Lululemon Enters the Home Fitness Market in Canada with its Product, Mirror

Lululemon is one of North America’s most successful athletic apparel retailers. In June 2020 the company expanded beyond the apparel market by acquiring the in-home fitness company, Mirror for $500 million. Mirror’s product is a mirror-like device that turns into an interactive home gym. Mirror provides weekly live classes, on demand workouts and personal training classes.

The global pandemic saw a boom in home fitness devices and data shows that consumer preferences for fitness offerings have changed. 1,500 Canadians were surveyed by Abacus Data in July and roughly one fifth of those people stated that they went to a fitness studio or gym before the pandemic. 18 % of those people now plan to only use virtual fitness offerings going forward while  another 18 % stated that they will use both online and in person offerings. 

Lululemon is planning to begin selling the Mirror in Canada starting with its retail outlets and then online in November. The device is currently being sold in 150 Lululemon retail stores in the United States and Lululemon expects Mirror to generate US$ 250-million to US$ 275-million in revenue this year.

The company has entered into a very competitive field with companies such as Peloton, Nordic Track, Nike, Amazon, Apple and Google all launching virtual fitness services. However Lululemon believes that there are synergies that they can take advantage of. Their brick and mortal stores provide a powerful sales and marketing tool for the Mirror product while the product itself provides another channel to sell and market their apparel. 

Author: Erik Axell, 2021/2022 Articling Student-at-law