What’s the secret behind Lululemon’s yoga pants and running shoes? We visited their Canada HQ to find out

“In, in and hahhh…” The room was filled with drawn-out exhalations, which wouldn’t be out of place if this were a yoga studio. Except that I was in a R&D lab and we were just getting started for a day of presentations and Q&As.

Then again, I needn’t be surprised by the 15-minute guided breathwork. Or that morning’s full-on yoga session. Or the mid-afternoon run in Stanley Park the day before. I was at the headquarters of Lululemon, the company that wants to be synonymous with wellness and has, after all, been selling the preordained uniform of yoga practitioners worldwide – the Align leggings.

“THE TIGHTS ARE LIFE-CHANGING”

I was in Vancouver for a three-day visit to the athletic apparel brand’s headquarters in Kitsilano, a quiet neighbourhood with low-rise apartment buildings and, a big win in my book, local bakeries and homegrown cafes and restaurants.

It isn’t far from the first-ever Lululemon store that opened 25 years ago selling yoga clothes. Today, the multi-billion-dollar brand has over 650 stores worldwide. And they’re certainly not short of fans – especially their leggings.

“The tights are life changing,” enthused a friend, who sounded like I was visiting her motherland when I told her I was going to the brand’s HQ.

"They feel like they’re painted on, like you’re not wearing anything,” said another, who doesn’t think twice about spending upwards of S$150 for nylon wear.

“Just feel it,” she said, holding out her leg for me to touch the supposedly buttery-soft Nulu fabric that every pair of Align leggings is cut from.

Yes, the leggings are silky soft and so coveted by women – and even some men, I was told – that sales for these alone accounted for nearly CA$1 billion (S$1 billion) of Lululemon’s business portfolio or one-eighth of their 2022 revenue.

So what’s the secret to Lululemon’s life-changing clothes?

ECO-FRIENDLY “GREEN” NYLON

As I found out, the magic begins at their R&D lab, where all manners of fabric were dreamt up, including the signature Nulu fabric. Over a counter with fabric rolls poking out from underneath, the Raw Materials Innovation team revealed a nugget about the iconic Nulu.

“We worked for 18 months; it takes that long to get these fabrics,” said the team’s vice president Yogendra Dandapure.

“We obsess over every detail and how that product is brought to life,” said their president Patty Stapp.

The other thing that they’ve started to obsess over in recent years is sustainability. “Our data tells us that raw materials account for almost half of our carbon footprint within our manufacturing process,” she said.

So how do they intend to bring sustainability to a winning product like Nulu? Through a partnership with Genomatica, a biofabric company in San Diego, the team is able to literally spin nylon yarns out of corn.

By fermenting the sugar in corn, the team obtains "precursors" or the building blocks of nylon, said Dandapure.

“We take the precursors and put them through our existing supply chain to obtain polymer chips.” From there on, the process is similar to how regular nylon is derived from polymer chips, spun and woven into fabric, then made into garments.

“Go on and feel it,” said Stapp, sliding a “green” nylon top and a regular one over. “You can touch and see that there is no difference between the green nylon and traditional nylon.”

Currently, the Swiftly Tech and Metal Vent Tech short-sleeved shirts are made of green nylon and are already available in the stores and online. But that is all the green nylon there is for now as the project is still in its pilot phase, said Stapp.

To further close the sustainability loop, the team has another alliance: The Australia-based enviro-tech company Samsara Eco. “Like paper, plastic bottles and aluminium caps, textile also has the potential to be recycled infinitely,” said Dandapure.

“We take post-consumer waste (aka your old, tatty nylon clothes) and put it through Samsara’s patented enzymatic recycling process. Those enzymes break polyester and nylon down into precursors – and the process that follows is the same again: Making polymers, yarns and fabrics,” he said.

How long will we have to wait before your favourite Align leggings are planet-friendly? By 2030 when 100 per cent of Lululemon products will be made in a recyclable or renewal way, said Stapp.

"We know that there is a long way to go," said Esther Speck, the senior vice president of Global Sustainable Business and Impact, when I caught her for a separate chat.

But they are making progress. "At the end of last year, we’re at 38 per cent of our products that are made with more sustainable materials.”

HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING – LITERALLY

Yoga-related apparel and accessories are obviously in Lululemon’s DNA. But with the company aiming to hit CA$12.5 billion by 2026, one can’t rely on stretchy pants alone.

Which is why the athleisure brand also dove into the women performance footwear business last year, rolling out three types of shoes for running and gym use – the Blissfeel, Strongfeel and Chargefeel – and this March, they released Blissfeel 2.

And just when you think they’ve maxed out their footwear game, they went and launched Blissfeel Trail just last month.

The team behind the newly launched road-to-trail shoe had studied 1.2 million female foot scans contributed by Lululemon’s bigger running ambassador community – and analysed the shape and contours of a woman’s foot and how it moves.

