lululemon Studio, a new membership program

lululemon is launching lululemon Studio, a membership program centered around its Studio Mirror reflective training, bundling fitness content, clothing, and community. The Studio Mirror is a smart connected home gym packaged in an attractive reflective standing mirror. (Mirror can also be attached it to the wall). lululemon will debut two tiers of memberships.

Essentials and Studio Membership Details

TWO MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

The first is a free version called Essentials, and the second is a paid membership at $39 per month, called Studio. Both memberships come with exclusive access to apparel drops, events, and a birthday gift, while Studio offers all-access subscription and expanded fitness classes for the Mirror — See the Full Review on the Mirror. A digital-only version is expected for phones, tablets and TV apps and will be included in the Studio membership. A Studio Mirror device will not be required to access lululemon fitness content with the Studio level.

Studio Membership Perks

lululemon wants to be “a fully experiential brand” that creates opportunities for people to “sweat, grow, and connect.” Studio Membership will bundle digital fitness with its membership. lululemon Studio will partner with boutique studios like Pure Barre, Rumble, DOGPOUND, AARMY, Y7 Studio, YogaSix, FORWARD__Space, and ARK for workout content and in-person classes.

Studio members will receive 20% discounts to do IRL (in-real-life) classes at Studio partners. lululemon sees a “new path for connected fitness,” through a hybrid model. Studio members will be encouraged to embrace an active lifestyle at home and at in-store events, studios & gyms. There are also other Membership Perks. All members get 10% off lululemon gear, along with free returns on sale items apparel.

lululemon aims to create the “most immersive fitness marketplace” for its members. They expect 80 percent of its customers to join a membership program, although the goal is to migrate Essential members to Studio through free trials and other efforts.

lululemon Studio Mirror Details

The Studio Mirror streams guided trainer-led workout classes, live and on-demand — you can see yourself and the trainer as you work out. With just two feet of wall space, you can turn nearly any room into a complete home gym or Studio.

Cleverly designed the lululemon Studio Mirror, offers excellent high quality five to 60-minute live classes or choose from thousands of on-demand options to workout with on your schedule. There is a wide variety of genres like boxing, yoga flow, dance cardio, kettlebell, strength training, Pilates, pre + postnatal, barre and more.

lululemon has placed the Studio Mirror in roughly 200 locations across North America so you can visit a store and try out a Mirror workout. The Mirror is available to purchase online here.

lululemon Studio Mirror has Competition

Other retailers have found success without offering any equipment, like Nike’s app arsenal, Alo Yoga’s Moves platform, and Athleta x obé. Peloton appears to be moving in this direction as well by focusing on content and less on exercise equipment. Peloton recently offered a bike rental for example. Nordictrack and Proform offer reflective training with their Vault and the Vue mirrors powered by iFit workouts.

iFit enabled exercise equipment offers thousands of workouts in-studio and from destinations with auto-adjust resistance, speed, incline and decline. Like the Mirror, iFit uses AI (artificial intelligence) to increase intensity as the member improves. iFit offers IRL events, retreats and live streamed races to challenge its members. Then there is Apple+ Fitness fully integrated with the Apple Watch and Apple Health. Read the Article on recommended exercise equipment to help you get more out of Apple+ Fitness.

Direction of the Mirror

lululemon is trying to merge online, offline, IRL and have its members reach for lululemon apparel for workouts and with its leisurewear for men & women. lululemon is expanding into shoes, golf, tennis and hiking products to become more of a lifestyle brand. towards that goal The Mirror may be a center stone for the lululemon community or lululemon may go 100% digital without an equipment anchor. 2023 will be the test year but it seems committed to continuing to offer the Studio Mirror with a $125 million sales target for 2022 and the launch of a studio in the fall.

In the end - Final thoughts

With the athleisure market estimated to reach $567B by 2024, competition is fierce. Although lululemon has posted impressive results with $6.3B in revenue during the last fiscal year, Nike did $44B in 2021. It will be interesting to see whether fitness equipment propels apparel sales or something else?