The Ledger
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Wilson Blames Infamous Lululemon Pilling On Customers Sizing Down For Shapewear
“Women were coming into the store and not wanting Lululemon for athletics. They were coming in looking for it to shape their bodies. But the sewing technique and the fabric wasn't meant for it. So what they were doing is buying two to four sizes smaller than wh…”
Wilson: Lululemon name chosen because Japanese consumers perceived 'L' as North American
“And it started to occur to me that the five big trading companies in Japan were making North American brand name clothing. In other words, they would come up with their own brand name in order to deliver that to the Japanese customer. But Japanese, those big t…”
Wilson claims 2013 sheer pants pilled because women bought sizes too small
“Suddenly, women were coming into the store and not wanting Lululemon for athletics. They were coming in looking For it to shape their bodies. But the sewing technique and the fabric wasn't meant for it. So, what they were doing is buying two to four sizes smal…”
Chip Wilson: Advisor push to sell shares diluted founder board power
“The advice I got was, hey, Chip, you should sell more of your shares into the marketplace, because the more shares that are out there, the more the institutional investors will be able to get a good chunk of it and be able to hold it for a long time. But the r…”
Lululemon's board ousted Wilson as chairman, deeming him a public liability
“The board took me off as chairman because they felt like I wasn't the right front man for the company anymore, and I was a liability to Lou Lemon.”
Wilson claims he was likely the only person pursuing non-mountain technical apparel
“I was probably the only person in the world thinking about Technical clothing outside of mountain clothing.”
Wilson Claims Nike Did Not Understand Apparel Because Their Shorts Caused Chafing
“Well, Nike was a shoe company, so I know they didn't really understand clothing either, because even in their running shorts, they had these open seams in between their legs, and I'd run five K and I'd totally rash.”
Wilson Claims Bankers Push Founders To Sell Shares To Dilute Their Power
“But the reality of it is, is all these were techniques to have kind of an owner-founder dissipate and kind of move into the background and not have the power, so to speak, to control a board.”
Wilson: Nike did not understand clothing design because their shorts caused chafing
“While Nike was a shoe company, so I know they didn't really understand clothing either, because even in their running shorts, they had these open seams in between their legs, and I'd run five K
and I'd totally rash.”
Chip Wilson: Lululemon went public too quickly under private equity pressure
“The private equity, they're there to make money for their investors, and I had a very long-term vision for Lou Lemon, and they had quite a short-term vision for Lou Lemon. So we went, ah, we ended up going public way too quickly.”
Wilson: 2013 Bloomberg remarks were antithesis of what he built at Lululemon
“Well, it was a poor choice of words. It was absolutely devastating to me. It was devastating to my family. I mean, people would come up to my wife and go, how can you be with a man like that that would say that type of thing? But more so it was the antithesis …”
Wilson follows a 'three times' rule before acting on new trends
“I have always believed in this three times thing, so when I see something three times, and I move really quickly.”
Lululemon Tripled Competitor Margins By Controlling Both Manufacturing And Retail
“Nobody in the world had, was owning manufacturing right to the retail store. I mean, I was taking triple the profit of most people.”
Wilson sold West Beach based on brand value days before missing payroll
“We quite honestly could not make payroll on Friday, and we sold Wednesday based on brand value only.”
Wilson operates on a heuristic: observing a trend three times triggers action
“I have always believed in this three times thing, so when I see something three times, and I move really quickly.”
Wilson: The 1998 rise in female university graduates birthed the athleisure market
“I had to read an article in the paper one day that told me that 60% of the graduates at a university were women in 1998.
And I went, wow, you know,
Something really, really big is going to come out of this, and that is we're going to end up with a market tha…”
Wilson: Lululemon Created First Cotton-Feeling Synthetic Athletic Fabric
“When I started to do my first design meetings with these 10 groups of 10 women, and we had like five or six samples, and they touched the fabric, and they put it on, it was the first time that really a synthetic fabric felt like cotton.”
Wilson: Lululemon captured triple normal retail profits through vertical integration
“I mean, you have to understand that, again, that nobody in the world had, was owning manufacturing right to the retail store. I mean, I was taking triple the profit of most people.”
Wilson accidentally sold 48% of Lululemon to private equity, losing board control
“I really only wanted to sell 30% of the stock to the private equity guys, but I ended up selling 48, so I lost control of the board seats, and I didn't know how to negotiate for them.”
Chip Wilson: Small Fabric-Cutting Efficiencies Save Thousands in Apparel Production
“Once I got into big production and you'd lay 50 to a hundred layers of fabric down, When you can save even five, six, seven inches of fabric it can mean thousands of dollars.”
Wilson: Mall Stand Made $1,000 Daily Selling Shorts Versus $120 at Oil Job
“In a day we'd make like a thousand dollars a day selling the shorts, and I was making like a 120 dollars at the oil company, so it wasn't tough to figure out the math of that.”
