Is Zyia Active an MLM? [The LuLaRoe of Activewear?]

What’s with Zyia Active? Is it an MLM? If you’re one of those people who want to get your answer quickly and then roll, then the answer is yes.

Zyia Active is a multi-level marketing (MLM) company.

Now, if you’re thinking of joining the opportunity and want more information, let me tell you all about it below.

First, before we go on…am I a representative of Zyia Active? Do I sell with them? Am I going to try to get you on my team?

Hell no!

I’m anti-MLM and I wouldn’t encourage anyone to join as a distributor for any of these companies. Why? I’ll tell you my reasons in the article below.

I’ll also tell you why I think Zyia might just be the LuLaRoe of activewear. (And that’s not a compliment.)

Let’s get into it!

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What is Zyia Active?

Zyia Active launched on February 2017. It was founded by three women – Erin Bradley, Brooke Jackson, and Brenda Bradley. This MLM uses distributors (“representatives”) to promote its line of activewear.

Zyia Active sells clothing in the following categories:

• Women’s Bottoms (including intimates and swimsuits)
• Women’s Tops (including sports bras, tanks, and jackets)
• Men’s Tops (including shirts and jackets)
• Men’s Bottoms (including shorts and pants)
• Kids (girls and boys)
• Accessories

How Much Do Zyia Active Products Cost?

Here are some product prices so that we can compare them with non-MLM product prices.

• Women’s leggings – $65 – $79
• Sports bras – $32 – $57
• Swimsuits – $49 – $65
• Men’s shorts – $35 – $75
• Girl’s leggings – $33 – $43

I mean, is it just me, or are their products PRICEY?

I know that Lululemon has activewear around these price points, but quality matters too, and I have read some complaints about Zyia’s quality. We’ll get back to that later.

I don’t know about you, but I shop at Target for my exercise leggings and I’m completely happy with them. Their leggings run somewhere in the $20 – $40 range. I’ve had some of my Target leggings for years. They’re still perfectly fine.

There’s a reason I’m mentioning this. Again, we’ll get back to it later.

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How Much Does it Cost to Join Zyia Active?

It looks like there are two starter kits available, a Men’s and a Women’s.

As you can see, both are $395.

The Women’s Starter Kit includes:

• Business Tools (catalogs, brochures, order forms)
• $200 Gift Card
• Navy Copper Charged Tank
• Cotton Candy Hat
• Black Adjustable Mesh Bra
• Black Trainer Vest
• Gray Level Pocket Light n Tight Hi-Rise Capris

The Men’s Starter Kit includes:

• $50 Business Tools (catalogs, brochures, order forms))
• $200 Gift Card
• Gray Traveler Pant 32″
• Men’s Sky Pocket Polo
• Men’s Gray Warm Up 1/4 Zip
• Men’s Black Track Shorts- Long
• Men’s Navy Premium Vented Crew

With tax and shipping, be prepared to spend over $400 for each kit. You can get your money back on unused items with 90 days of joining. (Check the terms & conditions to see what the rules are.)

Also, realize that you’ll have additional expenses.

These are optional, but things that most people spend on their MLMs:

• Business cards
• Additional brochures
• Gas traveling to and from home parties
• Home party expenses like food and drinks
• Additional clothing items
• Facebook and Instagram ads if you want to reach out to more people

And, if you build a team (which you almost have to – we’ll get into that a little later), you’ll have to stay on op of your PV (personal volume) to make sure you stay qualified. This can become an issue where people end up spending this themselves because they want to stay active.

It happened to me.

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Zyia Active Compensation Plan

There are 11 ranks that you can achieve with Zyia Active and they are:

• Representative
• Junior Representative
• Senior Representative
• Director
• Senior Director
• Executive
• Zyia Executive
• Double Zyia Executive
• Zyia Elite
• Presidential
• Zyia Presidential

Here are the qualifications for each rank, and you can also see it larger on the Zyia website here.

To get a better understanding of what this all means, you can check out this YouTube video:

Personal Volume is how much you need to have in orders each month coming from your own sales, or sales that you personally make.

Lifetime Personal Volume is how much you need in total. This isn’t a monthly goal, but just as it says – lifetime.

1st level volume is how much your team needs to make in a month.

I’m not going to get into how much each rank can make, but you can also see that on Zyia’s website, and again, that’s here.

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Zyia Active Income Disclosure

At the time of this writing there is no Zyia Active income disclosure. Which is fine because as I’ve explained in my other MLM reviews, they’re all the same.

Over 99% of people lose money. Source.

That’s really all you need to know.

And considering Zyia has such a high startup cost compared to many MLMs, you’re even more likely to lose your shirt with them. (And um, you need your shirt, especially for a clothing company!)

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Zyia Active Complaints

Here’s where things get interesting. Remember above when I said that Zyia Active is like the LuLaRoe of activewear? (I’m going to do an article on LuLuRoe soon. Stay tuned.) And that quality matters? Well, here’s where this company really struggle and why you may have an extra hard time being a success with this company.

