Outside their sisterly bond, however, they found that the same sense of encouragement and motivation was not universal.
"A lot of things that deter people from keeping their commitment or devoting that time to themselves is that they don't have much encouragement," Cornelia Gibson told CNN."Inclusion is a large part of it." The next step was to look for an artist to design the artwork for the yoga mats and, luckily, the sisters didn't have to look far: their mother, Oglivia Purdie, was a former New York City elementary school art teacher.
In addition to highlighting underrepresented groups, the images also play an important role in dispelling common myths about the ability of different body types to complete a variety of workouts, especially yoga poses. The pandemic has also disproportionately impacted people of color. Black, Latino and Native American people are nearly three times as likely to be infected with Covid-19 than their White counterparts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.