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Lululemon, commonly styled as lululemon ( ; all lowercase), is a Canadian multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and incorporated in Delaware, United States, as Lululemon Athletica Inc. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga wear, and has expanded to also sell athletic wear, lifestyle apparel, accessories, and personal care products. The company has 711 stores (as of January 2024) and also sells online.
Lululemon's research and development lab, Whitespace, is housed within its headquarters. Its employees include scientists and physiologists. In 2019, the company introduced a streetwear brand called Lab in select stores. That year, Lululemon also announced plans to expand its men's clothing business. In March 2022, Lululemon expanded into footwear. The initial launch focused on women's footwear, later expanding to include men's styles.
The company promoted its branded resale program, Like New, at South by Southwest in 2025, having started the program nationwide in 2022. The program allows consumers to trade in their clothing for store credit, typically ranging from $5 - $25 per item, and the company then resells the used clothing online.
In 2014, Lululemon opened its first store in Europe, in Covent Garden, London.Suzanne Bearne, Drapers." lululemon limbers up to open first UK store in Covent Garden." February 20, 2014. February 4, 2015. In February 2015, Wilson announced that he was resigning from the board,Michael Calia, February 2, 2015, Wall Street Journal, lululemon Founder Wilson Quits Board: Resignation Comes About Six Months After Disagreement Was Settled on Yoga-Apparel Maker’s Strategy. Retrieved May 6, 2015 and Michael Casey, former lead director of the board, would replace him.Huffington Post, Chip Wilson Leaving lululemon In 2018, Laurent Potdevin resigned as CEO and from the company's board due to misconduct related to a relationship he was having with a then-employee and later contractor. 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.Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer, November 1, 2013, USA Today, "New quality complaints about Lululemon pants: Just a few months after company pulled yoga wear from shelves, new quality issues arise". Retrieved May 6, 2015, "...New yoga pants ... recent complaints ... still too sheer... pants pilling after a few months of wear – or even just a few uses – and about holes and seams coming apart..." The same year, Lululemon recalled its black yoga pants that were unintentionally transparent and "too thin"; the recall, which amounted to approximately 17 percent of all women's pants sold in its stores, impacted its . 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.
From its founding through 2015, Lululemon incorporated concepts from the Landmark Forum into its leadership and development training. According to a company source, seventy per cent of managers are hired internally. Store managers are responsible for their store's layout, colour coordination, and community involvement.
Lululemon Athletica became a Nasdaq-100 company on December 24, 2018. In 2019, Lululemon announced an investment in MIRROR, a home exercise startup that sells interactive fitness mirrors with a camera and speakers for at-home workouts. Capitalizing on a growing trend of people conducting virtual workouts at home instead of going to a gym due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MIRROR was formally acquired by Lululemon on June 29, 2020, for $500 million and was rebranded as lululemon Studio. The companies also planned to create new content for the device, starting with meditation classes. Following the acquisition, Lululemon recorded a post-tax impairment charge of $442.7million related to the acquisition at the end of the 2022 fiscal year.
In 2024, Lululemon Athletica Inc. agreed to acquire the operations and retail locations of its franchise partner in Mexico for an undisclosed amount.
Lululemon's founder Chip Wilson has made numerous controversial statements throughout his career. In 2013, Wilson stated 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 the design of the clothing. In an interview for Bloomberg Television in 2013, he stated that some women's bodies were unsuitable for the brand's clothing. Time called the remarks "fat shaming".Eliana Dockterman, November 13, 2013, Time magazine, "What Lululemon Could Learn From Abercrombie About Fat Shaming: A co-founder of Lululemon said his yoga pants just aren’t built for 'some women's bodies.' That's just a bad business decision". Retrieved May 6, 2015, "Clearly the feminist arguments against fat shaming are falling on deaf ears at Lululemon ... torrent of criticism hasn't inspired Wilson to change his tune." 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.
In 2021, an unnamed company director pushed employees to create an All Lives Matter campaign to be displayed on its website in response to the murder of George Floyd. Employees pushed back but were told to create a mock up with the All Lives Matter copy; however, they also created a Black Lives Matter mock up that was selected instead. The director apologized and subsequently left the company.
In May 2023, it was reported that a Lululemon store in Atlanta, Georgia, fired two employees for calling the police during a looting, but the company said that they were fired for physically confronting or following the looters. The two employees physically approached the looters, and one of them took a video recording of the looting with her smartphone. They then followed the looters out of the store towards the parking lot. The three looters were arrested within days and charged with felony robbery.
In 2025, the company filed a lawsuit alleging Costco infringed on its intellectual property.
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