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The case traces the development of Lululemon Athletica (Lulu) from founder Chip Wilson's first post-yoga euphoria in 1997 through the sale of all his shares in 2015. Officially founded in 1998, Lulu was built on the foundation of its “miracle” figure-enhancing yoga pants made from a proprietary stretch fiber. The case outlines Wilson's early experience in technical performance wear, which gave him the expertise needed to launch the Lululemon brand with its premium-priced, fashion-designed product line targeted at upscale women. The case also highlights the retailing and promotion approach that drove Lulu's first decade of success. The snapshot of how the Lulu brand cult was born and diffused provides the backdrop for assessing whether the brand has already hit its peak or whether it can sustain the explosive growth that effectively created the athleisure category. To aid in this determination, the case presents two competitors as comparative foils (Under Armour and Athleta) to contextualize Lulu's growth prospects.

The Lululemon case highlights the importance of the competitive frame of reference when positioning a brand and describes how this may differ for the three competitors. The case also allows for a discussion of the challenges of maintaining the congruence of a retail brand with a diverse product line. This struggle is unique to retailers who must fit ever-varied product assortments (not just a single product line) under the umbrella of a single brand proposition, and is particularly relevant to vertically integrated brands such as Lululemon.

Over the last two decades, Under Armour (UA) has emerged from being the “underdog” in the sports apparel and footwear industry to being a leader in the industry, with a fierce attention to performance and great skill at picking up-and-coming athletes who emerge as superstars. This case underscores its administrative heritage, competitive strategy, and growth potential as a global player in a highly competitive industry. It addresses the tension between being a performance brand while launching lines for women vs technology applications and conflicts between its growth strategy and macro-economic forces. It highlights areas in which it has succeeded against macro-economic forces and where it has not.

The research relies primarily on secondary sources and countless studies of UA and its major competitors. Primary research is based on databases, videos of UA’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Plank, and articles from Bloomberg to The Baltimore Sun (UA’s headquarters) on the history, growth and future of UA. It also includes observations and site visits to one of its signature brand house stores as well as intensive research and directed studies with students in the USA and China.

The case can be applied to undergraduate, graduate or executive business classes in: business policy and strategy; general management; (sports) marketing; leadership or organisational behaviour classes.

This study aims to identify the consumption mechanism by which consumers’ materialism creates purchase intentions for luxury athleisure products through impression management purchase motivation and to verify the moderating effect of sustainability in this mechanism.

This study conducted a scenario-based online survey by dividing into two groups according to the sustainability of luxury brand products (non-sustainable vs sustainable). Structure equation modeling (SEM) was performed to verify the hypotheses.

The SEM results showed that materialism has a positive effect on the purchase intention of luxury athleisure products. It was also confirmed that impression management purchase motivation mediates the relationship between materialism and purchase intention. As a result of examining the moderating effect of sustainability, materialism directly affects purchase intention for unsustainable products, but only indirectly affects sustainable products through impression management purchase motivation.

This study expanded the research on luxury brands by providing the consumption mechanism of luxury athleisure considering sustainability.

Luxury brand marketers should strategically motivate consumers to purchase by activating materialistic tendencies such as ownership and display for general athleisure products and using impression management purchase motivation for sustainable products.

This study explored unresolved research areas on the consumption mechanism of luxury athleisure by identifying the mediating role of impression management purchase motivation in the relationship between materialism and luxury consumption and exploring the moderating role of sustainability.

This research investigates sustainable knowledge from a consumer perspective, thereby focussing on the issue of microfibre pollution (MFP) within the context of the athleisure wear industry.

This research is exploratory in nature and supports its findings with 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews with consumers who have an invested interest in athleisure wear and have either a fashion or a textile science background.

The results provide an insight into how different types of knowledge influence one another and which ones can act as barriers to acting more sustainably and more specifically in reducing MFP.

Although the sample size is relatively small, participants were selected carefully to have different backgrounds and lifestyles, thus, providing valuable insights that can be explored further in the future.

Communication is a key issue that has been identified and which needs to be carefully addressed by providing both quantity and quality.

This research identifies interlinks between different knowledge types and potential barriers that need to be overcome in order to act more sustainably.

A two-dimensional (2D) body measurement system was implemented to study the application of sportswear design in measurement garment development. A total of 50 participants were recruited. The basic demographic information and sportswear preference data were collected through a survey to understand consumer preferences and acceptance of the new designs. The body measurements were collected through both the selected 2D measurement system and a commercial three-dimensional scanning booth to evaluate measurement accuracy.

Finding the right size has been a long-existing problem for clothing consumers. Size problem is the most common reason for e-commerce returns and adds a high cost for retailers. One possible solution is to offer consumers an easy-to-use method that extracts accurate body measurements to be used for clothing size selection. The purpose of this research is to apply sportswear design elements on measurement garments to see if consumers’ interest in using the 2D measurement system can be increased without influencing the measurement accuracy.

The results showed that the added design features increased consumers’ interest in using 2D body measuring technology without significantly influencing measurement accuracy.

