Will Alo be the next Lululemon?
Strong emerging brands
In recent years, the change of various sports lifestyle has also brought fire to many sports brands, such as lululemon when it comes to yoga. Since yoga does not have too many venue restrictions and the entry barrier is low, many people will use it as an exercise program. Taking a fancy to the potential of this market, yoga sports brands have also mushroomed.
In addition to lululemon, the spotlight brand, Alo Yoga, the new brand is also rising strongly. Alo Yoga was founded in the United States in 2007, the same year that lululemon listed on the NASDAQ in New York and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Alo Yoga's brand name is derived from Air, Land and Ocean, and the brand focuses on the three major goals of spreading mindfulness, encouraging healthy living and creating community. Like lululemon, Alo Yoga is also a high-end route, and some products are priced higher than lululemon.
In the North American market, Alo Yoga doesn't even need to spend money to get popular stars competing for its endorsement. For example, fashion supermodels Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid are often photographed wearing Alo Yoga pants and tops on the street, and Hailey Bieber and Taylor Swift are also fans of Alo Yoga.
According to Danny Harris, co-founder of the brand, the company has experienced three consecutive years of rapid growth from 2019, and successfully exceeded $1 billion in sales in 2022. At the same time, a source close to the situation revealed late last year that Alo Yoga was seeking new investment opportunities that could value the brand at up to $10 billion.
The Alo Yoga doesn't stop there.
In January, Alo Yoga announced a collaboration with Blackpink member Ji-soo Kim. $1.9 million in MIV (Fashion Media Impact Value) revenue in the first five days of the partnership, coupled with a surge in Google searches and rapid selling out of some items in the spring collection, greatly increased the brand's visibility in Asia.
Excellent marketing strategy
Alo Yoga can be popular in the competitive yoga market, and there are many marketing strategies worth learning from.
On the social platform, Alo Yoga's most popular products are not traditional yoga pants, but mesh tights and a variety of short crop tops. A previous ranking by digital marketing agency Stylophane showed Alo Yoga as the 46th most engaged fashion brand on Instagram, well ahead of lululemon in 86th place.
In terms of brand marketing, Alo Yoga further practices the mindfulness movement. It has developed categories ranging from women's to men's clothing, as well as dresses, while also taking marketing offline. Especially in offline stores, Alo Yoga not only provides classes, but also often holds fan activities to enhance users' brand identity.
In addition, Alo Yoga has a solar-powered office, twice-daily studio yoga, an electric car charging station, a waste recycling program, and a meeting in a meditation Zen garden to allow users to feel the energy delivered by the brand.
It is worth noting that Alo Yoga is very unique in social media marketing. When you open the brand's Instagram account page, you can see many yoga practitioners doing yoga moves of different difficulty in a variety of environments, which has built a strong fan community.
In contrast, lululemon, which has developed for more than two decades, although it is trying to expand its product line more suitable for the daily life of the public, its marketing focus is still to convey its brand image through professional athlete endorsement and sports event appearances.
If Alo and lululemon are personified, it is not difficult to see the difference between them: "One pursues exquisite fashion, and the other pursues athletic strength."
Could Alo Yoga be the next lululemon?
To some extent, Alo Yoga is very similar to lululemon in its development trajectory, such as starting from yoga pants, and then renowned for creating community.
But it's too early for Alo to be the next lululemon, "in part because Alo has never seen lululemon as a competitor in the longer term.
Danny Harris, co-founder of Alo, earlier told the Wall Street Journal that Alo is moving toward digitalization, including creating wellness Spaces in the meta-universe, with the business clearly targeting the next two decades.
"We see ourselves more as a digital brand than a clothing brand or a brick-and-mortar retailer," he says.
In other words, Alo Yoga's goals are different from lululemon's. But that doesn't stop it from becoming a very influential brand.
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