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Think of the Canadian sportswear line Lululemon and several mental images flood to mind. Best known for a distinctive, demi-sheer sports legging, the brand is familiar to most for being the kit of choice for the prestige yoga crowd. Step into any gym this morning and you’ll not move for shapely derrières stamped with the brand’s curlicues. It’s the official brand of downward dog devotees, inasmuch as the pre-Vedic Indian practice of yoga has a brand.
Lululemon Athletica was founded in 1998 by Chip Wilson and today boasts a net worth of $44.7bn (Wilson sold half of his stake in the company in 2014 for a reported $845mn). The brand is still dwarfed by sportswear giants such as Nike (with a market cap of $121bn), but during the past decade the company has been stealthily accruing a greater market share. Its presence is ubiquitous in wellness studios, and the brand was built on a female following. A host of recent signings however have announced its play to become a broader “lifestyle” brand.
This week it announced a new ambassador, seven-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton. As part of a new collaboration, Lululemon will power Hamilton’s “elite training, recovery, and lifestyle needs” as well as work alongside him on future design innovations and global advocacy initiatives. Nikki Neuburger, chief brand and product activation officer at Lululemon, says: “Lewis is a game-changer in every sense of the word. His relentless commitment to performance, wellbeing, and impact align completely with what we stand for at Lululemon.” And you thought that was the tree pose.
Hamilton joins the Lululemon family shortly after his first appearance at Ferrari (last month, he made his debut in the flame suit of Scuderia Ferrari following the multiyear $446mn deal he signed in 2023). And it accompanies the crescendo of hype announcing the Louis Vuitton-sponsored F1 season that kicks off in Albert Park in Melbourne this month.
Lululemon is hoping this new association will bring an aura of diesel-drenched testosterone to its patchouli/smudge-stick brand. What could be more manly than an F1 driver burning fossil fuels around a track at some 200km per hour? Yet Hamilton bucks convention as a male role model: he’s a vegan, who loves fashion, and has talked “openly” about his struggles with mental health. As a model of modern masculinity, he represents the perfect combination of fragility and ferocity. If he can wear his stretchy pants in the most alpha of environments, then perhaps the red-blooded males will adopt them, too.
Of course, celebrity ambassadors have been a fixture in our culture ever since Marilyn Monroe first doused herself in Chanel No 5. But few brands can rely on a single talent to shill their product as Cate Blanchett has done for Armani’s Sì since 2013. Today brands must now offer a portfolio of diverse representatives to please a fickle and flighty client base. Hamilton stands at the apex of a Lululemon family that counts NBA player Jordan Clarkson, tennis player Leylah Fernandez and the golfer Min Woo Lee as friends.
This weekend will find all of Hollywood on the red carpet, bedecked in clothes, jewellery and sandals that have been generously gifted to them, or at the very least loaned. But in a world in which such events have become neutered by their transactional nature, it’s the more unlikely tie-ins, such as this one with Lululemon, or Timothée Chalamet rocking up to the red carpet on a Lime bike, that cut above the noise.
Take London Fashion Week, for example, currently a rather meagre offering, much diminished by Brexit and the prohibitive costs of trying to run an independent label in this climate, and yet vivified this week by a slew of celebrities that went viral around the world. The actor Fiona Shaw walked the catwalk at Simone Rocha in a sort of silk black cracker of a dress, bringing a lofty grandeur to the contemporary label founded by fellow Irishwoman Rocha, while burnishing her own reputation as a woman of grand taste. Likewise, at Burberry, which offered guests (and social media) a smorgasbord of surprise hauls: from the more obvious OG Supers, such as Naomi Campbell, to national treasures Richard E Grant and Lesley Manville, and Jason Isaacs, this season’s must-have White Lotus star.
For the brands, such associations help create a culture conversation around their offering — it elevates their products within a challenging marketplace (lest we remember that Burberry’s fortunes have been dire of late), and they help to establish a much desired community around the label to which customers might aspire. For the celebrities, it serves the same purpose. And while catwalk appearances and brand “friendships” do not always signify payment, a viral catwalk appearance still gives Grant fresh currency and relevance outside his usual crowd.
Past master of the unexpected tie-in is the actor Daniel Craig, who kicked off his post-Bond evolution with an outlandishly camp campaign for Belvedere. In doing so he avoided the usual circuit of having to talk about his legacy, late-career ambitions or sexual charisma since putting 007 to bed. He simply whipped off his clothing, winked at the camera and banked a massive cheque. Likewise, Hamilton’s legging tie-in is a brilliant manoeuvre for Lululemon: in one stroke they have projected the brand on to a completely different stage. I only hope that subsequent developments will find Hamilton showing off his sun salutations at close range.
jo.ellison@ft.com
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