{"id":342499,"date":"2025-12-13T11:48:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/342499\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T11:48:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T11:48:15","slug":"lululemon-sales-fall-in-north-america-as-consumers-tighten-their-wallets-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/342499\/","title":{"rendered":"Lululemon sales fall in North America as consumers tighten their wallets – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian apparel brand Lululemon<\/a> reported quarterly earnings that showed sales dropped in North America as many Canadians grapple with the high cost of living<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This comes as the so-called \u201ck-shaped\u201d economic trend<\/a> continues, which sees lower-income consumers pulling back on non-essential spending and prioritizing value, while higher-income households increase their wealth and are able to spend more on these purchases.<\/p>\n

The Bank of Canada noted in November that consumers overall are more \u201ccautious\u201d<\/a> amid an uncertain job market and trade war with the United States.<\/p>\n

Regardless of consumer incomes, when choosing to buy items like yoga pants and other athleisure staples<\/a>, Lululemon has been struggling in some regions of the world as the competition continues to challenge the company\u2019s share of the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Lululemon came to the market, it basically invented the category, right? No one had ever even heard of athleisure before Lululemon,\u201d says Doug Stephens, a retail analyst and founder and CEO at Retail Prophet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the company really does need to sit down and retool for a new era where they face a very saturated market in their category. They face a different kind of consumer and certainly different economic conditions \u2014 so that\u2019s going to take a big rethink.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLululemon\u2019s stock hits four-year low\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

At one point, Lululemon was mostly alone in a clothing market that is now saturated with dozens of other brands. These include Alo Yoga, Fabletics and Athleta, while companies like Nike, Adidas and Under Armour have expanded their product lines to compete in the space.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe perfect pose that the brand used to execute with ease has given way to a much scrappier posture that has been present for quite some time,\u201d said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, in a written note following the earnings release.<\/p>\n

Saunders added that Lululemon\u00a0faces three problems: The market for athleisure is weaker than it was, while the competition is \u201cmore intense and of a higher caliber.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He also said that against this backdrop, Lululemon\u2019s execution has faltered.<\/p>\n

Lululemon is one of several companies that offer products like yoga pants and other athletic gear, but at comparably higher prices than some more budget-friendly options that may be available.<\/p>\n

In June, Lululemon filed a lawsuit against Costco<\/a> alleging the company was selling knock-off products, or \u201cdupes\u201d of some of its patented apparel lines under its own Kirkland branding, including some hoodies, jackets and pants \u2014 and at a fraction of the price compared to Lululemon.<\/p>\n

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Lululemon says in the third quarter of 2025, it saw its comparable sales in the Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico and South America) fall five per cent compared to the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, sales everywhere else climbed a total of nine per cent, and China spiked 24 per cent.<\/p>\n

Overall, Lululemon saw its sales improve worldwide, but the company may be losing its grip over the North American market \u2014 including in Canada, where the company was founded and is currently headquartered.<\/p>\n

The company also announced its CEO, Calvin McDonald, plans to step down from his role at the end of January 2026, but will stay in an advisory role.<\/p>\n

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In a statement<\/a> published in the earnings release, McDonald did not expand on what led to the decision.<\/p>\n

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\u201cServing as CEO of Lululemon has been the highlight of my career, and I am incredibly proud of everything our team has accomplished over the last seven years,\u201d said McDonald.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, we have transformed the athletic apparel industry and the opportunity ahead for Lululemon is substantial. I believe the outstanding product pipeline we\u2019ve built, and action plan we\u2019ve put into place, will yield positive results, and deliver value to shareholders in the months and years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stephens says once a new CEO is picked and steps into the role, they will have a difficult task of bringing a completely different perspective that will shape where the brand can go in the future.<\/p>\n

He also says it may not be a good strategy to stray from the \u201cpremium\u201d association Lululemon has in order to offer more affordable options for some consumers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe premium positioning is where Lululemon wants to be, and I would say \u2018hang on to it, be worth the extra money.\u2019 Because what we know about every generation, whether we\u2019re talking about baby boomers, millennials, or Gen Z, is that they will make room in their budgets for things that they feel are really worth it,\u201d says Stephens.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s products from Apple or travel experiences, we know that there\u2019s money where they want it to be for the things that they (consumers) want. It may mean sacrificing on other things, but if something is premium enough, they will stand in line for it, and they will pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 With a file from The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian apparel brand Lululemon reported quarterly earnings that showed sales dropped in North America as many Canadians grapple…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17755,48,1849,13235,10262,43,40221,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-342499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-affordability","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-consumer-spending","tag-cost-of-living","tag-headlines","tag-lululemon","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}