Wilson: West Beach wholesale lost $1M annually while retail made $1M
“My wholesale business was losing a million dollars a year, and then I had these two retail stores that were making a million dollars a year.”
Wilson Sold First Company Days Before Missing Payroll Entirely On Brand Value
“We sold to a public company out of Salem, Oregon, Moral Snowboards, and you know, we quite honestly could not make payroll on Friday, and we sold Wednesday based on brand value only.”
Chip Wilson: Walked away with $800,000 post-tax from West Beach sale
“I walked away with a million, and after tax, 800,000, and then you've gotta, you know, I had paid myself probably 30 to 40,000 dollars for 18 years.”
Wilson: Bought four $40k flat-seam sewing machines in Japan for Lululemon
“I went to Japan. I'd heard about these machines that were 40,000 dollars a piece, which was Huge at the time, and I, ah, bought four of them.”
Wilson: Lululemon's logo is a stylized 'A' from 'Athletically Hip'
“The logo actually came from Athletically Hip. So it was a stylized A from the athletic.”
Wilson: Shannon Gray became Lululemon CEO within two weeks of being hired
“I hired this woman who Shannon Gray was her name. The first person I'd ever seen that had a design portfolio with using stretch clothing, and within about two weeks, I, after hiring her, I left her in charge of Lou Lemon as the CEO for a year, and I went back …”
Lululemon Used Cheap Back-Alley Pop-Ups To Seed Markets Before Building Stores
“So we would go into every city in the future, set up a store in a back alley or in a side street and develop our market, invite yoga instructors in before we spent, you know, 600 to a million dollars on a store.”
Wilson: Intended to sell 30% of Lululemon, but sold 48%
“You know, I really only want to sell 30% of the stock to the private equity guys, but I ended up selling 48.”
Wilson: West Beach lost $1M on wholesale while retail made $1M
“My wholesale business was losing a million dollars a year, and then I had these two retail stores that were making a million dollars a year.”
Wilson: Direct-to-consumer retail captures $60 profit on $20 items versus wholesale
“If I made something for 20 dollars, then I would have to sell it to Dick's Sporting Goods for 40, and then they would sell it for 80. Where in my own retail stores, then I was putting it in there for 20, and making 80 dollars, so there was a 60 dollar profit i…”
Wilson: Walked away with $800,000 after taxes from West Beach sale
“So I walked away with a million, and after tax, 800,000, and then you've got a, you know, I had paid myself probably 30 to 40,000 dollars for 18 years.”
Wilson: In the 1990s, gym culture ignored athletic apparel aesthetics
“At the time, the fashion of gyms was to wear your very worst clothing, and mostly because probably 90% of people in gyms were men, and, ah, and you know, you knew you were gonna sweat in it, you were gonna get ugly in it, and you just wanted to throw it in the…”
Wilson: Spent $160,000 buying four Japanese flat-seam sewing machines
“I went to Japan. I'd heard about these machines that were 40,000 dollars a piece, which was Huge at the time, and I bought four of them.”
Wilson: The Lululemon logo originated as a stylized 'A' for Athletically Hip
“But the logo actually came from Athletically Hip. So it was a stylized A from the athletic.”
Wilson: Lululemon could not finish first retail store without $50K severance
“And if it wasn't for that 50,000 dollars, we never would have been able to finish our store.”
Wilson: Placed Lululemon logo on waistband to avoid corporate chest branding
“I put it there because I was very clear that I didn't want big logoing, and I thought that somebody should look in the mirror and not see any logos. And I definitely didn't like logos on the left breast because I looked at it as being Kind of corporate logoing…”
Lululemon tested new markets using cheap alley pop-ups before investing in stores
“So we would go into every city in the future, set up a store in a back alley or in a side street and develop our market, invite yoga instructors in before we spent, you know, 600 to a million dollars on a store.”
Wilson: Snowboard clothing commanded 4x to 5x the price of surf and skate apparel
“Snowboard clothing was four or five times the price of surf and skate t-shirts and shorts.”
Chip Wilson: Saving inches on layered fabric yields thousands of dollars
“Once I got into big production and you'd lay 50 to a hundred layers of fabric down, When you can save even five, six, seven inches of fabric it can mean thousands of dollars.”
Wilson earned $175,000 working on the Alaska oil pipeline at age 19
“In today's dollars, probably about 600,000. And back then it was about 175,000 American.”
Wilson made $1,000 daily selling shorts compared to $120 oil company salary
“And in a day we'd make like a thousand dollars a day selling the shorts, and I was making like a 120 dollars at the oil company, so it wasn't tough to figure out the math of that.”
Wilson: Japan made up roughly 30% of global snowboarding sales
“Japan had just exploded, so it was about 30% of all snowboarders business.”
Wilson: First Lululemon Store Doubled as a Morning and Evening Yoga Studio
“The only way I can, I figure out how to do it is to combine my business with Fiona Stang, my yoga teachers, and I had all my clothing on rolling racks, and we'd move it all out to the side and have yoga classes there early in the morning and then at night.”