Lululemon is a sportswear company that specializes in yoga pants, tights, bras, tops and jackets. The company was founded by Dennis “Chip” Wilson in 1998 with $ 50,000 invested by his wife (Leslie). The company started in a basement with one product: black stretchy pants for yoga enthusiasts. Currently, Lululemon employs over ten thousand employees worldwide who design and manufacture clothing for men and women, making it one of the largest clothing brands in the world!
Lululemon offers products online as well as through its retail stores located all over the world. Lululemon’s world headquarters are in Vancouver, BC with offices throughout North America, including New York City.
The company currently has over 230 stores worldwide: 132 of them are exclusively for women and 98 for men.
The most important products of the Lululemon company are clothing for women, men and children. A characteristic product of Lululemon are yoga pants (called Luon).
Lululemon’s growth is largely due to its marketing strategy of speaking to female consumers who may be more active than women interested in traditional shopping mall clothes. Lululemon offers products for yoga enthusiasts, as well as fashionable clothes and sportswear, thanks to which they can feel themselves during their daily training or errands.
Lululemon’s biggest competitors are Gap, Nike and Under Armor.
The company also sponsors charitable events around the world, including the Half Moon Bay Triathlon Festival & Celebration (an annual event) held in Half Moon Bay, California since 2003, which raised $ 20 million between 2007 and 2014; The Great Jog Across New Hampshire to the American Lung Association in 2006, raising another million dollars.
The future of Lululemon:
Lululemon has big plans for the future. They are currently working on a new store concept, which is slated to open in Boston later this year. The company also released its first-ever video game app: Lulu Adventure Run!
The future of retail stores:
Retail stores have been closing at an alarming rate over the past few years. Major retailers such as Macy’s and Sears have announced that they will cut thousands of jobs from 2016 alone. One of the reasons for this trend may be that more and more customers are choosing to shop online – especially among Millennials who make up a third of all buyers (according to Forbes). Nevertheless, many people still prefer personal interactions when buying clothes, jewelry, or other retail items from a brick-and-mortar store rather than an online store.
