Strong sales at Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s ivivva dance-wear stores are prompting the yoga-wear giant to expand ivivva and open two new stores by the end of the year.
Lululemon launched ivivva on West Fourth Avenue in Vancouver in late 2009 and then added a store in Calgary’s Market Mall. The company (TSX:LLL; NYSE:LULU) plans to open stores in Toronto and Edmonton by the end of 2011, Lululemon CEO Christine Day told Business in Vancouver recently in a phone interview.
“What we learned over the past year in the athletic-wear and dance-wear arena, and it’s gone very well, is that we see it as more of a mall concept,” Day said.
“Our goal is to put [ivivva clothes] online, hopefully this year, but we are still working so much on getting our Lululemon e-commerce over that we’re having to make some choices. If it is not this year, it will be next year.’
Day is one of the winners of the 2011 Business in Vancouver Influential Women in Business and will be featured in a special BIV section next week.
Lululemon co-founder Chip Wilson first alerted BIV to a potential ivivva expansion last year (See “Lululemon to expand ivivva-branded stores” – issue 1076; June 8-14, 2010.)
Wilson, who continues to own a substantial stake of the company, is best known for experimenting with exotic fabrics.
“Different fabrics are needed for dance and gymnastics,” he said at the time. “There’s a lot of chalk in gymnastics and you wipe your hands off. Also, when girls land, they land in foam. So, what will the foam stick to? Those are the things you need to look at.”
That, and sizing, Wilson said. Gymnastics participants tend to have slimmer waists and longer legs, he said.
“Sales are fantastic. It took us a while to get the right size for the right customer but we’re seeing a good, steady sales increase every week now.”