This research applied sportswear elements to convert a 2D measurement bodysuit to a fashionable clothing product. The solution resolved users’ privacy concerns and increased their acceptance and use of the technology. Other studies have not focused on using aesthetic features to improve the 2D measurement technology.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to understanding of employee's relationships with their uniforms and the perceived impact on their experiences at work. An improved understanding of this relationship may provide benefits for both the employee and the organisation. Recognising an ageing workforce and increasing female representation, differences based on gender and age are of interest.

The study aimed to explore employee views and perceptions of uniform design and potential links to their happiness and productivity at work. An online survey was developed and completed by 2,560 uniform wearers. The data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered latent variables from among the large number of survey items. A two-way factorial ANOVA compared perceptions based on gender and age.

The results suggest participants feel that their uniform has an impact on their happiness and behaviour at work. Differences in responses to their uniform were found based on gender and age. The survey tool enabled consideration of employee views and exploratory factor analysis identified five constructs of uniform design priorities: positive feelings, experience at work, suitability and practicality, tailored to the individual, visibility and brand.

This research is believed to be the first survey exploring the views of UK-based uniform wearers. Key elements of uniform design have been prioritised from the employee perspective to offer an emerging model to understand employee perceptions of uniform design. These findings inform uniform manufacturers and employers in designing and developing uniform to address the needs of employees.

The case traces the development of the Under Armour (UA) brand, product, and market growth under CEO and founder Kevin Plank from its inception in 1996 through 2016. UA provides a cohesive case study of how to launch and sustain a consumer brand even in the face of its third-party manufacturing approach, which gives its apparel no patentable design or fabric technologies. The case uses UA's brand and advertising development as a backdrop for the current pivotal issue of how to target women to sustain growth. UA's stated goal is to build a $1.9 billion women's business by 2019.

In laying out UA's growth and competitive moves, the case lets students analyze broadcast, social media, and other digital advertising campaigns in view of the company's brand development and strategic targeting. The case also highlights the importance of leveraging brand heritage and historical differentiation while respecting key nuances when extending into new markets (i.e., moving from a predominantly male-driven audience to female). It also allows an exploration of how to use consumer insight and broader cultural attitudes and trends to support extending a position into new markets.

This study adopted the functional, expressive and aesthetic (FEA) consumer needs model, aimed to examine the influence of consumers' FEA perceptions of three-dimensional printing (3DP) integrated apparel products on their product satisfaction and purchase intention.

An online survey was employed with a sample of 332 participants (165 female and 167 male) aged 19 to 76, mean age of 35 years. A gender-neutral, 3DP integrated hooded sweatshirt was developed for this study featuring flexible, white 3D printed insets fabricated with an FDM 3D printer and white TPU filament sewn with traditional gray knit fleece.

The findings of this study suggest that the FEA model is appropriate in predicting consumers' satisfaction with 3DP integrated apparel products. Specifically, aesthetic (perceived beauty) and expressive (perceived coolness) dimensions are more influential than functional factors, except for the positive influence of perceived fit, in predicting consumers' satisfaction and purchase intentions for 3DP integrated apparel products.

Future studies could consider data collection from participants' physical fit testing or try on evaluation to determine the importance of the functional dimension in consumer response to 3DP integrated apparel product. Future studies could also examine full 3D printed apparel, or other 3DP integrated wearable products to expand the understanding of consumer perception of the application of 3DP technology.

Despite the increasing exploration of 3DP integrated apparel products and industry attempts to make this innovation in apparel more mainstream, research on how mainstream consumers perceive such 3DP integrated apparel products is limited. This study addresses this gap, providing critical implications for future research and design.

Sports fashion is marketed showing happiness, physical performance and self-care. Thus, sports fashion brands should see a good fit with sustainability: future orientation, self-care, care for others and going out for a physical experience, oftentimes in nature. On the other hand, sports fashion is regularly made of non-sustainable materials and produced under difficult work conditions. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

The paper at hand seeks to investigate sports brands' approach to sustainability by examining their product portfolio and their annual report data, analyzing their status quo and sustainability strategy. A content analysis is conducted employing the brands' annual reports and their online shops as data sources to assess their status quo in terms of sustainability as well as future plans.

Results show that on the ecological side, brands unanimously focus on carbon reduction, organic cotton, recycled polyester, circularity-ready business model innovation and water and toxic waste management. The social aspect may be divided into the focal brand and the supply chain, including similar measures: equality and diversity, the promotion of ethnic and cultural minorities and increased safety and health for workers.

The paper derives development opportunities and pitfalls for sports fashion brands.

In 2013, Under Armour had $2.3 billion in sales yet only $500 million came from its women’s apparel, and the company was ready to expand into the female market segment. The “I Will What I Want” global women’s marketing campaign was the largest Under Armour had ever run. Founder Keven Plank and his team launched the campaign on a multichannel platform, with social media at its core. The campaign’s success surpassed what Plank had imagined, and he is left wondering where to take Under Armour’s advertising and marketing next. This case has been used successfully in a marketing course and would be suited for any class with a focus on interactive media, technology, and multichannel marketing.