Heidi O’Neill is having a tricky week.
In late April, the Lululemon board announced it had ended its monthslong search to interchange CEO Calvin McDonald, who left the corporate abruptly in 2025 after six years on the helm. As quickly as the corporate introduced that O’Neill, a 26-year Nike veteran, could be taking up the place, issues bought messy. Lululemon’s inventory took a plunge, suggesting that buyers didn’t assume O’Neill was the suitable choose. And plenty of analysts—including myself—argued that following the Nike playbook wouldn’t lead Lululemon out of its monetary doldrums.
Then, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson weighed in. Wilson launched the corporate in 1998 as a yoga model and left in 2005, however he has by no means stopped making an attempt to remain concerned, and he nonetheless wields appreciable energy on the firm as its largest shareholder. He had made it clear that he didn’t approve of McDonald’s management, and in a LinkedIn submit, he went after the board for selecting O’Neill, arguing they need to be on the lookout for “passionate, artistic renegades who’ve a imaginative and prescient that can shake up the established order.”
Wilson’s judgment shouldn’t be at all times proper. That is somebody who as soon as needed to apologize for saying that ladies’s thighs rubbing collectively was liable for the pilling on Lululemon leggings—a remark broadly perceived to be physique shaming. And final yr he criticized Lululemon’s variety, fairness, and inclusion insurance policies for welcoming clients “you don’t need . . . coming in.” However that doesn’t imply his instincts are at all times incorrect.
What Lululemon wants proper now could be the type of revitalization we’re seeing at Gap—and it’s price listening to how that model pulled it off. The legacy attire model, based in 1969, had gone by a number of years of declining gross sales. However today it’s having a second.
Over the previous two years, it has had hit marketing campaigns each season, tapping stars like Younger Miko, Troye Sivan, and, most notably, Katseye. Zac Posen has created a high-fashion model of the Hole label referred to as GapStudio, which has put red-carpet clothes on the backs of celebrities like Timothée Chalamet and Anne Hathaway. The model has additionally launched collaborations with Béis, Dôen, and, most lately, Victoria Beckham, all big hits.
Whereas this type of turnaround is the stuff manufacturers dream of, Mark Breitbard, president and CEO of the worldwide Hole Model, has made it clear that it’s the results of a number of onerous work. It has additionally required a deep data of the model.
Breitbard shouldn’t be a Hole outsider. Early in his profession, from 2009 to 2013, he labored because the chief service provider at Outdated Navy after which Hole, and later got here again in 2017 to run Banana Republic.
When he took on his present function in 2020, he inherited a multitude. The model had too many shops, lots of them unprofitable. It additionally had an excessive amount of stock, which resulted in heavy discounting. The standard of clothes had declined.
“The enterprise was damaged,” Breitbard advised me lately. “We needed to tackle every of those points with self-discipline. It wasn’t enjoyable, but it surely laid the inspiration for us to convey the model again into the middle of tradition.”
Product, he factors out, is essential. Regardless of its lengthy historical past as a beloved maker of fundamentals, Hole’s garments had misplaced their luster. Breitbard, who’s steeped in provide chains and merchandising, labored to enhance the standard of the supplies and match. And customers are responding.
After the Katseye video, which featured retro denim kinds, folks rushed to Hole to purchase ’90s-style denims—and so they weren’t upset. Throughout Coachella, Hole created an activation targeted on sweats, and folks cherished how cozy they had been.
This is a crucial lesson for Lululemon. The model has at all times been identified for its distinctive materials, developed out of its inside design philosophy, which it calls “the science of really feel.” It has had many blockbusters, together with its proprietary buttery-soft Nulu fabric, which is in its well-known Align pants, which have generated greater than $1 billion for the corporate. Lululemon clients come to the model for its prime quality and popularity for innovation, and its new chief have to be laser-focused on product.
As soon as this pillar is in place, it’s potential to convey the model again into the cultural dialog. It’s notable that Breitbard didn’t begin pushing out these artistic campaigns for Hole 5 years in the past; he waited till he believed the foundations of the enterprise had been so as. Solely then did he flip his consideration to launching among the most fun advertising and marketing campaigns we’ve seen lately.
After I interviewed him for Quick Firm’s Most Modern Corporations podcast, Breitbard said he empowers his artistic crew to do what they do finest. This consists of Fabiola Torres, the CMO he introduced on in Could 2024.
“If we have now wonderful creatives, and we put them able the place we are able to belief the creatives to maintain pushing and driving, and never overburden them with paperwork, we’ll keep on this second of warmth,” he says.
That is precisely the type of creativity Wilson is hoping for. And it’s unclear whether or not O’Neill is the suitable particular person for the duty. In recent times, she has been targeted on extra technical elements of the enterprise, which isn’t a foul factor, besides she was liable for serving to Nike pivot towards a direct-to-consumer strategy that has proved lacking for the company. And with regards to artistic, Nike’s heyday as an engine for sensible promoting and advertising and marketing is lengthy gone.
Hole proved that legacy manufacturers can come roaring again—however solely with the suitable chief on the helm. Whether or not O’Neill is that particular person for Lululemon stays to be seen. She’ll have loads to show, assuming the board doesn’t have second ideas.
