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Retail Top 100 2012, No. 43: Lululemon

September 24, 2012

Vancouver-based athletic apparel company Lululemon Athletica has caught fire with yoga enthusiasts to a degree that sent its competitors stumbling over themselves in pursuit of customers willing to spend $98 on stretchy yoga pants. Mimicking Lululemon's winning strategy, Nike's Salvation chain of athletic-wear stores introduced $64 training capris featuring a yoga-studio format and similar logo. Gap's Athleta stores began selling $60 women's yoga tops and offering free yoga classes — another Lululemon innovation.

Nordstrom's Zella line, dedicated to yoga attire, went so far as to hire a Lululemon alum to launch the effort. Since opening its first store in the United States in 2003, Lululemon's ag-gressive strategy has paid off with rev-enues growing from $40.7 million in 2004 to $711.7 million in 2010.

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