Jonathan Trimble’s Post

If Chip Wilson, founder Lululemon, needs help diagnosing what might be “wrong” with the brand he founded in 1998, look no further than Reddit. It’s easy to slip into the romantic, founder, lost its creativity, get back to brand, product and soul, death by the hands of Wall Street trope—and Lululemon’s demand may be softening—but when Chip floated LULU, it was doing less than a billion sales, with year on year consistent growth all the way to over $10 billion today, and still growing. Chip, who left the business over a decade ago, holds around 8% in stock say, so every time Lululemon shares lose $100 in value, he loses maybe $1bn of net worth, at least $3bn through the course of this year. Chip is all Wall Street. Why the share price drop? I don’t know, I’m not an analyst, but it’s not sales growth. Likely, tariffs and an over-priced stock thanks to lockdowns. Sure there’s a culture shift, because that’s fashion, and the “muse” he refers to no longer wants to be a 2000s hyper productive, girl boss in leggings, and maybe stick on some baggy jeans and go to a CharliXCX party instead. But, that’s trends, that’s social media, its cyclical, and I highly doubt the core audience is going anywhere, nor is reformer pilates, or their booming menswear range (I’m a Vuori man myself, admittedly). For that reason, I’m not sure Lululemon’s board is disbanding anytime soon either. Chip just might have to wait it out and be worth $3bn, no 6, for now. Meanwhile, genius ad placement at the hands of Levi’s by the team at Reddit, give Hannah Walker and the team a “marketing👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻”. Stay gold. 🙏🏻