Paola Materan is the founder of AVA Reform, a foldable Pilates reformer designed in Miami. The brand was born from a personal moment of rebuilding, a time when Pilates became, in her own words: “healing, discipline, and coming home to my body and my mind”. But what turned that experience into a business was something she noticed along the way: the industry wasn’t keeping up with the people who needed it most.

Studio memberships were expensive. Schedules were inflexible. And traditional reformers demanded space and budgets that most people simply didn’t have. For Paola, those were problems worth solving. “We refused to accept that choice”, she says, referring to the trade-off between a serious Pilates practice and a realistic home setup.

A product built with intention

Before launching, she immersed herself in the market, listened to practitioners at every level, and kept refining until she had something she could stand behind. The result is a foldable, adjustable reformer that delivers a genuine studio experience: a 6-spring resistance system, studio-grade engineering, sustainable solid wood, and high-grade steel. It folds to half its size and is designed to belong in a space, not hide in it.

That last detail matters to Paola as much as the engineering. “I wanted something that wasn’t just functional, but meaningful”, she admits. “Something that represented strength, elegance, and transformation”. For her, fitness equipment that looks like an afterthought sends the wrong message about the practice itself. AVA Reform was designed to be the opposite: a product that elevates the environment as much as the movement.

The name carries that same weight. AVA means life. And for Paola, building it was exactly that: a new beginning. “AVA Reform exists to elevate movement into a lifestyle”, she explains. “To remind you that rebuilding yourself is possible. That discipline can be beautiful. That strength can be soft”.

What the industry can take from it

For coaches and wellness entrepreneurs, AVA Reform represents a shift worth paying attention to. The home fitness market is growing, and the gap between studio quality and home accessibility is still wide open. Paola’s bet is that closing that gap doesn’t require compromising on design, materials, or experience. It requires rethinking what a reformer can be.

“This isn’t just Pilates equipment”, she concludes. “It’s a symbol of becoming”.

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