With US comparable sales still declining and its men’s business underperforming against plan, lululemon is using co-developed performance technology and a flagship tennis partnership to demonstrate product innovation leadership as a reset takes shape.
Lululemon athletica has expanded its ShowZero sweat-concealing technology platform to cover high-intensity activities, rolling out an upgraded version of the fabric system in a custom tennis kit for US Open finalist Frances Tiafoe at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. lululemon joined the tournament as official outfitter in November 2025, replacing Fila.
The launch comes as lululemon tries to reset product momentum. Shares fell nearly 50 percent in 2025, its US business slowed and management said it had let product life cycles run too long. Men’s tennis gives the brand a prominent stage to showcase performance innovation.
Technology developed on court
The new ShowZero iteration is a yarn-level technology that modifies how light interacts with wet fabric, making sweat visually undetectable. The product team began development in 2024, running on-court testing sessions with Tiafoe and analyzing his sweat rate and competitive environment to identify the performance gap. The result adds advanced wicking and enhanced breathability to the original sweat-concealing capability, which debuted in the golf category in summer 2024 in collaboration with PGA Tour player Min Woo Lee.
“Our Ambassadors play a critical role in how we innovate, which starts with understanding how we can best solve for their unique needs,” said Yuki Aihara, Senior Director of Product Innovation at lululemon. “We’ve combined advanced sweat-concealing technology with our feel-first design approach to develop a high-performance tennis kit.”
The Tiafoe kit features a burgundy colorway with a vertical stripe design and will be worn in competition beginning at the BNP Paribas Open, which runs through March 15.
Men’s and performance: the growth imperative
The launch maps directly to one of lululemon’s most consequential strategic priorities. The company’s “Power of Three x2” plan targets doubling men’s revenues by fiscal 2026, a goal that has become harder to reach as a high volume of men’s basics were marked down in the summer, and analysts flagged that the men’s business is a key pillar of the growth plan.
To reignite growth, management outlined a three-pillar plan centered on product creation, product activation and enterprise efficiency, with the goal of lifting new-style penetration from 23 percent to 35 percent by spring 2026 and cutting the mainline development cycle from up to 24 months to 12–14 months. Innovation anchored in athlete feedback – the model behind both the golf and tennis ShowZero launches – is central to this product acceleration strategy.
Tennis as a credibility-building platform
lululemon’s largest tennis activation to date, the BNP Paribas Open partnership follows the brand’s signing of Tiafoe as global ambassador in January 2025 and its debut of a retail presence at the US Open. The Indian Wells tournament, attended by more than 450,000 spectators annually, provides a visible stage for a brand that needs to demonstrate performance credentials beyond its yoga and running heritage.
Women’s tennis ambassador Leylah Fernandez also features in the tournament’s lululemon activation, reinforcing the dual-gender dimension of the brand’s tennis strategy.
