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| Photo via TODAY |
There was a Lululemon story in the news recently that stuck in my head longer than it probably should have.
Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon agreed to stop publicly criticizing the company for the next 18 months. Which honestly says a lot, considering how openly he's talked for years about the brand losing its “cool factor” and becoming too mainstream.
At first it sounded like normal founder drama.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized something.
For a brand like Lululemon, losing its cool isn’t really about the clothes.
Because people were never just buying leggings.
The prices still kind of shock me sometimes.
$128 leggings.
$150 hoodies.
Sometimes more.
And this is happening while everybody is complaining about groceries, rent, gas, insurance, basically everything.
That’s what makes it interesting.
The stores are still full. Not with influencers, either. Mostly normal people.
A mom killing time after school pickup.
Someone walking in with a laptop bag after sitting at a cafe all afternoon.
People stopping in between errands.
Honestly, probably the same people talking about cutting spending everywhere else.
But, Lululemon somehow still doesn’t register in the same category as obvious luxury spending.
That part feels important.
I think the way people spend money has changed a lot over the last few years.
The old version of "doing well" used to be more visible.
buying a house,
upgrading your car,
saving toward something big.
Now those things feel a lot further away for a lot of people.
Home prices have been brutal for years. Mortgages feel heavier.
Even buying a decent new car suddenly feels like a serious financial decision.
Reuters recently wrote about middle- and upper-income consumers reshuffling how they spend under cost-of-living pressure. And honestly that feels accurate.
It doesn’t always look like people are spending less.
It looks more like the money moved.
A Pilates membership.
A matcha habit.
A pair of premium leggings.
Running clubs.
Protein snacks that somehow cost $8.
Smaller purchases. Easier to justify.
That’s probably why brands like Lululemon still work.
Consumer research from companies like Start.io describes Lululemon’s core customers as wellness-focused, image-conscious, and comfortable paying more for a premium lifestyle.
And that sounds about right.
Because the logo does something.
Put on Lululemon and suddenly the purchase gets framed differently.
It doesn’t feel like fashion.
It doesn’t even feel like overspending.
People file it under things like self care, health, discipline, investing in yourself.
That’s a very different kind of spending psychologically.
I think that’s what Chip Wilson was really talking about when he said the brand lost some of its cool factor.
The product matters, obviously. But the real value was always the feeling attached to it.
The idea that wearing Lululemon said something positive about your life.
That you had your routine together.
That things were going okay.
And maybe that’s why people still keep buying it, even now.
Not because anyone genuinely believes leggings should cost $128.
But because some purchases feel like they’re buying more than the thing itself.