Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The best yoga pants for dudes are from ... Lululemon, of course!

I have my own set of excuses for why I don't do yoga.  Now, there is one more reason for me to stay away from one of those yoga classes: Lululemon's yoga pants for men are selling like they are on, ahem, testosterone!

Lululemon yoga pants for men.  Yep!  Lululemon is waiting for you, my friend ;)
Source

Given all the controversy over how those yoga pants fit skin-tight over the females, should I worry that these yoga pants will be like the male ballet dancer's appearance?  But then, apparently not the case, or not many are worried:

On that sales update:
Anyway, it makes some sense that the men’s section is seeing much faster growth than Lululemon as a whole. For starters, it’s just a lot newer. Lululemon didn’t even start talking about having dedicated men’s stores until late in 2013. Since then, though, the company has seized on the young, successful, relatively wealthy male shopper as its biggest business opportunity
The company is targeting yogis and non-yogis:
The men’s business at Lululemon is projected to reach $1 billion in annual sales in the next few years, though men’s clothing and accessories for now accounts for less than a fifth of volume at the company’s stores. The retailer has said that male consumers aren’t just yogis, which was the audience that the retailer initially targeted for women. Instead, Lululemon has made inroads getting male runners, cyclists, and CrossFit athletes to buy the company’s gear.
But, location always matters, when it comes to siting a store for the men's yoga pants:
Lululemon last year opened its first standalone men’s store in the SoHo district of New York City. Executives say the company continues to tinker with how they can address the market, either by opening more standalone stores or by expanding its merchandise assortment in existing locations. Lululemon maintains that those locations would need to be near a women’s store (the New York City store is across the street from a women’s store). That’s because girlfriends and wives are still responsible for introducing a lot of men to the brand.
“Our male guest does have a lot more permission to come into the Lululemon [collection], but she still shops for him,” said Chief Executive Laurent Potdevin
Why is this a big deal?
That’s a bigger deal than it may seem, because getting men to buy clothes once exclusively worn by women is a very tough sell. While pretty much any macho sports or surf brand can slap a logo on a women’s T-shirt and stand a good chance of gaining traction, there are few precedents for a women’s brand being proudly worn by guys — think college guys in Lilly Pulitzer shorts, or ballplayers wearing Victoria’s Secret boxers.
 So, get on with the program. Buy yoga pants and sign up for those classes.  Oh, if you are in India, well, be warned if you are not all pumped up about the International Yoga Day on June 21st:
 Amid protests by minority groups against the reported move to make yoga compulsory in schools, Yogi Adityanath, Gorakhpur MP from the BJP, said here on Monday that those who wanted to avoid yoga could “leave Hindustan”.
He said people opposing “Surya Namaskar” should drown themselves in the sea.
Namaste! ;)


4 comments:

Anne in Salem said...

Most men would benefit from the increased flexibility that comes with practicing yoga, as shown in the video. No man should wear yoga pants. No man should wear any form-fitting pants. (Neither should women for that matter.) A pair of Hanes sweatpants will work just fine and cost much less than Lululemon pants, I assume.

The Namaste figures at the top of the post are excellent.

Sriram Khé said...

Yes, I love the Namaste yoga pose graphic--a while ago, I spotted that in a funny NY Times commentary.

I am with you--no man should wear form-fitting pants. I don't think the yoga pants for men is form-fitting. Maybe it is, eh! In any case, the original yogis in India didn't wear any Lululemons--they had only the loincloth on ;)

Ramesh said...

Please tweet a photo of yourself doing yoga in, ahem, male ballet dancer mimicking Lululemon pants.

Thankfully, such metrosexuals are still a relative rarity in this country. The women are making up for them though. Imagine the money in this world if something like Lululemon can clock a $1bn in sales.

Sriram Khé said...

Is it a reflection of the money in the world, or more evidence for the awesome PT Barnum quote on suckers being born every minute? ;)

Note to self: get some Lululemon pants and tweet that photo! hehe ..