Five years of stock decline and a December 2025 proxy fight have not shifted lululemon’s board. Now Chip Wilson is building a competing platform for early-stage technical apparel founders – and taking his frustration out of the boardroom.
Chip Wilson, the founder and former CEO of lululemon, has set up a new investment structure to back small, founder-led brands in the technical apparel market — a move that positions him as a direct competitor to the company he created. The Vancouver-based entity will combine new brand development with minority stakes in existing early-stage labels, supported by an operating partner to handle day-to-day functions, Bloomberg reported Friday.
From proxy fight to open competition
Wilson’s discontent with lululemon has been public and sustained; we have reported on it several times on SGI Europe. In December 2025, he launched a proxy fight aimed at overhauling the company’s board, calling for leadership that would restore what he has described as a “product-first” ethos. Since then, he has attacked the board’s composition, the brand’s merchandise direction and what he sees as a steady erosion of lululemon’s premium positioning.
The financial record strengthens his case: LULU shares have fallen 48 percent over the past five years, underperforming the S&P 500 by 116 percentage points over that period. For Wilson, the company’s largest individual shareholder, that trend has a direct cost — and it comes as newer rivals, including Alo Yoga and Vuori, are competing for the premium athleisure space lululemon helped create.
A platform for early-stage founders
A spokesperson for Wilson confirmed the strategic rationale in a statement to Bloomberg: the new structure is intended to focus more closely on investments in early-stage, founder-led companies. The vehicle is therefore operational, not purely financial.
