Friday, July 06, 2007

An Open Letter: Lululemon

Dear Lululemon Athletica,

I just passed your store in the Lincoln Square area, and was delighted to see that you were having a sale. This was exciting as I have just started jogging again, and am in desperate need of new running clothes. Specifically, new sports bras.

I went in to try some on, and before I say anything, I'd like to mention that I am a "traditionally built" Ashkenazi* woman (read: large-bosomed), so I have certain requirements in a sports bra. Like support. Unfortunately, you, lululemon, seem to be confused. You seem to think that sports bras work on proportional scale. This is not true. Just because a size is larger, and technically "fits" does not mean that it is useful to someone of that size.

For instance? I tried your "marathon" bra and laughed out loud. Any woman looking at it can tell that it will not provide the requisite support. It is a single piece of material, and only one layer of support. There is no mechanism to lift, or separate, it will necessarily give uniboob, and the only support provided is by means of strapping everything in.


Seriously? This is it?

Compare to your far superior "bounce breaker" which you did not have in my size. According to the site, the "marathon" bra provides maximum support. Really? Just look at the difference. The "bounce breaker" has an inner bra for extra support, mesh panels that separate different parts (and keep the bra from becoming a "two puppies, one bag" bra), and far less annoying straps. If by "support" you mean "covering as much of your chest as possible," then yes, the "marathon" is more supportive.

Basically, I have just discovered that while I may admire your style, you and I will never be friends. Sad for me.

Best,
Annie

*Ashkenazi Jews are Jews of Eastern European desecent.

7 comments:

Tamar said...

You have to try title 9 sports (they have an excellent website). I buy my sportsbras from them a couple times a year, and they're fantastic. I'm an especially big fan of the 2 in 1 wicking bra (http://www.titlenine.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=2149&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=674&iSubCat=677&iProductID=2149). They're a bit pricey, but totally worth it. I sometimes buy yoga pants from lulu, but I don't even try looking for sportsbras anywhere besides title9 anymore.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. Lululemon was a joke.

Anonymous said...

They have a product feed back form at the fit room that you could fill out. It might make more sence then randomly complaining to no body.

Anonymous said...

Anon- I actually did that too, but it didn't fit with the flow of my post. Thanks for the snark, though.

Anonymous said...

I second Tamar--Title 9 is great. It's sad there's no store to try on, but they have (if I remember correctly--it's been a while) a good returns policy.

Anonymous said...

Hey Annie!

As you wrote an open letter to the company I work for, I figured I might as well answer it.

Being small chested myself, I can't really speak from personal experience about the lack of support some of our bras offer.

The season of the marathon & bounce breaker was the first time we'd even launched something in the bra family for higher impact activities than yoga. Needless to say we've learned a few things :)

Anyways, all I know is that we've recieved a ton of similar feedback on our bras...everybody became aware quite quickly we needed something with a bit more support and are coming out with some much better designed items for different builds and different activity levels.

So...I got a chuckle out of the blog posting, (which btw, google coughed up when I was randomly googling work stuff)...hope you come back in some time and take a look.

lululemon lady

Gianna Blake said...

Oh! That’s not nice! Getting a good sports bra is like a miracle sometimes. It was sad to know about this story. I am glad I didn’t have to face anything like this. Whatever I have bought online till date has been fantastic. I am lucky I never faced disappointment ever in this case.