Watch Out Nike & Under Armour, Lululemon is Coming

Before we dive into this post, I wanna give a quick shout out to my homegirl who, after reviewing my blog, said that I should think about talking about Lululemon becoming a huge name in athlesiure because it pertains to my blog. Being the receptive good friend I am, I immediately Google those words and bam! This article shows up saying those exact things! My girl was on it and I am so proud, so I dedicate this here post to her.

I don't even think I'm surprised at the fact that Lululemon is really becoming a big name in athleisure because its whole premise was built on yoga clothing. Nike and Under Armour to their credit are more sports and streetwear minded but the first think you think of when you think of regular old athleisure is Nike or Adidas or sometimes even good ol Under Armour, or at least mine did. Lululemon was built on a loyal following of a certain target market of women essentially who love yoga and can afford to do it often and spend $150 on a pair of leggings. Coming out of the gate, Lululemon was ahead of expectations and is beating out its competitor of GAP Inc's Athleta that has the exact same premise. I could hit you with some boring numbers like how they reported a 25% jump in quarterly sales getting them to $649.7 million, and a 62% jump in online sales because that would be boring wouldn't it?? But we have to admit that numbers like this put them up with the industry giants that are Adidas, Nike and Under Armour and they show no signs of stopping anytime soon after branching out of their original yoga roots, and now they are even expanding their consumer base to men. That's huge!! You would think "what would a store that specializes in women's leggings and sports bras, what could they possibly offer men?" And to that I say...hoodies! Sweatpants! That's all you really need to attract men, and they definitely love a nice "technical, performance" fabric (ask Nike). 
I think that Nike and Under Armour still have their thumb firmly on the pulse of their industry, especially with them being such household names for men and athlets but they cannot ignore that Lululemon is gunning for their market share. And ohhhh don't even let Lululemon make a lower price brand or line, then even brokies like me who want from afar could afford to buy their name. They are already starting to unveil their own shoe brand with high end shoe label APL. I am impressed, to say the least, this company is not to be slept on or put in a box.