After years of research and development, the Canadian athleisure brand is bringing its footwear to our shores.
If the majority of your activewear is from Lululemon, they’re now coming for your shoe collection, too.
On March 19, the brand will officially unveil its much-anticipated footwear collection, bringing its signature blend of style and performance to our shores.
After launching a women’s shoe overseas in 2022, they’re now releasing a range of men’s and women’s shoes in Australia.
“With new performance running shoes and our first-ever casual sneakers we can now outfit both men and women in versatile gear from head to toe,” explains Lululemon’s chief product officer, Sun Choe.
Like what you see? Sign up to our bodyandsoul.com.au newsletter for more stories like this.
Extensive research, wear-testing and ambassador feedback went into each of the designs “to ensure a perfect fit, no matter the activity”.
However, unlike the majority of other research, which is centred around how men’s bodies move, Lululemon flipped the script, instead starting with women.
Rather than designing shoes for men and then scaling them down for women, they researched everything from the differences in foot shape to how women move when undertaking different activities.
“We spent four years really getting into the nitty-gritty of how to build a shoe from the bottom up,” Lululemon’s VP of footwear innovation Susan Sokolowski tells Body+Soul.
“We saw an unmet need for females and spent a significant amount of time looking at her foot, looking at how she moves mechanically and then using that knowledge and bringing it into the shoe design.”
Lululemon Beyondfeel Women’s Running Shoe, $249 from lululemon.com.au
The footwear went through rigorous testing with both ambassadors and athletes during the process, as well as researchers working to scan the feet of one million women to ensure the perfect fit.
When it came to getting the fit right for male customers, they took the research period just as seriously.
“We spent an equal amount of time developing the men’s product,” says Lululemon’s VP of footwear and design George Robusti.
“Taking that same intentionality into designing men’s as we did with women’s, we used the research and science around the movement of the body and each activity’s needs to fine-tune the product.”
And fine-tune it they did. After extensive research, wear-testing and ambassador feedback, they’ve released a running shoe, a casual shoe, a slide and a trail runner for both men and women. True to form, they’ve also designed a cross-training shoe specifically for women, as well as a more supportive option for those who need it.
“Every product we make is designed to embody our feel-first philosophy, which is rooted in the belief that when you feel your best, you perform your best,” confirms Choe.
Can’t wait to get your hands on a pair? The shoes are available online now at lululemon.com.au
