INTRODUCING LULULEMON WOMEN’S SNEAKERS

INTRODUCING
LULULEMON
WOMEN’S SNEAKERS

2022 OCTOBER ISSUE

IN-Design | Product Intelligence

LULULEMON FOR YOUR FEET: BEHIND THE DESIGN

Courtesy of: LULULEMON FOR YOUR FEET: BEHIND THE DESIGN | Mar 8, 2022 | 1:41

Introduction

March is the month of the year that the world of the sneakers would have their new releases of the year. For the runners, especially after being lockdown for the winter, March is the month for them to plan their joining of the running events. For them to choose the running shoes is also an important consideration.

We have decided to promote the industry to bring the awareness of our readers and this is the industry that we should pay attention. Running is becoming part of the lifestyle for many of us already, and it is time for us to look deeper to make it more rewarding for us.

This article is inspired by the IN-Design Team who has brought to our attention in their publications. We put the work in our research and hopefully that this would become a series of its own. And from our resources, we will focus on the marathons from the United States, its market, and how the brands for the sneakers are doing. Through our collaboration with IN-Digest and our contacts with some specialists in this field, we will also feature China as one of the major market. These are all for the awareness of our readers that we would like to serve.

This is an introduction piece, but once we have grown the article into a series, we would like to bring the subject out more consistently. We would also like to ask for your feedback and look for some interaction.

Newcomer to the Scene

It was on March 8, 2022, the sports brand, Lululemon, trade under Nasdaq LULU, released for the first time the women’s running shoes, and announced its official entry into the field of sports shoes. In 2023, it will launch a men’s sneaker series.

When the announcement was made, the analysts of the brokerage companies mentioned that the sneaker market is closed to saturation, and it is a deviation from its core apparel business.

Lululemon Athletica Inc., a U.S.-Canadian athletic apparel retailer with its headquarter in British Colombia and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1998 by Chip Wilson as a retailer of yoga pants and other yoga-wear and later expanded also to athletic wear, lifestyle, accessories and personal care products.

It has a revenue of $6.26 billion in 2021 and 491 locations as of February 2020. It has a market value of $40 billion.

It was as early as 2019, Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald announced plans to enter into the footwear arena. In March 2021 during its earnings conference call, once again revealed its plan to launch a range of footwear products in early 2022. In June of the same year, it opened its footwear division in Portland, USA.

In October 2021, Lululemon disclosed the brand’s first footwear product patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office. In the relevant picture, a sole has half of the Lululemon’s logo, which indicates that a pair of shoes will for, a complete logo. It is reported that Mark Oleson, the inventor of the patent, worked before in Under Armour and Adidas, and another inventor, Damon Clegg, was the designer and creative director for Nike for ten years.

Lululemon’s first running shoes is called “Blissfeel” and its target customers are those female runners. It is with resilience and shock absorption, and is suitable for running, walking, and other functions. This first pair of sneakers has been developed for four years, scanning a million times the women’s feet, and countless rounds of wear-tests. It was launched at $148 with ten colors to choose from.

Followed in the year were three other releases from Lululemon’s shoes. Instead of following many other women’s sports shoes on the market, who are based on men’s shoe designs with slight modifications, Lululemon is taking the women’s need and carried out development for the entire collection. We have seen the Chargefeel Women’s Sneaker, suitable for gym training and short-distance running; Lululemon Restfeel slippers and later in the fall, Lululemon Strongfeel.

In 2023, it will launch men’s shoes in their special editions and seasonal collections.

Lululemon’s emerge into the sneaker market is no accident. Throughout the development history of the international sports brands, they all started from a certain sport, such as football, basketball, track and field, and continue to extend their business by expanding into multiple categories, and finally become a full-category sports brand. Take for instance, all sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Anta, and Li Ning have successful opened yoga product lines, and Lululemon can no longer dominate.

In fact Lululemon started from yoga pants, the line has gradually extended to jogging pants, shirts, swimwear, tennis-wear and other sportswear, and entered into men’s sports series. It has also entered into accessories, such as sports bags, hair bands and drinking bottles.

It has spent $500 million to acquire the Mirror, a smart home-fitness company.

The company’s diversified development strategy has been considered as successful. But the analysts from the stock brokerage in Wall Street are skeptical as the gross margin for footwear is usually lower than that of apparel, the management team for footwear can be very different from the apparel business. And there are already many inherent brands in the sports shoes market and they have already established their own clientele.

The professional running market has also been established. For the top marathon runners, they have already signed with the sports brands and many of them have maintained a long-term cooperative relationship and they are also the spokespersons for those brands.

The most popular list of female runners are wearing Nike, Li Ning, Adidas, Xtep, Asics, as they are the top of the list already. For a “newcomer” like Lululemon, to enter and catch up with the existing brands in the women’s sports shoe market is going to be very difficult. One thing that is positive is the female runners have grown rapidly in the recent years, and in the past year it was at 18.4%. With women’s participation in the sports field, it looks promising as Lululemon has a very large female customers who are very loyal. Also customer’s expectation for Lululemon is comfort.