Out of all the trends that have come and gone, the lululemon obsession is my least favorite. All I see nowadays when I leave my room is mismatched, pastel, overpriced athleisure. 

The founder, Chip Wilson, once owned a company called Westbeach Sports and made close to 5 million a year from a primarily Japanese customer base. In Japan, North American brand names held a very high appeal and the customers there would pay a premium amount for authentic products. Wilson said that the name for his new brand was created with three L’s – a sound that does not exist in the Japanese phonetic alphabet – so that Japanese speakers would think it to be very western and authentic. 

He told a Canadian business post magazine “it’s funny to watch [Japanese speakers] try and say it.”

Seriously? 

The brand’s foundations and irritable history aren’t the only thing that I loathe about it. Although the list is never ending, here are two reasons: they’re too expensive and not inclusive enough.

This is the most expensive athletic wear brand that I have ever seen. Obviously this is not Prada or Versace, so why is the starting price for a pair of leggings $118? People may say that it’s because of the fabric, or that you’re paying for the label, but when you can get the same product for half that price or even less, is the label really worth it? I don’t think so. I don’t mean to get too deep here, but this just shows your privilege. Many of the girls I see wearing different lululemon outfits everyday have either worked their asses off to spend thousands on clothes, or they came from money.  More often than not, it’s the latter.

Another thing about the expensive nature of the brand is that it excludes an entire demographic of people. The lower middle class and under is completely just cut from their idea of who buys their products. Their marketing ideas aren’t created with the idea of these people in mind, and never have their “sales” appealed to me. 

Now, it’s 2022. Why are we still making brands and creating clothes that aren’t universal to every body type and every size? The completely erratic, and quite frankly idiotic, sizing they use just frustrates me down to my core. One thing that I have noticed about lululemon’s most popular shirts is that they are very basic. The shirts are slim-fitting workout shirts that are geared toward people with smaller chests. They come in short or long sleeve options and many colors -albeit all pastel. Now not to get all “poor me,” but I cannot fit into one of their shirts. They aren’t made for people with larger than a D cup chest. 

As for leggings and other bottom options, the sizes range from 0-20, which sounds like a lot doesn’t it? 

Wrong. 

There are only ten, and to put that in inches, the listed waist sizes range from 21.5 to 43 inches. Now many of you may think, “Wow, that’s a decent range.” Wrong again. A 00 in jeans is 24-25 inches and a 18W is 42 inches. This does include many sizes and alot of women, but there are also many that it doesn’t include. Also, on the size guide, the measurements are a certain size waist to a larger hip ratio. This totally leaves out all the women with smaller hips and larger waists.

Even still, the brand takes over the minds of teen and young adult women. 

Some articles and pages compare their huge following to that of a cult. Let me tell you, I don’t disagree. The people I’ve met that are “lulu” fanatics will go to the ends of the earth to say that the brand is superior to all other athletic brands. I don’t want to call them crazy, but they’re definitely a little crazy.

Anyways, I feel like lululemon should take a hard look at what it means to be a clothing brand in 2022.