Finding Her Center – A Brand With Soul
By Ronda M. Parag
She is passionate and bubbling with excitement, always finding inspiration and taking photos everywhere she goes. Most days you will find Christina Majeed wearing the yoga wear she has created, and not the business suits of a former life.
While on vacation with a girlfriend in Peru, Christina Majeed, 36, was inspired to create her business Soulgani — an apparel company specializing in activewear. Soulgani means abundance of soul. It was on that hike that Majeed photographed a rock, and her business was born. In the tech field, Majeed was feeling the stress of her job and turned to yoga as a way to relax and re-center herself. “It was like ying and yang,” said Christina Majeed. “I was on the best trip of my life and hiking, which I had never done, and saw this gorgeous rock, and thought that image needs to be on a pair of yoga pants.” On that mountain top in Peru, the concept of Soulgani was born, and officially launched in March 2018. Constantly creating and expanding, Majeed has developed her third collection of activewear made with recycled plastic bottles, that will be in production soon.
Majeed believes in giving back to the places that inspire her, so a portion of each sale is given to a particular charity associated with the design inspiration. The Strength collection, which features the Peruvian Rock print, gives back to The Fuller Center for Housing – Global Builders Peru to help build homes in small, mountain villages. Other charities include the NYC Food Bank and Feeding Tampa Bay. Majeed collaborated with St. Petersburg resident and retired NASA astronaut, Nicole Stott to create the Universe Collection with images taken from space. A portion of that collection’s sales goes to the Space for Art Foundation, which brings art to children in hospitals. To date, sales from Soulgani have donated over 6,000 meals, 100 art supplies and 750 bricks for homes to the various charitable causes.
It was important to Majeed to have the apparel made in the USA. After much research and testing, she found a factory in Detroit that is highly responsive and delivers on the quality she demands. Her family often jokes that she is either wearing leggings or cocktail attire. “You gotta wear your own product,” laughed Majeed.
Upcoming designs include prints from California and Bali and trips from New York and South Carolina. Engaged to Grant Sparks, Christina is planning a November wedding, as well as, running her company. Plans for a honeymoon in Hawaii, and a bachelorette party in the Bahamas, are sure to spark inspirations and future designs for her yoga wear. M
Soulgani activewear can be found at www.soulgani.com or on Instagram @soulgani.activewear.
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