Lululemon Opening in Milan, Adding a Fashion Capital to its International Push
In the midst of an international growth push, the Vancouver-based active brand has been getting its passport stamped all around the world. Already this year it has teamed up with local players to enter India, open its first store in Denmark, plant two locations in Belgium and break into Turkey.
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Now Lululemon is taking on the fashion capital Milan, entering Italy with a new store at Vittorio Emanuele II 24/28 in the shopping district.
The 5,700 square-foot door opens Saturday, offering men's and women's on two floors with the brand's 'high-performance, high-style' take on looks for yoga, running, training, tennis, and golf.
From the street, shoppers will first see the store's custom 3-D printed Glide sculptural façade, which draws inspiration from the brand's Define Jacket pattern.
The façade's 'flowing geometry is designed to expand and move across the storefront, emulating the properties of fabric on an architectural scale,' according to the brand.
Sticking to its consumer connection playbook, the brand will look to sync up with the local community through a series of activations, like partnerships with local studios, run clubs or a new ambassador program.
The move into Italy is part of the brand's Power of Three x2 growth plan — aimed at quadrupling international revenue from 2021 levels by year-end 2026
Sarah Clark, senior vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the brand, said the brand is expanding from a strong base.
'Lululemon was built in North America over 25 years ago and so much of our strength and growth as a global brand has been a result of the incredible foundation and learnings from that market,' Clark said.
'As we've approached our international expansion, much like our North American growth, our strategy has been to think globally and act locally and we've always made sure that our culture, recruitment of people and talent, and relationships in the market dictate the pace in which we grow,' she said. 'We never expand quicker at the expense of those elements or for short-term gains.'
Each market is managed according to its own needs with a 'seed, scale, and maximize approach,' she said.
Lululemon tore through the U.S. market with a growth spurt that made it one of fashion's biggest names, but last year it was working to get its groove back in the key U.S. market.
The brand's comparable sales in the Americas fell 1 percent in 2024, although that decline was cushioned by a 25 percent increase in Mainland China and a 19 percent comp boost in the rest of the world.
But in the first quarter of this year, comps continued to fall in the Americas, with a 2 percent decline, while Mainland China slowed to 7 percent and the rest of the world comped up by just 6 percent.
Chief executive officer Calvin McDonald told analysts on a conference call last month that the brand was still just getting started abroad.
'We're early relative to market share, early relative to unaided brand awareness, continue to see very healthy new guest acquisition and matriculation with our existing guests and the way the guest is responding to both our newness as well as our long lineup of core items,' McDonald said. 'In some of the markets, we had outsized growth last year. But very, very healthy, strong numbers and relative to peer sets and with our market share gains — very excited and see a long runway of growth and opportunity.'
The CEO said that the international unit could make up 50 percent of the business over time, up from 25 percent last year.
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