Core Values Of Lululemon Company

Lululemon Athletic Case Study Lululemon Athletica incorporated was founded in 1998 by Dennis J. “Chip” Wilson, his previous 20-year career was in the surf, ski and skate wear industries. Chip fell in love with “yoga” and with his past experience he recognized an opportunity for providing comfortable, breathable and absorbent materials for the yoga beginner up to the master yoga participant. Lululemon is a “designer and retailer of technical athletic apparel…we have developed a distinctive corporate culture with a mission to produce products which create transformational experiences for people to live happy, healthy, fun lives” (Lululemon, 2015). The core values of the company mission are to attract “passionate and motivated employees who

According to a report by Morgan Stanley, the active wear market is to reach $83 billion in sales by 2020, a more than 30 percent jump from 2015. Of Lululemon’s two main competitors Under Armour is projecting to generate $3.91 billion in fiscal year 2015 and the other competitor, London-based Sweaty Betty, which was founded about the same time as Lululemon and which has planned expansion in to the North American market and has around $50 million in annual sales. Further, there are other key rival companies that are expanding their sales markets to include “yoga” and high end sports apparel industry. These companies are large brand names like Nike, Adidas, Gap, Inc. (including the Athleta brand), Lucy Activewear Inc. and bebe stores inc. (including BEBE SPORT collection) (Lululemon, 2015). These companies already produce many sport and athletic products but would still be “new entrants” and intense competition in this apparel market.

• Athleta was acquired by Gap in 2008, the fast growing chain and online retailer has emerged specializing in “comfortable fashionable, high-performance women’s apparel for workouts, sports, physically active recreational activities, and leisure wear” (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, & Strickland,

Sales at Lucy retail stores in 2013 were in the range $110 million. Lucy designed for style, performance, and fit that was intended for yoga, running, training, and other fitness and active recreational activities. The wide range of women’s sizes from XXS to XL will be something that women customers will be receptive to. The average size for a typical American woman, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, is 37.5-inch waist, 166.2 lbs. and 5’ foot 3” inches tall with average clothing size of 14-16. Lucy markets products to average size women.

Reference: Ingraham, C. (2015, Aug 11). The absurdity of women’s clothing sizes, in one chart. The Washington Post.

The bargaining power of suppliers is low due to Lululemon’s not having a long term contract with its suppliers and having the ability to pull from a large, diverse supplier base which limits supplier bargaining power. Lululemon has the ability to switch buyers to keep cost low; they can easily switch their demand for high quality material if dissatisfaction is found with the supplier product. The importance to Lululemon’s brand reputation is to protect having the “technically advanced fabrics and innovative functional features that we believe will advance our product line and differentiate us from the competition” (Lululemon,