Lululemon Athletica
Lululemon Athletica, styled as lululemon athletica, is an athletic apparel retailer domiciled in Delaware and headquartered in Vancouver. Founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga wear, Lululemon has since expanded to sell its products internationally in 460 stores as well as online. The company has expanded to sell a variety of athletic wear, including performance shirts, shorts, and pants, as well as lifestyle apparel and yoga accessories.
History
lululemon was founded in 1998 by Chip Wilson in Vancouver, British Columbia, and sold its first pair of yoga pants that year. Wilson created the name to have many L's so that it would sound western to Japanese buyers, who often have difficulty pronouncing the letter.The company's initial public offering was in July 2007, raising $327.6 million by selling 18.2 million shares.
Christine Day, a former co-president of Starbucks, became chief executive officer in 2008.
In 2013, the company made its third consecutive appearance on Fortune's Fastest-Growing Companies list. In December 2013, founder Chip Wilson announced his resignation as chairman, and that the president of TOMS Shoes, Laurent Potdevin, would become CEO.
In 2014, lululemon opened its first store in Europe, a flagship shop in Covent Garden, London. In February 2015, Wilson announced that he was resigning from the board, and that Michael Casey, former lead director of the board, would replace him. In 2018, Laurent Potdevin resigned as CEO and from the company's board due to misconduct.
In 2019, lululemon announced an investment in Mirror, a fitness startup that sells an interactive mirror with a camera and speakers for at-home workouts. The companies planned to create new content for the device, starting with meditation classes. In June 2020, Lululemon announced a $500 million deal to purchase Mirror., capitalizing on a growing trend of people conducting virtual workouts at home instead of going to a gym due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2019, COO Stuart Haselden stepped down from the company to join Away. In April 2020, CFO Patrick Guido stepped down from the company to assume a leadership position outside of the apparel industry, according to company sources.
Management
From its founding through 2015, lululemon incorporated elements of Landmark Forum into its leadership and development training. According to a company source, seventy percent of managers are hired internally. Store managers are responsible for their store's layout, color coordination, and community involvement.Products
Lululemon sells athletic wear including tops, yoga pants, shorts, sweaters, jackets and undergarments, as well as hair accessories, bags, yoga mats and water bottles. Lululemon trademarked its original fabric, Luon, which included a higher-than-average amount of nylon microfiber, in 2005. Since then, the company has produced several different types of fabrics, including compression and moisture-wicking designs.In 2017, Lululemon and Athletic Propulsion Labs began selling women's and men's shoes in 23 stores across North America.
In 2019, the company launched a luxury streetwear brand called Lab in a few of its stores.
Lululemon maintains a research and development lab, "Whitespace", within its headquarters. It has around 50 employees including scientists and physiologists.
Marketing
Originally known for women's yoga apparel, by 2019 Lululemon had grown by acquiring more male customers, adapting its product and marketing strategies accordingly, and plans to increase awareness of the brand among men.The company has been stated to use "holistic guerrilla marketing", aiming to make customers feel that by wearing Lululemon clothing they are part of a larger community.
Lululemon uses social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as one of its main methods of marketing the company and its products.
Controversies
False advertising
In November 2007, The New York Times reported that Lululemon made false claims about its Vitasea clothing product; the firm had claimed that the clothing, made from seaweed, provided "anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits" but laboratory tests failed to find significant differences in mineral levels between ordinary T-shirt cotton and Vitasea fabric. Lululemon was subsequently forced to remove all health claims from its seaweed-based products marketed in Canada, following a demand from a Canadian oversight agency, the Competition Bureau of Canada.Product quality
In 2013, some customers complained that the clothing was of poor quality, with some items being "too sheer", having holes appear, and falling apart after a few uses.In December 2010, Lululemon recalled some of the store's reusable bags that were made in China from polypropylene, based on reports of high levels of lead.
In 2013, Lululemon recalled its black yoga pants that were unintentionally transparent and "too thin"; the recall, which amounted to approximately 17% of all women's pants sold in its stores, impacted its financial results. The resulting financial loss and damage to the brand led to the forced departure of the company's Chief Product Officer, Sheree Waterson, and of its CEO, Christine Day.
Founder's statements
Founder Chip Wilson has made numerous controversial statements that have been widely derided as offensive. In a 2004 interview, Wilson mocked Japanese pronunciation of the company's name. In 2013 he said that the company did not make clothes for plus-size women because it was too costly. In an effort to explain away excessive pilling in the brand's clothing, he blamed some customers for wearing Lululemon's clothes improperly or for having body shapes inconsistent with his clothes. In an interview for Bloomberg TV in 2013, he stated that some women's bodies were unsuitable for the brand's clothing. Time called the remarks "fat shaming".Comments such as these reportedly led to Wilson's resignation as chairman. In June 2016, Wilson published an open letter to shareholders stating that the company had "lost its way" and given up market share to Nike and Under Armour, after he was denied the opportunity to speak at the company's annual meetings. Since then, Wilson has used his website "Elevate Lululemon" to criticize the brand and business.