Meet the woman changing the yoga scene for the better
- Text by Huck
Sanchia Legister first tried yoga as part of her Drama and Applied Theatre degree but hated it. She didn’t get on with her teacher and found the whole thing inaccessible. “It was like doing a puzzle in the dark,” she remembers.
She later found running and became embedded in the Run Dem Crew – a London-based collective looking to diversify running culture. The group started hosting yoga sessions in order to help their runners with conditioning and Sanchia decided to give it another shot. This time, it was completely different – she was hooked.
Sanchia’s working background, which ranges from theatre direction to running youth clubs and programmes in schools, means that she has something of a knack for people. Her new yoga teacher noticed this in her and suggested that she too should try teaching. Fast-forward to today and Sanchia is the force behind Yogahood, an organisation seeking to make yoga culture more inclusive and less intimidating.
Through her classes and workshops, she’s on a mission to shift yoga culture away from images of white, middle-class, one-body-type individuals: the kind she encountered during her initial experience with the practice. “I wanted to create an environment that I wanted to be around, and that other people wanted to be around too,” she says. This often sees her teaching yoga in new spaces such as nightclubs, as well as integrating contemporary music into her practice: from the likes of Stormzy to Solange.
Now, with help from 99designs by Vistaprint, Sanchia is about to embark on the next phase of the Yogahood mission. Equipped with a brand new logo, she’s going to continue working – and growing – to make sure that everyone feels comfortable stepping onto the mat. “You know when you go to the theatre, you get Act One, and then Act Two?” she says, referring to her journey so far. “Maybe we’re moving into Act Two now.”
By Design is an editorial series created with 99designs by Vistaprint, in which all participating businesses receive a design makeover, as well as a financial grant to help them embark on their next chapter. Read more stories from the series here.
Take a look at the other 99 small business design makeovers on 99 Days Of Design.
The new Yogahood logo was created by nechu on 99designs by Vistaprint.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
How Japan revolutionised art & photography in the ’60s and ’70s
From Angura to Provoke — A new photobook chronicles the radical avant-garde scene of the postwar period, whose subversion of the medium of image making remains shocking and groundbreaking to this day.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Artifaxing: “We’ve become so addicted to these supercomputers in our hands”
Framing the future — Predominantly publishing on Instagram and X, the account is one of social media’s most prominent archiving pages. We caught up with the mysterious figure behind it to chat about the internet’s past, present and future, finding inspiration and art in the age of AI.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The lacerating catharsis of body suspension in Hong Kong
Self-Ferrying — In one of the world’s most densely packed cities, an underground group of young people are piercing their skin and hanging their bodies with hooks in a shocking exploration of pain and pleasure. Sophie Liu goes to a session to understand why they partake in the extreme underground practice.
Written by: Sophie Liu
What we’re excited for at SXSW 2026
Austin 40 — For the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, we are heading to Texas to join one of the biggest global meetups of the year. We’ve selected a few things to highlight on your schedules.
Written by: Huck
Huck’s 20th Anniversary Issue, Wu-Tang Clan is here
Life is a Journey — Fronted by the legendary Wu-Tang Clan’s spiritual leader RZA, we explore the space in between beginnings and endings, and the things we learn along the way.
Written by: Huck
Clavicular isn’t interesting, really
Dreaming Small — The ‘looksmaxxer’ of the moment has garnered widespread furore over recent controversies. But newsletter columnist Emma Garland asks whether the 20-year-old influencer is actually doing anything that new, and what his rise says about modern turbo-nostalgia’s internet dominance.
Written by: Emma Garland
