Lululemon Athletica is searching for a new chief executive after Calvin McDonald announced he will step down on Jan. 31, 2026. Retail experts say his successor must restore the product innovation that made the Vancouver-based brand famous, as rivals such as Alo Yoga and Vuori win over its customers.
A giant that started to look ordinary
Darrell Kopke, who worked at Lululemon in its early days, says people used to ask him for discounts for their daughters and sisters. These days, he says, he sees fewer loyalists. “Don’t get me wrong, I still see Lulu, but I see a lot more Alo now than I ever have.”
The California-based Alo, worn by celebrities including Hailey Bieber and Kaia Gerber, is one of several rivals — Nike, Vuori, Gymshark and Fabletics among them — pressing a brand that critics say has grown stale. Over the past two years Lululemon has been faulted for a lack of new styles, pulled a leggings line that failed with customers, and watched its stock tumble by almost 60 per cent. McDonald himself conceded in late 2024 that the company had reduced its “newness” — the freshness of its colours, prints and silhouettes — and shoppers noticed, walking out empty-handed. Lululemon cut its full-year guidance, reorganized its product team, and took the once-unthinkable step of marking down unsold inventory.
“You’re not starting from scratch. You have a large revenue,” said Tamara Szames, founder of Arc + Axis Consulting. “The challenge will be how do you maintain your current customer base while going after the new one that’s going to bring you forward?” Szames noted the famous legging wall in Lululemon stores looks much as it always has: “There’s been no evolution and innovation of how that product is presented.”
A mixed legacy for McDonald
Hired from Sephora in 2018, McDonald tripled Lululemon’s sales, grew China into its second-largest market, expanded menswear, and landed contracts to outfit Canada’s Olympic team plus licensing deals with the NHL and NFL. His experiments — a skincare line and a smart mirror that mimicked a personal trainer — were not hits, but the growth was real.
The company’s finance chief, Meghan Frank, and chief commercial officer, André Maestrini, will serve as interim co-CEOs while the board searches for a permanent successor. The company has said McDonald is not available for interviews and pointed reporters to its most recent earnings call, where he said Lululemon “is poised to innovate new products and experiences and welcome more markets and guests.”
The founder wants a say in who comes next
None of the drift escaped Chip Wilson, the company’s estranged founder and one of its largest shareholders, who took out a full-page Wall Street Journal advertisement blaming McDonald for a decline he equated to a “plane crash.” After the departure was announced, Wilson nominated three independent directors for election at the 2026 annual meeting — former On Running co-CEO Marc Maurer, former ESPN marketing chief Laura Gentile and former Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg — and proposed that the board be declassified so all directors face annual elections.
“The recent CEO change announcement was the third total failure of board oversight with no clear succession plan in place,” Wilson said. He is not the only activist circling: Elliott Investment Management has built a stake reported at more than US$1 billion and has been linked to former Ralph Lauren executive Jane Nielsen as a possible CEO candidate.
Analysts such as GlobalData’s Neil Saunders warn the brand has drifted into “heavily branded hoodies and tops” that cheapen its premium image. Kopke argues the next CEO should chase “share of wallet” rather than “share of closet,” leaning into the community roots of a company founded in 1998 as a daytime design studio and nighttime yoga studio in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighbourhood.
