When Brandon Robinson joins the call, he is in the Tatras, the mountains in southern Poland where his grandmother’s family comes from. The brand he founded carries their name. LIGAS is the surname of his great-grandparents, Aniela and Franciszek Ligas, from the village of Maruszyna in the Podhale region.
Robinson, 27, was born in Canada and holds a Polish passport through his mother. His route into activewear did not pass through a design school or a sportswear brand. He studied classics, Greek and Roman history and literature, up to a master’s degree in Scotland. “Even today, above fashion, there is Rome,” he says.
Today LIGAS, a Kraków-based brand of women’s yoga and pilates wear, is sewn entirely in Poland, and October has been its best month so far:
● a first boutique stockist, at Mysia 3 in Warsaw,
● contracts with stores in Paris and Manchester, with first deliveries already shipped,
● 1,500 pieces sold across online and wholesale.
Why an accountant left Luxembourg for Kraków
After his studies came a first job in Europe: an accounting role in Kraków, learned “entirely on the job.” Eighteen months later he moved to Luxembourg to join the corporate world of finance. The plan, at the time, was to climb the corporate ladder.
Corporate rules can weigh on a young man full of energy and ideas: two years in the same position before moving up. “I felt like that is going to stall my progress. And on top of that, I missed Poland.” For two years Robinson built LIGAS after hours, then moved to Kraków full-time.
A gap Lululemon had left open
The idea itself came from a contrast between two countries. “When I was a student in Canada, half the class could be wearing Lululemon yoga pants. And I’m not exaggerating. Sometimes more,” Robinson says. “In Poland, yes, they wear yoga pants, but there’s no dominant brand.”
The window he saw in 2023, when he registered the brand, is not going to stay open forever. Lululemon opened its first store in Poland, in Warsaw, on March 13 with franchise partner Arion Retail Group, its 100th store in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Robinson does not pretend otherwise.
“Very few people in Poland know what Lululemon is, even today. Lululemon has just opened a flagship in Warsaw. So maybe that’ll change soon.”
Made in Poland, sewn in Krosno
The factory came by chance, after a long search carried out remotely from Luxembourg. Robinson discovered that “the best producer in Poland for this sort of product happens to be in Krosno.” Not close to Łódź, what used to be the heart of Polish textiles, but in a small city in the southeast of the country, where the workshop has been running since 1989.
LIGAS is sewn in Poland with fabrics from Spain: a product made in Poland and sourced in Europe.
Made in Poland is the one line that never changes on the brand’s out-of-home campaign, and it is also what sells LIGAS in the studios.
“They love that I’m producing in Poland. They like the brand story, the idea of someone coming from Canada to find his roots.”
There is a practical side as well, and Robinson is candid about it. “The Asian factories have certain requirements that I probably cannot meet today in terms of minimum orders, volume,” he explains. Producing a few hours from Kraków also keeps lead times short: in the current off season, under two weeks.
How a bus stop campaign opened a door in Warsaw
Before boutiques, there were yoga studios. About two years ago LIGAS partnered with Yoga Centrum, a chain of four studios in Kraków that displays and sells the collection on site. “I’ve found some success with partnering with studios,” he says.
The turning point came about five weeks ago with a bus stop campaign in Poland, built on what Robinson calls “a bit of a provoking image.” A few days after the posters went live, Mysia 3 in Warsaw asked for samples and then a meeting. The reason surprised him. “It wasn’t directly the bus stop campaign itself or the controversy. It was the model who starred in that campaign. She told them about how soft and nice the clothing is.”
The store took inventory a few weeks ago, and the two are now preparing an event to introduce the brand to its customers.
Why Poland is a market worth watching
Robinson’s starting point, a home market with no dominant premium yoga brand, sits inside one of Europe’s fastest growing economies. Poland’s GDP reached €923.5 billion in 2025, according to Eurostat, enough to make it the world’s 20th largest economy (IMF data). The European Commission expects growth of 3.5 percent this year, after 3.6 percent in 2025.
The catch-up shows in everyday life. According to Eurostat, GDP per capita in purchasing power terms has climbed from 68 percent of the EU average in 2014 to 81 percent in 2025, and unemployment, at 3.1 percent, is about half the EU rate. Wages are still lower than in Western Europe, which keeps the premium end of the market smaller, but the gap has been closing for two decades.
Then there is the customer LIGAS is designing for. More than half of Polish women aged 25 to 34, 54.5 percent, hold a tertiary degree, above the EU average of 50.5 percent: a young, educated generation with growing spending power.
What LIGAS wants retailers to know
For the next 12 to 18 months, Robinson’s ambition starts at home. “I would really hope that LIGAS becomes a household name in Poland. I think it’s on track to doing that with the progress made in the last month, which seems to become a bit exponential.”
Asked what he would tell the buyers and retailers who read SGI Europe, he goes back to the campaign. “LIGAS wants to be bold. Excellent craftsmanship is really important to us, the brand carries my family name, we produce locally,” he says.
Then he names the difference he sees with the brand that inspired him. “Lululemon and the others, they’re totally an inspiration to me, but where there may be a shortcoming is that LIGAS really wants to inspire confidence and outright be a sexy brand. So I think that’s our differentiator.”
About LIGAS
LIGAS is a Kraków brand of women’s yoga and pilates wear, registered in October 2023 and sewn entirely in Poland. It sells through its online store, ligaskrakow.com, through yoga and pilates studios in Kraków and through boutique stockists in Warsaw, Paris and Manchester.
About Brandon Robinson
Brandon Robinson (here to his LinkedIn account) is the founder of LIGAS. He was born in Canada, has Polish roots on his mother’s side and holds a master’s degree in classics from the University of Glasgow. Before LIGAS, he worked in Kraków and then in Luxembourg. He now lives in Kraków.
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