Lululemon making changes to product assortment, names new board member

Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s interim leaders say change is taking shape at the brand, which has been battered with criticism from its estranged founder since the holidays.  

Interim co-chief executive and chief financial officer Meghan Frank said Tuesday that the apparel retailer plans to shake up its product assortment with fewer logos, a “more focused and co-ordinated” colour palette and a “more edited” assortment of small accessories.

The goal is to leave the brand with collections that feel fresher and inspire more customers to pay full price, addressing past consumer gripes about a lack of newness and moving Lululemon away from some of the discounting that’s become habit lately.

“We recognize there is more work to be done, and we have been course correcting on a number of fronts, but we are encouraged by the guest response to our recent new product drops and activations,” she told analysts minutes after the company released fourth-quarter earnings and revealed a former Levi Strauss & Co. executive as a new Lululemon board member.

The Vancouver-based retailer, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported net income of about US$586.9 million for the quarter, compared with US$748.4 million a year earlier.

The result for the period ended Feb. 1 amounted to earnings per diluted share of US$5.01, down from US$6.14 a year before.

Lululemon’s revenue was US$3.6 billion, up by about one per cent from its prior fourth quarter.

The quarter marked the last under CEO Calvin MacDonald, who departed Lululemon at the end of January for beauty conglomerate Wella Company.   

Under McDonald, Lululemon’s sales tripled, its menswear division was expanded and the company landed buzzy deals with Canada’s Olympic team and the NHL and NFL.

But its share price also dramatically eroded, and competitors like Alo and Vuori started stealing away customers.

These struggles didn’t escape founder Chip Wilson, who has not worked for Lululemon for years but still holds some of its stock.

He has been pushing since December for Lululemon to revamp its brand and creative strategy and has recommended three board nominees — Marc Maurer, a former co-chief executive of On Holding AG, Laura Gentile, a former chief marketing officer of ESPN and Eric Hirshberg, a former chief executive officer of Activision — to speed up the overhaul he’s pitching.

Lululemon has not named any of Wilson’s nominees to its board. It has said it repeatedly asked to interview the trio but alleges Wilson would not allow that to happen unless the board agreed to a full set of settlement terms, which the retailer did not outline.

On Thursday, it announced board member David Mussafer will not stand for re-election at the end of his three-year term and will be replaced by former Levi Strauss & Co. president and CEO Chip Bergh.

Asked about the appointment, Wilson spokesperson Valerie Mack said only that Mussafer stepping down was something Wilson was also pushing for.

Bergh’s appointment was the result of a “comprehensive” board search and will bring “deep retail and brand expertise” to the company, Frank said.  

“He has extensive experience guiding successful transformations and driving value creation at global category defining companies,” she added.

Frank was joined on the call by André Maestrini, Lululemon’s interim co-CEO and its president and chief commercial officer, who dug into the company’s uneven performance across several markets.

In the last quarter alone, Lululemon’s net revenue in the Americas dropped five per cent on a constant dollar basis but was up 14 per cent across the company’s international division.

Maestrini said customers in China have been responding well to the company’s product assortment, especially its outer and loungewear, but indicated, back home, there is work to do because the company has resorted to more markdowns.

He said Lululemon’s primary goal in North America this year “is returning the business to healthier levels of full price sales.”

The company also plans to improve the customer experience online and in-store “with less density of product to better showcase our new styles and innovations, and to make the stores easier for guests to navigate and shop.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2026.