Quench Your Legging Curiosity with the Lululemon Lab
Discover what makes your leggings so form fitting and fashionable at the Canada-based Lululemon lab.
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Discover what makes your leggings so form fitting and fashionable at the Canada-based Lululemon lab.
If you’ve ever browsed a Lululemon Athletica store, you might be surprised that so many different looks could be created from stretchy fabric. From basic and simple to complicated and fashion-forward, the designers at Lululemon always seem to be dreaming up interesting new yoga wear. Whether you’re a fan or not, their designs are on often on the forefront of yoga fashion trends.
Have you ever wondered how they come up with those booty-shaping yoga pants? The Lululemon Lab, located on the corner of West Broadway and Cambie in Vancouver, British Columbia, houses new design concepts, designers working on patterns, and even a team of 20-plus sewers putting together the next season’s clothing. Customers who visit get to see first-hand what goes into the designs, try them out, and provide feedback about the garments, which designers factor into their next creations.
“The lab creates, makes, and sells its own line of clothing using the same Lululemon fabrics you know and love,” according to Lululemonlab.com, a website that shares photographs of the lab’s designs and interviews with the collaborators. “Its exclusive forward-thinking line is conceptualized by its very own team of designers, whose inspirations are rooted in local and international fashion as well as guest and athlete feedback.”
The lab only makes between 10 and 100 of each piece, and only sells those garments from the lab’s showroom in Vancouver. A select few of these experimental pieces do make their way into the Lululemon stores everywhere. But the feedback that consumers offer influence the creations at the lab and the company as a whole.
“Lululemon is based on guest feedback–this is a huge influence in creating our product,” says Lindsay Walsh, a product coordinator and designer for the lab. “The lab is our opportunity to collect that feedback on a daily basis.”
See also Presented By lululemon: “Congratulations, You Have a Yoga Body”