The Disturbed Truth Behind Lululemon's Name: What Founder Chip Wilson Really Admitted
Before yoga pants became an everyday wardrobe staple, Dennis "Chip" Wilson operated in the surf and snowboard industry. In 1979, he established Westbeach Sports, a surf-skate brand operating out of British Columbia. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Japanese buyers took a strong interest in North American skate culture, importing massive amounts of surf and snowboard streetwear.
Wilson noticed a peculiar pattern during these distribution transactions. Japanese buyers coveted Western apparel brands that featured the English letter "L" because the character was absent from the native Japanese phonetic inventory. To Wilson's eyes, the foreign difficulty signaled rarity and exclusivity. When he sold Westbeach in 1997 and turned his focus toward the emerging boutique fitness market, that marketing impression remained stuck in his head.
He wanted his next venture to project foreign prestige abroad while holding consumer interest at home. If one "L" communicated Western authenticity to overseas buyers, stuffing multiple "L"s into a single, nonsensical word might yield three times the brand equity. That strange equation set the framework for Wilson’s next enterprise.
