Team Mache lives and breathes Sustainability, Wellness, and Design
Mache designs beautiful yoga and fitness storage that supports your practice while honoring the planet. Mache is the result of 13 years of experience in earth-friendly, sustainable design. All of our yoga storage products are handmade locally in the Pacific Northwest in small batches, and processed clean. We strive to make useful & inspiring goods that reflect responsible manufacturing. Not only is the final product eco-friendly, the fabrication process is too!
Our Story
The idea for sustainable and elegantly designed yoga storage came to Mache’s Founder, CEO, and chief designer, Brienne, post-graduation at her first architecture position at a well-known firm in Oregon.
While setting up an interior architecture department she began to realize how many standard materials used in interiors and home goods were full of harmful toxins with high potential for off-gassing dangerous chemicals and heavy metals into the built environment.
This was around the same time that Brienne discovered she was suffering from an autoimmune disorder that made it difficult for her body to expel toxins, leaving her nutrient deficient, subject to chronic fatigue, which then led to several serious dietary allergies.
These challenges fueled Brienne’s commitment to a health and wellness path. At this point she had a decade of dedicated yoga practice with certification to teach. She instituted a lunchtime yoga class in service to her hard working team, hunched over computers for long hours and then went to her favorite yoga studio after work for her own practice. This necessitated that she lug her heavy mat and architecture bag on her bike to work everyday.
She asked if there was anywhere she could store her mat at the studio, but they responded that they were already experiencing a storage problem with other student mats cluttering up the area behind their desk.
This was Brienne’s aha moment! She realized she was uniquely qualified to design a yoga mat storage system for her yoga studio that would not only organize member’s mats, but also supply a predictable rental income, which is a boon to the survival of any small independently-owned studio.
Long story short, they loved the system she created. What a relief it was to take that yoga mat burden off her shoulders- literally! Other studios began to show interest, so she developed custom mat storage units for several more studios on the side, helping these small businesses to grow and thrive too.
After four years in architecture, Brienne started her own design firm specializing in wellness for the built environment. In addition to designing and building custom yoga storage units for yoga studios, 2Yoke Design’s portfolio includes eco- and health-conscious homes, health clinics, farm-to-table restaurants, ergonomic workplaces and co-housing communities.
While designing in this capacity, she could not find anything on the market that was aesthetically pleasing, eco-friendly, and specifically designed to house yoga gear: only the typical poorly-fit solutions such as baskets, boxes and cubbies, often laden with chemicals and environmentally unsustainable. This lack of options led her to design a totally tubular solution and start her second company, Mache, an eco-friendly and sustainable storage company.
Since then, Brienne has introduced a variety of products to serve yoga studios, gyms, fitness centers, hotels, fitness retreats, and home studios. She continually researches new and exciting sustainable materials which inspire the expansion of Mache’s eco-friendly storage product line.
Our Sustainability
GREEN is more than a color. We are part of a movement that is sweeping through the design world. A movement to bring a higher level of consciousness to consumption choices. Our design and manufacturing process of our yoga storage promotes wellness from a biological level, by eliminating the use of harmful Red List Materials (heavy metals and chemicals) commonly found in furniture and building materials. Unlike food product manufacturers, there are no regulatory requirements to list materials used in the construction of home goods and furnishings.
We embrace the beauty of biodegradable materials, made from natural and renewable resources, and rise to the creative challenge of alchemizing recycled materials into modern and innovative applications.
It is up to companies like us, partnering with consumers, to shift the industry standards. Together, we can open the door to a greener, renewable future that is filled with beautifully designed, sustainably sourced, and life-affirming products.
Our Promise
I. Celebrate "Green" Materials
We use eco-friendly materials such as recycled wood pulp, breathable natural fibers, non-toxic & water-based coatings to ensure our yoga storage products are low-impact on the planet and safe to enjoy in your home and workplace. Feel free to breathe deeply!
II. Minimize Carbon Footprint
We minimize our carbon footprint through intelligent product design, local material sourcing (whenever possible), packaging material reduction, and recycling or repurposing of any unused manufacturing materials. We practice carbon off-set shipping.
III. Maximize Material Efficiency
Our team maximizes material efficiency as our made-to-order production process eliminates the need for costly unused inventory. All Mache yoga mat storage products are packaged to ship using material scraps discarded during the manufacturing process.
IV. Invest in Conscious Economies
We partner with local makers, tradespeople, small manufacturers and community leaders who share our values around Earth sustainability and the importance of self-care for optimal and holistic life balance.
Meet our Founder
Brienne Derosier is a wellness designer, yoga enthusiast, and entrepreneur devoted to practicing and promoting self-care and sustainable living. She has been committed to the disciplines of yoga and design for over two decades and has built a philosophy that true personal wellness may not be acheived without the proper alignment of space designed to support health and wellbeing.
In addition to dreaming up inventive, earth-friendly designs for her two wellness businesses Mache and 2Yoke Design, Brienne leads immersive wellness experiences designed to energetically recharge and provide practical tools to de-stress and detoxify your mind, body and space at home, at work, and while traveling.
The M.A.C.H.E. Way
Mache’s mission and underlying philosophy is to help people achieve and maintain optimal health and well-being by offering aesthetically pleasing, functional, and sustainable storage products for the yoga and fitness world. Mache believes in the inherent connection between our own health and the health of the Earth. While we aim to achieve deep harmony in our own bodies and minds, we also care about the health of our community and the planet as a whole.
Mache is a living entity and we are committed to grow with intention. These are five core agreements we use to keep us on track.