March every year is the “freshest” month of the year in the running world. Many sports brands will release their new running shoes at this time, giving runners fresher choices before most marathon events start. However, this year’s March new shoe craze has a new face.
On March 8, sports brand Lululemon (LULU.US), known as the “Hermès of yoga pants”, released its first women’s running shoes since the brand was founded, announcing its official entry into the field of sports shoes. It is understood that Lululemon will launch three more women’s sports shoes this year, and a men’s sports shoe series in 2023. Lululemon had earlier revealed that the brand would enter the field of sports shoes. However, the financial market did not seem to be optimistic about Lululemon’s new plan. Lululemon’s stock price still fell 1.94% on the day the news was announced, continuing the recent decline. Many brokerage analysts believe , the sports shoe market is close to saturation, and Lululemon’s move may cause its management focus to deviate from its core apparel business.
After three years of planning, Lululemon’s first running shoe finally comes out
In the past, Lululemon has achieved great success in the women’s sports market with its yoga pants, and in just a few years has successfully entered the ranks of international brands, with a market value of nearly US$40 billion. At the Beijing Winter Olympics not long ago, Lululemon, as a sponsor of the Canadian team, also became popular with its maple leaf red down jacket.
As early as 2019, Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald announced plans to enter the footwear field; in the March 2021 financial report conference call, Lululemon once again revealed that it was preparing to launch footwear products in early 2022; in June of the same year, Lululemon For its footwear department, it rented a rather large office in Portland, USA, where some leading sports brands including Nike are located.
In October 2021, Lululemon disclosed the brand’s first footwear product patent in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In the relevant picture, a shoe sole has half of the Lululemon logo, which indicates that a pair of shoes will form a complete logo. It is reported that the inventor of the patent, Mark Oleson, has worked for Under Armor and Adidas, and the other inventor, Damon Clegg, has served as a designer and creative director at Nike for 10 years.
Lululemon’s first patent for footwear products
Lululemon’s first running shoe is called “Blissfeel”. The target customers of Blissfeel running shoes are female runners. They have resilience and shock absorption and are suitable for running, walking and other scenes. It is understood that as Lululemon’s first pair of sports shoes, this pair of running shoes took 4 years of research and development, more than 1 million scans of women’s feet, and countless rounds of wear tests. Starting from March 23, it will be officially launched in some offline stores and e-commerce channels in mainland China, priced at 1,180 yuan (North American price of $148), with 10 colors to choose from. It is worth mentioning that the Lululemon applet is also equipped with a virtual shoe trial function.
Lululemon’s first running shoe “Blissfeel”
This year lululemon will also release three more women’s shoes: Chargefeel women’s sneakers. Suitable for gym training and short-distance running, it is expected to be launched this summer; lululemon Restfeel slippers are expected to be launched this summer. lululemon Strongfeel women’s training shoes are expected to be available this fall. In 2023, lululemon will launch men’s shoes, and will also launch special editions and seasonal series.
Sun Choe, chief product officer of Lululemon, said in the announcement: “Many women’s sports shoes on the market are based on men’s shoe designs with slight modifications. We want to change this situation. Therefore, we specially started from her perspective. The research and development of the entire series.” Sun Choe joined Lululemon in 2016 as senior vice president of Global Merchandising, responsible for managing women’s clothing, men’s clothing, accessories and visual merchandising, as well as product design, innovation and development. Before joining Lululemon, she served as chief global product marketing officer for Marc Jacobs, an American designer brand owned by LVMH Group. Prior to that, she held senior marketing positions at brands including Urban Outfitters, West Elm, Levi’s, Gap and Madewell.
1,076 models of running shoes hit the shelves a year
37 brands compete in the Chinese market
Lululemon’s entry into the sneaker market was no accident. Throughout the development history of major international sports brands, they all started from a certain sport such as football, basketball, track and field, etc., and when they develop to a certain level, they will expand to multiple categories, and finally become a full-category sports brand. In addition, sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Anta, and Li-Ning have successively launched yoga product lines, making it difficult for Lululemon to dominate the market.
Therefore, although Lululemon started with yoga pants, its product line has gradually extended to jogging pants, shirts, swimwear, tennis and other sports and men’s sports series, as well as many accessories such as sports bags, hair ties and drinking bottles, and even spent US$500 million It acquired Mirror, a smart home fitness company, and is no longer limited to just one women’s yoga brand through a diversified growth strategy. Judging from the financial report, Lululemon’s diversified development strategy is…Successfully, in the last fiscal year, Lululemon’s net income was US$589 million, with sales totaling US$4.4 billion.
Lululemon launches tennis sports collection
However, it has always been difficult for any brand to expand from a single category to multi-category and cross-border business. From men’s clothing to women’s clothing, or from shoes to clothing, there are many failure cases. For Lululemon, there are many challenges to open up the sports shoe market.
Randal Konik, an analyst at Wall Street brokerage Jefferies, wrote in a research report that although Lululemon’s launch of sports shoes will help expand revenue, the bank still views it conservatively because: first, the gross profit margin of footwear is usually lower than that of apparel; second, management The focus may shift away from the core apparel business.
Some sports analysts said that there are already many inherent brands in the sports shoe market, and most of them have established their own moats. At the same time, the analyst revealed that sales of men’s and women’s sports shoes are expected to maintain low-single-digit percentage growth this year, and the challenges faced in the first half of the year will be greater than those in the second half.
Consumers have had mixed reactions to Lululemon’s launch of running shoes. Some consumers think that the technical content of this running shoe is mediocre, but the price is much higher than the market average price, and they are suspected of cutting leeks. Others believe that Lululemon’s yoga pants were controversial when they first came out. There are many, but more and more people are conquered by its comfort and should look forward to Lululemon.
from the web
In China, the professional running market has long been a red ocean. Take the top five Chinese women’s marathon runners as an example. They all maintain long-term cooperative relationships with sports brands. Among them, Li Zhixuan, the “No. 1 Sister of the National Horse”, has just signed a contract with Hongxing Erke, and was previously a contract athlete of Skechers; Li Dan, ranked second, and Jin Mingming, ranked third, wore Xtep brands in the competition in the past two years, ranking No. He Yinli, ranked fourth, bid farewell to her old club Xtep last year and became the spokesperson for 361 Degree Running. Zhang Deshun, ranked fifth, wore Nike in the most recent competition.
According to the “2021 China Running Shoes Big Data Report” by Yue Pao Circle, a total of 37 brands launched new running shoes in 2021, of which 14 are domestic brand running shoes and 23 are international brand running shoes. A total of 1,076 new running shoes were sold in Yue Pao Circle within one year. The running shoe library is now available. In addition, domestic brands have spent more and more money on the research and development of running shoes in recent years, and carbon plate running shoes are basically the industry consensus. Among the most popular among female runners, Xtep, Nike, Li-Ning, Adidas, Zhongqiao Sports, and ASICS are all on the list.
From Yuepaoquan
From the above data, it is not difficult to find that it is difficult for Lululemon to quickly catch up with existing brands in the sports shoe market and replicate its success in the yoga field. However, according to the Yue Pao Circle report, female runners have grown rapidly in the past year, with a growth rate of 18.4%. At the same time, as women become more and more involved in sports, it is expected that women’s demand for sports products will be huge in the future. growth of. This is a good opportunity for Lululemon, which has many loyal female users.
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