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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeidi O’Neill, the incoming chief executive of Lululemon Athletica Inc. is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Handout \u2014 Lululemon Athletica Inc. (Mandatory Credit)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a herculean task,\u201d said Richard Leblanc, a governance, law and ethics professor at York University. \u201cThe targets are moving and there are divergent interests and expectations from stakeholders, customers, employees, investors, the founder, board members, competitors. It will be very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Vancouver-based company still notches the kind of revenues most Canadian retailers would be envious of, they\u2019ve been shrinking and the company\u2019s Nasdaq-listed stock price has dropped from its peak of around US$500 in December 2023 to roughly $100 lately.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been criticized for a lack of new styles, had to temporarily remove a leggings line that was too see-through and abandoned another that gave customers\u2019 backsides a whale tail look.<\/p>\n
Overshadowing much of that up until recently was an ugly, public spat with its founder, who\u2019s grown incensed by the direction of the company and its inability to keep up with hot, new competitors like Alo and Vuori.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill will take Lululemon\u2019s reins months after that founder, Chip Wilson, agreed in May to pause disparaging the brand \u2014 but she still has her work cut out for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s fighting a multifront war,\u201d said Leblanc. \u201cIt\u2019s investors, talent, the boardroom and strategy, so she really has to have her ducks in line and hit the ground running on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lululemon declined to comment for this story or make O\u2019Neill available for an interview.<\/p>\n
However, it pointed The Canadian Press toward a Thursday call with analysts where interim chief executive Meghan Frank said the company expects O\u2019Neill \u201cwill take a deep dive into the business, evaluating our strategy and current action plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among O\u2019Neill\u2019s first tasks will be building relations with a fractured board, including two new members hand-picked by Wilson in exchange for an 18-month break from him publicly attacking the brand. A third board pick, with apparel product and brand experience, has been promised to him by Oct. 1 but has yet to be named.<\/p>\n
Making sure the board members and O\u2019Neill are all on the same page is crucial from the start because it can impact how much resistance a CEO\u2019s ideas will face in the future and how much leeway they are given to govern.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you don\u2019t want \u2026 is a new CEO fighting the board. You want the board and the CEO to be aligned, so the CEO can focus her 2,500 hours a year on beating the competition and creating shareholder value,\u201d Leblanc said.<\/p>\n
At the same time, O\u2019Neill will have to rebuild the company\u2019s ranks and quickly inspire loyalty.<\/p>\n
When Lululemon carried out a layoff last year that partially struck its headquarters, it sent unaffected staff fleeing to nearby rivals like Arc\u2019teryx, said Laurent Vasilescu, senior analyst at BNP Paribas Equity Research, in a recent note to investors.<\/p>\n
The last year of turmoil has only exacerbated that flow, he said.<\/p>\n
In August, Lululemon lost its chief artificial intelligence and technology officer after less than a year and its longtime chief strategy officer after 14. Its chief communications officer was also scheduled to leave days before O\u2019Neill took the helm.<\/p>\n
Departures so close to a new CEO\u2019s reign are \u201cincreasingly concerning,\u201d Vasilescu said, while predicting \u201cthere may be more employee turnover over the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retail watchers say the transformation O\u2019Neill will have to preside over should repair Lululemon\u2019s executive ranks as much as its store shelves.<\/p>\n
\u201cLululemon has lost its innovative edge. It has become boring and predictable, and it\u2019s simply not justifying its price points in the way it once did,\u201d Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response to this so far has been to try and add more general casualwear pieces to the assortment. Unfortunately, this has confused some shoppers and has weakened Lululemon\u2019s reputation for being on the cutting edge of athleisure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lululemon needs to get back to convincing customers its products are worth the premium prices by launching merchandise that prioritizes fit and comfort, innovating with new fabrics and technology and injecting fashion into final designs, Saunders reasons.<\/p>\n
An update to Lululemon stores also wouldn\u2019t hurt. Some of its locations are looking \u201cquite uninteresting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If Lululemon refreshed its product offerings and stores, Saunders thinks it would help win back customers and get them to spend more.<\/p>\n
That, in turn, would help with what he sees as the company\u2019s biggest challenge: convincing critics Lululemon hasn\u2019t hit its North American ceiling.<\/p>\n
Analysts have worried Lululemon has saturated its home market as it can because recent quarters brought declines in its North American revenues.<\/p>\n
Turning things around won\u2019t be easy because the market is \u201cway more competitive\u201d and athleisure spending has slowed, Saunders said.<\/p>\n
Yet he thinks O\u2019Neill can more than handle these tasks.<\/p>\n
While Lululemon\u2019s stock dipped after her April appointment announcement, she\u2019s no retail rookie. He credits her with transforming Nike\u2019s women\u2019s business from a sub-category into a multi-billion-dollar growth driver.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Lululemon said she was also instrumental in reducing Nike\u2019s product development timelines, speeding up its release schedule and shaping the business into a US$45 billion global leader.<\/p>\n
While many investors will want to see that same prowess at Lululemon, Leblanc thinks they won\u2019t have much patience.<\/p>\n
After all, they spent the winter and spring waiting for Lululemon to name its next CEO and then, the summer waiting for O\u2019Neill to start while the clock ticked down on Wilson\u2019s silence.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll want her to quickly find her footing, deliver a turnaround plan and win their loyalty, he said, so \u201cthe pressure is on to get it right coming out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come Tuesday, Heidi O\u2019Neill will likely have the loftiest to-do list in all of Canadian retail. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-198063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}