Dive Brief:
- As Lululemon looks to quadruple its international revenue by 2026, rival Vuori is leaning into its own global expansion. The activewear brand is opening its first locations in Seoul, South Korea, and Beijing this fall, on a path to running more than 100 stores globally by the end of the year, per a company press release emailed to Retail Dive.
- The Seoul store will be run by a franchise partner and open in September, while Beijing is planned for October. Those locations will be part of about 15 international stores Vuori expects to operate by 2026. The retailer already runs stores in London and Shanghai, and has a “strong start to wholesale” in Japan and Europe.
- At the same time, Vuori has expanded its e-commerce platform to 11 additional countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Portugal and Japan.
Dive Insight:
While Lululemon tackles slowing growth in the U.S. and “dramatically” lower comp growth internationally, competitor Vuori is pushing into “key markets” in Asia and Europe.
The retailer is targeting major cities for its store locations and using e-commerce to gauge demand in other areas. That approach allows Vuori to test and learn before scaling these efforts, Senior Vice President of International Andy Lawrence said in a statement.
“Vuori’s international growth has been patient, long-term focused, and designed to build brand equity across all key channels where our customer shops,” Lawrence said. “We’re not chasing quick wins, we’re cultivating meaningful communities in high-potential markets.”
Lawrence has led the brand’s international strategy since 2021 with a playbook focused on “data-driven decisions, premium positioning, and phased market entry,” per the release.
“To date we view international as something like a slingshot: pulled back to build strength before we accelerate and launch forward,” Lawrence said. “The foundational work we’re doing now is setting us up for quicker, sustainable acceleration in the years to come.”
Indeed, the retailer says it will continue to “methodically” grow the number of owned locations it operates in years to come. The global expansion also comes on the heels of Lululemon opening its first store in Italy last week, adding to the retailer’s growing international presence, which includes stores in Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.
While Vuori has spent the last few years opening some of its first international stores and pushing its global presence digitally, much of the activewear brand’s recent expansion has been focused on the U.S. The retailer has grown from its California roots to markets like Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York and more.
Vuori has also invested in wholesale from the start, which founder Joe Kudla consistently touts as one of its keys to scaling profitably. The retailer has raised some mega funding rounds in recent years only to say it doesn’t need the money and instead is using it to repay early investors.
Meanwhile, it’s gaining share with activewear shoppers. A TD Cowen report this month predicted Alo Yoga and Vuori would gain share of Google searches relative to Lululemon for the back-to-school period. In particular, the Google search ratio of Lululemon to Vuori has dropped from 11.7x to 11x and is trending toward 10x for July. Vuori is also seeing a high share of new visitors and long duration times on its website. A report last year from Earnest Analytics also found both Vuori and Alo Yoga gained 1% market share in the prior 12 months, which may be bad news for Lululemon and Nike, who share many shoppers with the newcomers.
In recent months, both Nike and Lululemon have fallen on harder times. A recent Jefferies note pointed to “alarming” markdowns at Lululemon, which also recently raised prices to combat tariffs despite seeing a choosier consumer in the U.S. Meanwhile, Nike is in the midst of a major turnaround, shifting team structures, rightsizing core footwear franchises and trying to accelerate product innovation.