Since 1998, Lululemon has been the pioneer of the athleisure movement and has encouraged its customers to reach their full potential through revolutionizing athletic gear. The brand began as a design and yoga studio before quickly evolving into the go-to athleisure apparel provider it is today, creating not only yoga gear, but also clothing for running, cycling, training, and more. With this in mind, Heuritech’s experts decided to check out the Lululemon website to review their product assortment in order to demonstrate how we use data tools to provide market insights to fashion brands.
With the trends our forecasters chose from Lululemon’s current collection assortment, we applied predictive analytics to gauge demand for the Spring 2022 season in North America and Europe. In particular, this article focuses on simple, worldwide trends that can be applied to different age groups and customer segments.
Women’s Trends: Lululemon’s Spring 2022 Collections
Lululemon has provided a platform for their customers to excel through the comfort and purposeful innovation of athletic gear. Understanding how trends surrounding their product offer behave across the globe, by whom they’re adopted, and their optimal launch times can be an enormous asset. We use our data tools to help Lululemon discover opportunities in growing markets, provide targeted product selections, and avoid overstock.
The women’s trends of focus are velvet, orange-red, and camouflage print. Let’s see how trend forecasting can keep Lululemon on-trend for the Spring season’s most desirable athleisure trends in Europe and the US.
Forecasting Spring 2022 Womenswear Trends
1. Velvet
In Europe and the US, velvet will have similar behaviors among female consumers for the Spring 2022 season. For one, the fabric will have a medium magnitude, or a medium market demand potential, which Heuritech determines by evaluating the trend’s visibility on social media.
Similarly, velvet will experience growing market shares compared to other fabrics, indicating its rising popularity for the Spring season in question. Furthermore, velvet’s growth rate in the US will be +13% compared to Spring 2021, and in Europe it will be +6%. The growth rate describes a trend’s evolution in visibility on social media, so while similar, this is a separate metric from a trend’s magnitude.
Together, the growth rate and magnitude determine a trend’s status: in the US, velvet will be a fashion bet during Spring 2022, and in Europe, it will be a safe bet. This signals to Lululemon that velvet is a must-have in the US, and a reliable inclusion in Europe. On a related note, the two geographies have identical high seasons for velvet, Spring and Winter. Lululemon should aim to launch velvet in January 2022, which will be the month during which velvet’s demand will be the highest among female consumers in Europe and the US.
Finally, there is no variation in consumer segmentation between the two geographies: velvet is forecasted to appeal to all types of consumers, allowing Lululemon to broaden their design and marketing scope.
2. Orange-Red
Like velvet, orange-red will experience similar behaviors among female consumers in Europe and the US during the Spring 2022 season. In both places, Heuritech considers orange-red a safe bet, which we’ve deduced from the color’s growth rate and magnitude. Between Spring 2021 and Spring 2022, orange-red’s growth rate will be +5% and +3% in the US and Europe respectively, and its magnitude will be big in both markets.
If we observe the color’s market shares in the US and Europe in terms of product assortment, we see that outerwear will account for over one-third of the total market shares, and that skirts and dresses will be in close second.
For Lululemon’s merchandising and marketing teams, it’s also important to note the trend’s optimal launch times and consumer segmentations. Spring and Winter will be the prime times to drop orange-red in both geographies, but there is one slight difference: in Europe, the ideal launch month will be January 2022, and in the US, February 2022. Regarding consumer segmentation, orange-red will have a universal appeal, and consumers in all three segments will go for the color come Spring 2022.
3. Camouflage
The final trend in this excerpt is camouflage, and it will not behave in the same way as the previous two. While we do consider the print a safe bet in the US in Spring 2022, this is largely due to its medium magnitude: camouflage will fall by -8% compared to Spring 2021 in the US market. And in Europe, camouflage print will fall by -2% and experience a small market demand potential for the Spring season, qualifying the trend as steady. What this means for Lululemon is that camouflage’s decreasing popularity is a sign to explore other prints for their Spring 2022 collections in Europe and the US.
With that said, camouflage will still maintain a rather across-the-board appeal in both places. In the US, all three consumer segments opt for the print, and in Europe, all but the edgy consumers wear it. Regardless, camouflage is a trend to avoid in coming seasons despite its consumer segmentation. Finally, the ideal launch periods for camouflage will be Spring and Winter in both markets, while in the US, the month of January is best, and in Europe, the month of March. Lululemon should consider phasing out this print in the coming seasons, so that by the time its demand falls lower, they can avoid overstock and off-trend collections.
Lululemon athleisure trends: Forecasting for Spring 2022
These are the key takeaways for women’s trends taken from Lululemon’s e-commerce platform compared with our data to provide a glimpse of how they will behave in the North American and European markets for the Spring 2022 season.
- Velvet will be an ideal fabric to launch in the Spring 2022 season, especially in the US as demand is predicted to grow by 13%, qualifying it as a fashion bet.Market shares of the fabric will be growing in the US and Europe and it will appeal to all customer segments.
- Orange Red has approximately the same behavior in Europe and in the US and is most prominently applied to outerwear. Demand is considered flat for both markets, so this colour is a safe bet to include in product assortments.
- Although still considered a safe bet, the camouflage print is declining in popularity with women in both markets. The predicted decrease in growth of 8% for the US market is a likely indicator for the future of this print, therefore we suggest exploring other prints for the women’s collections.
With trend forecasting, Lululemon can continue to uphold their manifesto of strength, self-expression, and innovation.
