25, 2010

An earlier version of this article mistakenly reported lululemon athletica manager Allison Bradley’s intentions for offering free yoga classes. Bradley said her motivation was to make the activity available to more members of the community, not to sell more apparel. In addition, the store does nto sell men’s vests.