While they don’t have a BBB rating or any complaints there, let’s start with this former rep’s experience with them. Sarah says some really interesting things and we’ll get into more of it later. For now, two of her biggest issues are:

1. The quality of the clothing isn’t consistent
2. The sizing is irregular

And this is why I call them the LuLaRoe of activewear. These are some of the same issues that they have with their clothing and why they’ve been having such a hard time lately. (And also because the owners are greedy scumbags, but we’ll save that for another day.)

Some of the other complaints come from their Facebook page. The issue with the sizing not being correct is that once you ask for an exchange, it takes weeks to process. And someone mentioned they had to pay for the exchange (I’m assuming they mean the shipping cost), which seems like a big hassle and expense for already-overpriced leggings.

Here’s an interesting complaint that kind of covers a good portion of what people are mentioning:

To be fair, there were plenty of people singing the company’s praises on their Facebook page too. They mentioned things like:

• I love the clothes so much
• Customer service is great!
• Love this company and what they stand for

(P.S. They stand for “empowering women”, which is basically what every MLM stands for. Funny how they all end up sucking women’s wallets and souls dry…)

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Related Articles:

• Selling Essential Oils Online [MLM vs Affiliate Marketing]
• MLM vs Affiliate Marketing – Why Affiliate Marketing is 100x Better
• Why I Quit Young Living [Any Why I’m Now Anti-MLM]

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Is Zyia Active a Pyramid Scheme?

Technically speaking, Zyia Active is not a pyramid scheme because there is a focus on retail sales. However, there’s always a gray line when it comes to MLMs because once you make more money with recruiting versus retail sales, it starts looking more and more like a pyramid scheme.

MLMs get away with this because they consider the distributors customers and their sales are part of the retail sales. It’s such a fine loophole of deception.

Pros

• Inexpensive startup cost compared to brick-and-mortar businesses
• Some people are happy with the quality of the clothes

Cons

• Expensive startup cost as compared to other MLMs
• Some people say the clothing quality is not great (or inconsistent at a minimum)
• Customer service seems to not be fully on top of things
• Sizing is inconsistent
• The clothing is expensive
• MLMs are very hard to make money with
• There’s no income disclosure so we can’t see the real numbers (but we don’t really need to because they’re all the same)
• You can’t make a good living unless you recruit a team

So taking everything into consideration with Zyia Active, I hope you can see that the “business opportunity” (I always use that term loosely with MLMs) is not that great.

You have exercise leggings that are expensive and don’t fit right. (And it’s a hassle to exchange them.) Who’s going to want to buy those when they can just go to the store and get them when they need them – for less? And where they can also try them on to make sure they fit.

As I mentioned, my favorite workout leggings are from Target. They work great. They last. They’re not expensive. If you like expensive, then I know Lululemon is top quality.

The only reason Zyia Active is so pricey is that – like all MLMs – they have to increase the price to pay the distributors.

Here’s where you really have to be careful.

The people trying to recruit you will say that you don’t need to buy any f the clothes yourself. But, in another breath, they will tell you that you need to buy the clothes to have inventory to show people and to “be the brand.” You will end up buying more and more.

Going back to the article I referred to above from ex-rep Sarah, she says:

“While reps are not required to buy clothing or keep an inventory of Zyia clothing in order to sell it, to be successful in an MLM you are expected to buy the product and use it yourself. And that can get expensive, even with the rep discount and hostess credits reps can earn through sales.”

It always happens. This is how people lose money in MLMs.

Remember, as a distributor, you’re actually the customer. This means your upline wants to you buy as much as you can…

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An Alternative to Zyia Active

If you like the idea of promoting activewear, then why not start a blog or a YouTube channel and become an affiliate for active brands?

You still get a commission, but you don’t need to build a team, buy any inventory or purchase a starter kit of any kind.

You can easily and inexpensively set up a blog or YouTube and do reviews on your favorite brands. Amazon has a great affiliate program. So does Target. So does Lululemon.

And people who buy through your affiliate links don’t get charged any more than if they use a non-affiliated link, so there’s really no downside for anyone.

If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing and how it all works, you can check out my free guide here.

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Conclusion

Zyia Active is certainly an MLM company. It’s not technically a pyramid scheme, but that line is always a little gray when you make more money through recruiting than actual retail sales. (And you almost always have to recruit to even have a chance at earning a decent living with MLMs.)

With LuLaRoe going down as hard and fast as it is, I would be cautious with joining something like Zyia Active. Especially since they are having some of the same issues with quality and sizing as LuLaRoe. (To be fair, at least Zyia’s clothing isn’t hideous looking.)

If you like the idea of making sales through activewear, there’s always affiliate marketing. It’s a much less stressful (and cheaper!) way to go about it. See what affiliate marketing is all about here.

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Other related content:

• Best Programs to Make Money Online
• Learn How to Make a Site That Pays You Over and Over Again
• How To: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners (FREE Guide)
• Ultimate Wealthy Affiliate Review

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