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Will cross-gender stores mean more for Lululemon or Nike?

Written by RetailWire Staff

Lululemon and Nike are two brands at drastically different points in their evolution — the former a company that exploded alongside the past decade's women's athleisure trend; the latter a stalwart company built on the legacy of male athletes: Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and, lately, LeBron James. Differences aside, both are taking similar steps forward — and away from their perceived core customer bases — into against-type, gender-specific storefronts.

Lululemon recently opened a men's-only store in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Nike opened two women's-only locations over the past month, one in Newport Beach, CA, and one in Shanghai, China.

A Motley Fool article posited the two fitness-oriented retailers are borrowing from each other's playbooks, and indeed it does appear the two are chasing each other's tails.

Lululemon has led the "atheleisure' craze that has urban women dwellers donning comfy yoga pants and other leggings for everyday wear. Its gender-based reputation is so strong that moves into men's athletic attire have led to a spate of articles recently in men's magazines, such as GQ and Outside, evaluating if shopping at Lululemon is compatible with masculinity.

Nike generally focuses on men's athletics in their branding and advertising, although they have taken numerous shots at courting female fitness fans, as in the case of their early-2000s sub-brand called Nike Goddess.

On-point messaging for female customers may have become even more important now that it has heightened competition for women from Under Armour. Under Armor was named Ad Age's Marketer of the Year with its "I Will What I Want" women's marketing campaign striking a powerful and empowering chord with female fitness fans.

Leanne Fremar, SVP and creative director-women's business at Under Armor, told Ad Age, "The insight behind 'I Will What I Want' was not 'you go, girl ... the goal was to celebrate woman who had the physical and mental strength to tune out the external pressures and turn inward and chart their own course.'"

If Nike is finding its footing with its female-oriented messaging, Lululemon seems to already know the kind of guy they're going for. According to Outside magazine, the "ABC" in Lululemon's ABC Pants stands for "Anti-Ball Crushin'."

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