Are you a Lululemon Atheltica lover like myself? This Canadian company, has branched out to the United States and is also available internationally. Canadian and USA purchases are always given free shipping (score!). Lulu-what? Not exactly sure what I’m talking about?
Pronunciation: Lu-Lu-Lemon. Lululemon was created in the late 90’s and initially started by designing great yoga wear, but branched out to other technical clothing line and apparel such as running, dancing and other sweaty sports. Men are also all about the “lulu” clothing too!
Lululemon is a bit on the pricey side of things. A pair of yoga pants will run you about $100. They use a special type of material called Luon which holds up pretty immaculately and my first set of Groove pants look just as new as the day I bought them — 5 years ago! You have to be careful washing Luon material and wash with likes. The boyfriend and I do athletic laundry together, and we never put the athletic things in the dryer. When I first bought them, I started putting it in the dryer and they may have shrunk in length a bit – but they still look great as I mentioned above. But now that I’ve learned my lesson, my other two pairs of Groove pants have never seen the dryer in their lifetime ;)
However, if you don’t want to end up investing in some great pants that will definitely last you for years if you take good care of it, you can always purchase some headbands – which I used to be known for at soccer. I have an array of colorful headbands that keep my fly-aways and layers out of my face when I’m running from one end of the field to the other. I wish I liked the slipless headbands, but I think I have a huge head because it gives me a headache when I wear mine!
Lululemon is known for making “great butt pants” and that definitely holds up true to its reputation. It’s quite flattering on anyone’s figure. You’ll see a lot of lululemon pants going around on people of all ages, and sizes — men and women alike. I love the staff too, they’re so great and friendly! I tagged one of my favorite sweaters on flickr as “my favorite lululemon sweater”, or something along those lines and I ended up adding the company as a flickr contact. After signing up for Twitter — I’ve been having a few one-liner conversations throughout the day with one of the staff members as well, mentioning my favorite items, and giving them suggestions as to what I would like to see available in stores: more long sleeved athletic tees!
Lately I’ve been finding myself visiting the loot (sale) section of their website, on a daily basis. Mainly because I scored some incredible deals on Boxing Day ’09 and got some hot empower crop II’s, and windsprint pants on steep discount (which are still available, but at full price again). I don’t know what days they update their loot section, but it seems sporadic as I’ve seen items go up for sale daily. The US website, and the Canadian website, are different as well — when it comes to the loot section, so be warry of that. I ended up going to the US website (dot com) and found myself coveting a few gorgeous items, only to add it to my cart and couldn’t purchase them. Waah! For instance today I purchased some cute towels (shown above) for 50% off! So keep on checkin’. Best yet? They accept PAYPAL you guys… and of course credit cards, as any other normal store would.
There’s also a review section available on many items listed on their website. Most of the reviews have been quite positive, however for new lines of clothing I have seen a few negative reviews such as a sizing difference etc. In fact, I even reviewed the pants that I purchased on Boxing day on their website: one was positive, the other — negative. Isn’t that great? I love finding TRUE stories and reviews. I love that a company isn’t afraid to approve TRUE reviews, whether it be positive or negative. My empower crops run a little smaller than my groove pants would, because of the compression needed for running. No worries, I didn’t dislike them enough to return them to the store, and I’ve been wearing them to the gym constantly and getting compliments each time I wear them! I may invest in some more, once they go on sale again that is.
Have you made the splurge yet? What are some of your favorite lululemon items?
6 Comments
Hey Nancy, those groove pants do look great. I think i’ll sign up for a paypal account so i can get one of those:
http://shop.lululemon.com/store/productdetails.aspx?productid=1426&colorid=1809&sli=1
http://shop.lululemon.com/store/productdetails.aspx?productid=1034&colorid=2359&sli=1
The 2nd one is perfect!
From the pics i can see the one you are wearing fits perfectly, but does it stay in place while working out? Does it ride up (wedgie)?
I had two gym pants that constantly ride up (hated that because they looked great on me), so i ended up getting tired of them. I still have one pair that fits ok without those issues, but lately i’m using tactel or dryfit shorts / lycra shorts and the adidas running skorts i mentioned to you once. I’m in love with them. The skirts are low rise (the waistband keeps the skort in place) and looks fantastic, and the inner shorts are very comfortable and fits perfectly on me (no need to worry about riding up). And when i’m finished with running, i can’t still keep wearing it till i get home because they look adorable and stylish anywhere. It’s also very flattering on my body =) I have two of them. Here is the model i have:
http://www.amazon.com/adidas-Womens-Supernova-Skort-Black/dp/B001OI33LU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1265591749&sr=8-2
And i’m so wanting to get this one (in both white and black – wish they made it in blue):
http://www.amazon.com/adidas-Womens-Competition-Skort-Black/dp/B0026XIC3G/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=apparel&qid=1265591749&sr=8-4
Also, i saw that lululemon has one that looks cute:
http://shop.lululemon.com/RunSpeed_Skirt/pd/c/580/np/580/p/1841.html
It cover the tights a little more than the adidas ones, but i would still get it anyways.
It’s great that lululemon isn’t afraid of customer reviews and cares about what they think of their products. All companies should be like that.
Aline, where do you live? It may not be the best for you to make an order if you’re outside the US/Canada, as you’ll get banged with some hefty shipping charges! But they ARE definitely worth the price in my mind. I really hate shipping though. At least here in Can/US it’s free!
As you noticed there are terrific reviews on the Lululemon website if you look at a pair you can decide from that. The ones I’m wearing are compression running crops, and they do not ride up. However, on the reviews it didn’t state (all that much) that they run one size smaller. So ideally I should have purchased a size up. But regardless of that – they’re amazing, and I wear them to a lot of fitness classes I attend, and they haven’t ridden up or slipped down.
I’m in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So yes, shipping would be a big issue. Still have to look after an international credit card, so i can use paypal. Anyway, i’ll check for shipping before going crazy on that site =]
Doesn’t one size smaller makes you feel “squeezed”? Or do they fit even better?
Post more pics of you wearing the other lululemon products you bought. I’m curious to see how great they look. And how’s the gym workout going? It seems that you are enjoying it, but i bet you still miss soccer. How’s the ankle by the way?
The gym crop pants i still have is also compression, so it stays in place and very comfortable. I’ll see if i can take pics wearing it (my cellphone camera is broken). Also, the inner shorts of the adidas skorts are also compression, so they fit perfectly, keep the muscles in place (great for working out / running) and it’s so comfy and soft. Not to mention both the dry-fit system.
Just look for “Adidas Supernova Skort” or “Adidas Competition Skort”. A friend recommended those for me, and i was like “Really?”. After i bought it, i started to love them too. All my friends now use skorts instead of running shorts =] I’m sure you’ll like it too.
No, the size smaller in the compression pants don’t make me feel squeezed at all. If you’ve ever tried on a pair of compression anything, you’ll understand. Maybe at first I had a bit of a muffin top which is not quite ideal, and which is why I’ll definitely be sizing up after they go on sale again. But they fit really well and I’ve got a lot of compliments while wearing them.
I meant to go watch my 10:00PM soccer game last night, but I didn’t end up going as I was just lazy and that’s pretty much my bed time now, ha ha.
Going to the gym is working well for me, heading there 3x a week basically. Thanks for asking!
I asked about the size because sometimes it’s confusing. 90% of the time, the M size is perfect for me, but sometimes it fits but the lycra gets too much stretched. So i need a one size up, just like you mentioned. By the way, i forgot to ask: that luon fabric, is it better than lycra or spandex? From your comments it seems like it.
Congrats on the compliments! You look great on those and surely deserve.