Lulu’s and Lululemon are two different brands. While Lulu’s is a fast-fashion brand for women, Lululemon deals in gym wear and athleticwear.
I was in the market for some athleticwear recently, and I decided to check out some reviews of a new Lululemon hoodie that I was eyeing.
What I noticed was that there were a lot of “Lululemon” hoodie reviews and “Lulus” hoodie reviews, which confused me a great deal, because they seemed to be referring to completely different items and companies.
If you are having a similar confusion, don’t worry, I got you.
In this article, I am going to tell you about the weird story behind this distinction, and what both those words actually refer to.
Is Lulu’s the Same as Lululemon?
No, Lulu’s and Lululemon are two separate entities dealing in different goods. The confusion arises because sometimes people shorten Lululemon to Lulu, for ease of conversation.
And don’t worry if you didn’t know about this, because there is actually good reason to be confused.
Lululemon (the brand) has a parent company by the name of (Lulu Athletica). Since it is a publicly listed company, it trades in the share market by the name of LULU.
Add this to the fact that Lululemon is a huge name that needed a short form, and you’ll easily realize why the confusion actually started.
So, to summarize, Lululemon is a company that was started by a guy named Chip Wilson in 1998 in order to revolutionize gym wear. Lulu’s, on the other hand, was started in 1994 as a vintage fashion store.
Both the companies have nothing to do with each other. They are absolutely not the same, catering to different markets in different ways.
Lulu’s vs Lululemon
| Lulu’s | Lululemon |
|---|---|
| Deals in women’s fashion. | Deals in activewear. |
| Started in 1994. | Started in 1998. |
| Private company. | Publicly listed. |
| Comparatively smaller market share. | Comparatively bigger market share. |
| Do not sell yoga pants. | Famous for their yoga pants. |
Lululemon and Lulu are vastly different from each other. While the former focuses on activewear and sportswear, the latter specializes in women’s fashion.
Both companies were started at different points of time – Lulu’s in 1994 and Lululemon in 1998.
While Lululemon is publicly listed (that is, its shares can be traded on the stock market), Lulu’s is not. Being publicly listed also gives them a much larger market share than Lulu.
And finally, while yoga pants are the strong suit of Lululemon and what eventually made them a household name, Lulu’s does not sell yoga pants, or activewear, at all.
Is Lulu’s Better than Lululemon?
Lulu’s and Lululemon cannot really be compared with each other because they operate in different markets.
It will be like comparing Domino’s with something like Optimum Nutrition. Sure they are both products that come in the food category and are meant to be consumed in a similar way, they operate in very different markets.
While Lulu’s is amazing at giving trendy clothing at extremely low prices, Lululemon has literally revolutionized the way gym clothes are seen by consumers.
However, there is still some overlap, as Lululemon has lately been trying to get into the casual wear market. Unfortunately, Lulu’s has a sizable lead in this regard because of its 20+ years of experience in women’s casual clothing.
Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how this battle between these two very similar sounding brands is going to play out.
Final Remarks
In this article, I tried to clear all the confusions you might have about Lulu’s and Lululemon and their relationship with each other. You can look for more information about the individual history of each brand on their respective websites.
Here’s a quick recap of the article.
While Lululemon and Lulus sound very similar, they are actually two entirely different companies. However, both deal primarily in clothing, and that has led to a lot of people believing that they are the same brand.
