money Lululemon unveils new men's footwear line
Lululemon (LULU) has announced plans to launch a new line of men's footwear this spring. It includes "Cityverse," the athletic apparel brand's first-ever sneaker collection. The shoes represent Lululemon's ongoing push to expand its men's business, with a goal of doubling men's revenues by 2026.
Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma, Pras Subramanian, and Allie Canal discuss the details.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: The story I'm looking at is Lululemon as they step into new territory, launching a men's footwear line. Coming this spring, the new men's collection will offer up casual sneakers called the Cityverse, running shoe models that are dubbed Beyond Feel and Beyond Feel Trail. This as the company looks to double its menswear business by 2026. Where is Josh Schafer? Get out, get over here, man. I know he's buying these shoes.
- He literally is right there, looking at the presale.
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: I know he's buying the shoes. He's hiding out over there.
- I think he went in on the presale.
- That's why he's not here today, actually.
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: He's in line.
- He's buying--
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: He's in line on Lafayette Street, right. But here's the thing, I guess if you're a buyer of the pants, the shoes are a no-brainer. But for me, I'm already-- I got Nike. I got New Balance. Why do I need to buy these shoes?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- How do they bring you into the market?
- The saturation, I think it's a very smart play to go in on the menswear. Lulu has been growing a little more slowly. They really have captured the attention of females with the Crossbody Bag. But yes, looking at some of these pictures here, it looks like every other men's white sneaker out there. And I'm just wondering how they can differentiate this.
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: I will say, they have a black model with a nice gum sole that looked pretty cool.
- Ooh, a gum sole.
- A gum sole.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: I was surprised. I saw all the white ones. And I thought, these are boring. But maybe I'm wrong. But Lulu, this doesn't do it for me as a sexy shoe brand.
- Maybe it will eventually. We've seen a turnaround--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- Yeah.
- They love the ABC pant.
- This trend, casualization, vibe that's now going on postpandemic, this is something that maybe they needed to get into in order to have that full capsule of different apparel. We're seeing On also get into apparel. They, of course, started with shoes. And so this really is this complete feel and look that maybe men can now go to Lululemon for.
- The brand has a hold on the men's, on the males out there.
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: Some men. But they have women's shoes, right, don't they?
- Yes.
- Yes, but to me, Lulu is not known for--
- I feel like in females' perspective, it's yoga pants. It's known for that--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
- I just got a yoga bodysuit that--
- That's also trending.
- --which I really loved. Yoga mat-- that's the direction that I feel--
- My Lululemon yoga mat, I do, I do--
- But guys actually get those-- the outfits to go to work and do those things.
PRAS SUBRMANIAN: I think Lulu needs kind of a transformational technology, like the Adidas boost, right? Something that'll make you want to come to the brand. Otherwise, it's such a saturated market.
- All right.
- Wall Street, though, is loving shares of Lululemon. They're up major year over year.