And it showed what we thought all along: Women’s feet aren’t simply scaled-down versions of men’s but tend to have shorter heel-to-ball lengths, narrow heels, higher arches, and more slender ankles.

Other than getting the fit right, what else makes a good road-to-trail shoe for women?

For a “multi-surface running product” that can take you from the paved running tracks of Bishan Park to Pulau Ubin’s rocky, steep trails, it has to have “a high level of traction”, said Simon Atkins, the senior vice president of footwear. And that is courtesy of the lugs on the outsole, so that as “you’re coming into contact with the ground, you have the appropriate traction”.

Stability is another biggie, which his team took care of with fin designs at the sides of each shoe's heel. “They help to guide the heel strike and minimise wobbling," said Atkins.

Next, a cushioning system that is “not too hard, not too soft”, he said of the Goldilocks effect. And what you get is a stable, neutral shoe that offers mid-level cushioning, he said.

And not to mention, a good-looking shoe (it comes in three colourways) that you can actually wear to town without looking like you're stomping around in men's trail shoes. Yes, it is still about the feminine aesthetics that the brand is known for. But does that mean Lululemon’s focus has pivoted from yoga to running? Well, no.

"Yoga is still a foundation of our company and yoga has lent itself very well to the running space," said Chantelle Murnaghan, Lululemon’s vice president of Research and Product Innovation. "They’re both complementary and critical activities for us to serve."

Nevertheless, running is now firmly something on Lululemon’s radar. And it’s not just about shoes. They want you to run – and run further.

GOING FURTHER WITH AN ULTRAMARATHON

What was apparent in the three days spent in Lululemon Land was the language spoken by its denizens. It centered around phrases such as “the science of feel”, “unmet needs” and “unlocking full potential”.

“The science of feel is grounded in the truth that when you feel your best, you perform your best,” explained Nikki Neuburger, their chief brand officer.

Currently, the "unmet need" is a lack of women-specific research and science, she said, and because of that, “there is a lack of performance products specifically designed to meet women’s needs”.

The way the brand has decided to change things up and unlock women's full potential isn't only with shoes alone.

During my trip, they announced they were going to support 10 global ambassadors in their quests to run the furthest that they have ever done in a six-day ultramarathon aptly named Further. It’s set to take place on March 8 next year (which is also International Women's Day), with the location yet to be announced.

World records are expected to be broken and, according to Sun Choe, the chief product officer, groundbreaking data on female endurance performance will be captured. That’s because they are collaborating with the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific (CSI) – which supports the Canadian Olympic team – to provide the runners with the same care and expertise physiologically, psychologically and nutritionally.

In turn, the Further runners are contributing to CSI studies “to unlock new understanding around female endurance performance, while addressing the existing gender data gap in sports medicine”, said Choe. The research will be published next March and the insights will also be used to shape Lululemon’s future women-first innovations, she said.

And, of course, the brand will be kitting these women head-to-toe with products for their training and race days.

“I HAVE NEVER RUN A MARATHON IN MY LIFE”

There was only one thing left to do: Meet the runners. As the Further athletes bounded into the atrium to greet the international media for the first time, brimming with enthusiasm and energy that could power the entire British Columbia, I thought back to my own lackadaisical jogs.

I could square with the occasional jog on the PCN or hiking Bukit Timah on the odd weekend when I feel incredibly brave. And going by the number of racing events that have survived the pandemic, running is, well, still a running trend in Singapore. But ultramarathons?

For starters, these extreme events refer to any distance longer than a full 42km marathon. Typically, they start at 50km and go up to 161km (or 100 miles). An ultramarathon can be run anywhere; on the gravelly tracks of MacRitchie Reservoir or around the foothills of Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia; it can even be done on a running track. And these things take days to complete.

There was no way I could identify with these women. They were the creme de la creme of the ultrarunning community; women who ate 50km runs for breakfast and would, just for fun, run the entire length of the PIE (42.8km, if you’re wondering) for dessert.

But then, I heard the most extraordinary confession. “I have never run a marathon in my life. It is only recently that I’ve picked up running seriously,” said Vriko Kwok, a Further ambassador and a 31-year-old Brazilian jiujitsu athlete, after a very, very firm handshake.

Why does she want to do it? “Growing up in Asia, I never saw bodies like mine in the active movement space. I hope to inspire more women to come into it. Everyone deserves to feel the joy of moving their bodies,” said the Hong Kong-born-and-based entrepreneur.

Her game plan for the six-day ultramarathon next year is to complete a full marathon every day, “so six days is going to come up to like 250km”. “I’m going to push my limit to get to 300km,” she said with a resolution as firm as her handshake.

In the meantime, I’ll be busy unlocking my full potential a little less intensely – by practising the breathwork technique I picked up. In, in and hahhhh...

CNA Lifestyle was in Vancouver at the invitation of Lululemon.