Lululemon is rewriting its design language, and the team doing it reflects the global reach the brand now commands. Global creative director Jonathan Cheung leads a cross-functional group tasked with evolving what the Vancouver-based performance apparel company makes and how it looks across footwear, accessories, and its core activewear lines.
The team’s process has shifted to what it terms “wear-test-first” development, where prototypes are tested in real conditions — running, commuting, traveling — before design finalization. This has led to changes in pocket placement, seam tolerance, and fabric weight across multiple categories.
The design team’s composition tells the story. Designers are drawn from sportswear, luxury fashion, and technical apparel backgrounds, a deliberate mix meant to bridge the brand’s heritage in yoga and running with its ambitions in lifestyle and casual performance wear.
For footwear specifically, the design group has focused on the interface between the upper and the sole unit, an area Cheung identifies as the biggest opportunity for innovation in athletic design. The approach borrows from the brand’s apparel construction vocabulary, treating the shoe as a wearable extension of the garment rather than a standalone object.
