Q: When you talk to your customers and you discuss with them where else they might be shopping for similar product, where do you think you're taking share? And to the extent that you can see what some of your competitors are doing, do you think more competitors are trying to copy or come out with similar product to what you have in your stores?
A: our question really about where do we see other guests shop, I mean, the historically, if they're a runner, they have probably been in the Nike run product and then they try our product and they still probably have a family that they -- of products that they use from Nike. And our goal is to continue to win that guest over with our technical product. We've made some great strides, I believe, in the run short in particular and if you just look at -- if you go to any race now, you'll see a well-represented fraction of lululemon and I think particularly in the men's shirt, you see us gaining a lot of share in that category for men as well as our run-response short. So we're continuing to refine that technical product and really go after more of that marathon runner. I would say that we've really gotten the light runner and the half-marathon runners, so continue to refine into that more technical space what's needed. In other categories such as yoga, probably the one thing that we don't have enough of in the lineup for some guests is a more light organic or cotton product. We really find that it's at our quality standard and length that we want to have the garment last for the guest, that we're not going to be doing the filmy tops and a lot of the other things that guests get that are only going to last a season or shorter. And that's not our space, so we kind of don't look at growing market share there because of our technical product focus and our desire not to be seen as active wear, but true athletic wear. So there are some categories we opt out to which leave some white space for competitors, and that's really where we see a lot of the soft line substitution, is into those spaces.
My comments:
So my sister is a marathoner/half marathoner and she wore Lululemon in her first marathon. She liked it a lot. I think she had on a Power Y, a long sleeve Swiftly (Israeli version) and one of the luxtreme crops. She's been doing half marathons lately and bought a pair of CW-X compression tights on the recommendation of one of her friends and much prefers them to luxtreme. She will use lululemon for training but now it's CW-X for the races. As for the Swifty, she likes the ones she got that were made in Israel with lycra in it but doesn't care for the newer Sri Lankan version which deleted lycra out of the recipe. She hates the lack of stretch.
9 comments:
I find it so interesting that the fabric style varies so much from factory to factory. Your comments are interesting and bring up a valid point, Lulu is lacking a compression tight.
interesting, i too have the same recipe. i'm totally in love with my CW-Xs and now only wear my lulu tights/crops to the gym for general strength training, but not to run in. i also share the opinion that the Swiftlys are a biy loose/saggy and in need of lycra. it will be interesting to see if lulu branches out into "compression" territory as it has entered "tri" and bike/spinning zones. IMO they're way behind in all those depts. and should really stick to their key competency; yoga and recreational running.
I totally agree about the compression tights. I have to admit I use the LUCY BRAND Perfect Core or X Training because they AWESOME compression. If Lululemon can copy their system..I will be exclusively Lulu!
Compression is definitely in. I wish they would branch out into more socks that actually color coordinate with their running items. Not white with colorful toes. I want full length socks with compression up to the knew in solid colors and some mixes. I would be all over those if they were made properly. A friend of mine loves the compression. I actually gave her a pair of my compression socks from Lululemon. She loves them, but only wears them for recovery, not on her runs. She bought another brand in solid black to run in because white wasn't cutting it. So, fashion does play into it a bit. So, in other words... I got her to use compression with Lululemon, but lack of colors or inventory forced her to another brand.
@ Susan - I agree !!
I have been waiting for lulu compression socks forever! I would love to see them in store as a core item in different colors that matches the outfits !!
In general, I do love lulu's run shorts. I like that they added gel pockets, unfortunately that was after I bought the bulk of my run shorts. I have worn lulu shorts for all 4/4 of my half marathons. I wore lululemon tanks for 2 of them, and a swiftly l/s to another. what I like about the tops: lightweight.
All my running gear is lulu right now, and I wore all lulu for my most recent marathon, and most likely will for my next in October as well. I love the shorts and skirts, especially all the pockets for gels and whatnot, and the swiftly shirts are wonderful imo. I really can't tell much difference from one recipe to the next, other than that the new ones seem to run a full size larger than the old recipe, maybe to compensate for the lack of lycra? It's so hot and nasty right now, I can't even imagine wearing some kind of compression tights, but I tend to run hot and I'm in shorts above 50F, and crops above 30F.
@ Geneivieve - my sister's races were in the spring/fall in Oregon so she didn't have a problem with tights. She also loves Lululemon pullovers and I bought her two MOM pullovers. In the summer she trains in Reverse Groove shorts.
I have to agree with your sis LuluAddict...the run crops are not great. I was disapointed when I tried them out...the material was so thin compared to the CW-X. I love Lulu tops. But the bottoms not so much.
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