Cassey Ho, Founder of Blogilates, Launched an IG-Worthy Fitness Collection at Target

The Pilates instructor now has a line of weights, resistance bands, yoga mats, and more at Targets across the U.S.

Published on December 27, 2020

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Cassey Ho Blogilates Target Fitness Equipment — Photo: Getty Images/Target - Design:Alex Sandoval

Cassey Ho is one of the OGs of fitness influencers. She founded her company, Blogilates, back in 2009, along with a YouTube channel for Pilates workouts. That channel now impressively boasts more than 5.4 million subscribers. Since then, Ho has created the Body by Blogilates workout app, a Pilates certification for her signature POP Pilates, and a fitness line, dubbed POPFLEX Active. Now, the instructor is taking her designs and go-to gear mainstream with her first national retail partnership with Target.

The Blogilates Home Gym Collection hits Target stores nationwide on December 27. The collection includes resistance bands, booty bands, water bottles, a fitness journal, grippy socks, and Ho's signature vegan suede yoga mats (the more you sweat, the grippier they get). The collection also offers some of the prettiest, most Instagram-friendly dumbbells you've ever seen, complete with gold heads and mint and blush handles. Basically, it's all the equipment you need for a beautiful at-home workout space that's affordable, accessible, plus just fun and cheerful. Prices range from $10 for the grip socks and up to $40 for a fit kit that includes a mat, mat strap, booty bands, and a massage ball.

As the lead designer on the collection, Ho tells Shape that even before the partnership with Target came up, she was on a mission to make gold weights for a more aesthetically pleasing home gym. "I'm someone who gets really inspired by beautiful surroundings," she says. "I spend so much time in my home gym that I need to feel inspired when I walk in — I think it makes a better workout [experience]."

But Ho says the partnership means more to her than just helping people create a gorgeous workout space with solid equipment. "Growing up as an Asian American, Vietnamese and Chinese, I didn't have a lot of role models in the entertainment space," she shares. "I also wanted to pursue fashion design, but my parents were very strict. [They] were like, 'No, you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer or you're going to be a failure.'"

Even when Ho initially followed her parents' wishes and studied pre-med in college, she says she channeled her creativity in other ways, from doodling handbags in her chemistry notebook to teaching Pilates on the side. (

Once Ho's career as a YouTube fitness instructor took off, she says she realized she'd found an audience for whom she could design bags and, eventually, workout gear. The Target collection stands out not only for its in-person shopping experience, says Ho, but also because her face graces the product packaging — a detail she says she originally fought against. "The truth is, I had this feeling inside me that if my face was on the packaging, in an area of the country where maybe people don't see people who look like me, it might actually turn off the customer and would hurt sales," she shares. "And that's really sad because, to have to think like that means that I grew up thinking that being Asian, being a person who is non-white, that that's something negative. So, I'm glad that I eventually realized, no, you're not going to [fight this]. You're going to represent exactly who you are, put your face on the packaging, and be proud of it." (

"When it comes to race representation, I hope that when other young girls of color, other Asian-American girls [see my line,] they are going to look at different career options — that they go into the Target fitness section and see someone who looks like them and think, 'Oh, maybe I can do that one day,'" she adds.

Shop the Blogilates Home Gym Collection now at your local Target or online at target.com.