Lululemon coming: Can India build a desi yoga brand?

Time of India

a day ago

Lululemon Athletica
is coming to India by partnering with
Tata CLiQ
. The Canadian athletic apparel retailer began as a small brand for yoga apparel and grew into a big global company which designs, distributes and retails athletic apparel, footwear and accessories, and, of course, yoga pants. It will open its first store in India as well as e-commerce on their luxury and fashion platform in the second half of 2026.
Lululemon's entry into India might appear as an ironic twist to many, forcing them to think why the biggest global yoga brand belongs to Canada and not India, the home of yoga. Yoga may have its home in India, but its workplace is America. With thousands of yoga studios dotting big cities as well as small, nondescript towns; dozens of yoga styles; and millions of practitioners, you could be excused for thinking that yoga is more American than Indian.
Commodification of yoga aside, so many people doing yoga do offer vast business opportunities of different kinds. Yet India, the home of yoga, has failed to produce any global yoga merchandise brand. It's fair to say that India has not only neglected its heritage of yoga, but also failed to capitalise on its huge popularity in the West.
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by Taboola
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The rise of Lululemon
Lululemon
started out small in Vancouver in Canada in 1998 as a company selling yoga apparel, mostly stretchable leggings made of nylon and lycra for women, perfect for all the stretching and sweating in a yoga session. The West Coast, known for its hippie culture, was the best locale for such a company. In 2013, the company made its third consecutive appearance on Fortune's Fastest-Growing Companies list.
The yoga crowd was looking for a lifestyle definition and Lululemon provided it. Lululemon clothes became the uniform of American yogis. The trend caught on even among people not doing yoga. Lululemon-style leggings started displacing jeans as people began using them as casual wear. Jeans companies tried using stretchable denim to compete with the yoga leggings.
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In 2007, Lululemon came out with an initial public offering, raising $327.6 million by selling 18.2 million shares. The next year, Christine Day, a former co-president of Starbucks, became its CEO. Today, Lululemon is another name for yoga in the West. With a presence in more than 30 markets around the world, it has a footprint across North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and China Mainland. In 2024, the company surpassed $10 billion in annual revenue for the first time,
driven by growth across our merchandise categories, channels, and markets, as per its annual report. It saw growth in every market that it operates in, and its total revenue rose by 41% in China Mainland, 27% in Rest of World, and 4% in the Americas.
India is a crucial piece in Lululemon's strategy as it chases global growth. In 2021, it opened a tech hub in Bengaluru, its first outside North America. The idea was to step up its digital offerings and omnichannel experience. The Bengaluru centre works in areas such as data science, machine learning, and full-stack cloud engineering to support merchandise planning, product and location information management.
The business of yoga
The global yoga clothing market size reached $28.8 Billion in 2024, as per a report by IMARC Group, a market research company. It expects the market to reach $53.4 billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.54% during 2025-2033. The rising health and wellness awareness, increasing athleisure trend, burgeoning participation in yoga, growing focus on comfort and performance, rising influence of social media and celebrities, and a rising number of specialty brands are some of the major factors propelling the market.
Top-tier brands like Lululemon and Alo target premium consumers while giants like Nike and Adidas serve broader markets including budget-conscious buyers. Premium players face pressure from discounting and competition. Lululemon has had to mark down items up to 40%, with full-price sell-through dropping from 95% to 75%. North American saturation makes international growth essential as the global yoga clothing market is far from saturated. Fueled by wellness trends, athleisure's everyday appeal, tech-enabled materials, and e-commerce growth, it's poised to grow significantly. While North America remains dominant, emerging markets and under-served segments (men, children, sustainable fashion) present major growth avenues. Success will hinge on innovation, both product and experiential, as well as strategic expansion and sustainability commitments.
Can India create another Lululemon?
Lululemon created the apparel for a niche customer, the West Coast yogi who wanted to perform yoga in comfortable attire and also look good while doing that. But surely an Indian company manufacturing yoga merchandise right inside the home of yoga too can have traction among yoga customers across the world.
Yoga merchandise is not limited to leggings and bras. It could be T-shirts, yoga mats, jute bags, pillows and bolsters and yoga props such as ropes and swings. Khadi products as yoga merchandise will carry authentic branding. A new yoga attire can be invented made of khadi which is not skin-hugging but light and airy, and organic to boot. Now that India has started promoting yoga as India's contribution to the world, can Indian businesses ride the global yoga wave?