Overview
HEAT by Sophia Lie is a Swedish wellness brand founded in Stockholm in 2018 [2]. It began as an infrared sauna studio and grew into a multi-channel business that pairs physical wellness studios with a line of body and recovery products sold direct-to-consumer and through retailers. The brand is built around a routine it calls THE HEAT SYSTEM, summarised in the three words "Sweat. Sculpt. Recover."
The company is registered and headquartered in Sweden, at NK Parkaden in central Stockholm, while its founder, Sophia Lie, is a Norwegian former model who relocated to Stockholm to start the business [8]. The brand remains active, operating studios in Stockholm and on Mallorca alongside its e-commerce store.
Origin & founders
Sophia Lie started HEAT, in the company's own telling, because she needed it herself. After roughly a decade of international modelling that left her with burnout and full-body fatigue, she began assembling a recovery routine in hotel rooms between shoots. According to Vogue Scandinavia, she discovered infrared sauna at a studio in New York, and the habit became the seed of a business: "I got this impulse to open a space myself. That's me, I get an idea and just throw myself into it" [8].
The first HEAT studio opened in Stockholm in 2018 on Birger Jarlsgatan — a small space of about 20 square metres with three saunas, which the brand describes as Scandinavia's first full-spectrum infrared sauna lounge [2][8].
History & milestones
HEAT expanded from a single sauna room into a wellness company over roughly five years. In 2021 it launched THE HEAT Collection, a line of own-brand products that extended the studio routine into the home. In 2023 the company opened a flagship studio at NK in Stockholm, which it bills as Scandinavia's first longevity studio, and a second studio in a historic townhouse in the old town of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, opening that summer in partnership with the Nobis Hotel [2][7]. In January 2024 it introduced tiered membership programmes at both the Stockholm and Palma studios [9].
Philosophy & positioning
HEAT frames itself as what the company calls "a natural antidote to the inflammatory routines of our daily lives" [9], positioning wellness as a weekly habit rather than an occasional treat — its tagline is "Wellness for real life." The brand's mission statement describes its treatments as "biohacking" that helps the body "detoxify, optimize, and heal at the cellular level." The HEAT System rests on three pillars: Sweat, through infrared therapies; Sculpt, through lymphatic stimulation; and Recover, through cold therapies such as ice baths and cryotherapy.
The studios sit at the premium end of the market, anchored by the department-store flagship at NK, and the brand's audience is described in its press coverage as regulars who return each week to maintain a routine [9].
Products & innovation
HEAT operates on two fronts: as a studio offering treatments such as infrared sauna, LPG massage, ice baths and cryotherapy, and as a retailer of physical products. THE HEAT Collection includes the HEAT Infrared Sauna Blanket, a Collagen Powder, facial and body Gua Sha tools, a Cryo-Ball, and an Ionic Body Brush with copper bristles. The Collagen Powder is the brand's most documented product: HEAT describes it as 100% hydrolyzed collagen derived from grass-fed cows, gluten free and with a neutral taste, and markets it as a way to "promote healing and combat aging from the inside-out."
Beyond its own range, HEAT also resells third-party recovery technology, listing devices from Therabody such as the TheraFace PRO alongside its own-brand items [3]. The company's product and treatment language leans on terms like biohacking and cellular-level health, though its own FAQ pages describe services plainly and add no clinical efficacy claims.
Recognition
Current status
HEAT by Sophia Lie is active. It runs two physical studios — the NK flagship in Stockholm and the studio in Palma de Mallorca — alongside a direct-to-consumer store, and its products are carried by Nordic retailers. The most recent activity recorded in the source material is the January 2024 launch of its membership programmes, covered by Vogue Scandinavia [9].
Sources
T1 primary · T2 secondary · T3 note- [1]T1heatbysophialie.comheatbysophialie.com (brand site)
- [2]T1heatbysophialie.com/pages/our-storyheatbysophialie.com (brand site)
- [3]T2heatbysophialie.com/collections/technologyheatbysophialie.com (brand site)
- [7]T2heatbysophialie.com/pages/about-heat-palma-studioheatbysophialie.com (brand site)
- [8]T3voguescandinavia.com/articles/heat-by-sophia-lie-recovery-sculpt-infrared-saunavoguescandinavia.com
- [9]T3voguescandinavia.com/articles/heat-by-sophia-lie-memberships-stockholmvoguescandinavia.com


