Recently, lululemon opened China’s first independent men’s clothing store in Indigo, Beijing. This is also its first independent men’s clothing store in the Asia-Pacific region.
It is understood that lululemon has expanded the area based on the original INDIGO store and split it into two men’s and women’s stores. In August 2019, lululemon’s store in Indigo, Beijing, officially opened. The store uses light wood as the main color, coupled with marble structures and green plants everywhere, making people feel as relaxed as walking into nature. The store mainly sells women’s clothing, including sports casual pants, tops, etc. It also has a dedicated men’s area displaying tops, bottoms, sports socks and sports bras.
In the second half of 2023, some netizens discovered that the store next door to Lululemon had been fenced off. According to a clerk at the Lululemon store in Indigo, Beijing, the store next door had been taken over by the brand, and one would sell men’s clothing and the other women’s clothing. After several months of preparation, lululemon’s independent men’s clothing store has officially launched.
Lululemon started out by making women’s yoga clothes, but since 2013 it has invested in the men’s clothing business, targeting middle-class men aged 25 to 34. Since November 2014, lululemon has begun to open separate men’s clothing stores, but has also made adjustments, such as closing independent men’s clothing stores in New York and Toronto in mid-2019.
In November 2023, lululemon opened China’s first men’s clothing pop-up store in Shanghai Hongqiao Tiandi, which will be open until January 4, 2024. It aims to promote lululemon’s men’s clothing products and test the operating performance of independent men’s clothing stores.
It is reported that the pop-up store covers an area of about 100 square meters and is divided into three sections: new products of the season, “CASUAL daily style” and “RUN/TRAIN running/training”. The men’s clothing in the store is basically concentrated in white, sand, gray and other colors with low saturation and high adaptability to the pop-up space decoration. The prices of the whole store are concentrated in the price range of 1,000-3,000 yuan, with the highest price of 3,280 yuan (long down jacket) , the lowest price is 280 yuan (men’s boxer briefs).
In fact, starting from 2018, the growth rate of lululemon’s men’s clothing business began to be higher than that of women’s clothing business. In 2021, the growth rate of men’s clothing business in the Chinese market reached 61%, which is much higher than the 37% of women’s business. According to lululemon’s third quarter performance report for 2023, net revenue from the men’s clothing business increased by 15% year-on-year to US$505 million. It is expected that by 2026, lululemon’s net income from men’s clothing business will double compared with 2021.
In 2023, lululemon Q3 net revenue increased by 19% year-on-year to US$2.2 billion, mainly due to the growth in offline direct store revenue (including the increase brought by newly opened stores and the growth in comparable same-store sales). Among them, net revenue in North America and international markets Revenue increased by 12% and 49% respectively year-on-year. The Chinese market achieved a year-on-year growth of 53%, driving an increase in net income from the international market.
In the third quarter, lululemon opened 14 new self-operated stores, including 8/5/1 new stores in Asia-Pacific/North America/Europe respectively, bringing the total number of stores to 686.
Currently, lululemon has more than 100 stores in the mainland, and store expansion is still accelerating.
It is worth mentioning that according to previous plans, lululemon will launch men’s sports shoes in the first quarter of this year. This means that lululemon will continue to increase its men’s clothing business and challenge brands such as Nike and Adidas.
At present, lululemon men’s clothing has successively launched shoe series, tennis series, men’s golf series, hiking series, etc., with more categories and subdivisions.
According to Euromonitor’s forecast, China’s men’s clothing market will reach 618.9 billion yuan in 2025. In the medium to long term, the negative impact of external factors on the industry will gradually be eliminated.
Although the concentration of China’s men’s clothing industry has increased in recent years, compared with mature markets in developed countries, the concentration of China’s men’s clothing industry is still relatively low. This also means that the men’s clothing industry still has considerable market opportunities.
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