Talking Shop at lululemon

On Monday night, I had the privilege of hanging out at the Lululemon Providence showroom with a group of badass mother and non-mother runners. The group was pretty diverse including ultra marathoners, trail runners, and professional runners (Roisin McGettigan was there!).

One thing I love about lulu is that they are constantly seeking feedback from their local communities on how to better their stores and clothing lines. At last night’s meeting, we talked about ways that we can add to the local running community.

There was a lot of great discussion about social meetings for runners to interact and get to know one another and also about different types of organized runs for the weekend, both on the road and on the trails!

I am thankful for lulu giving us the opportunity to connect with each other and for their desire to help us improve our local running community. I think there were A LOT of great ideas tossed around, and I can’t wait to see what comes to fruition!

After our roundtable, we got to learn more about lululemon’s running clothing and what distinguishes it from their yoga lines and other running apparel. I can’t say enough about how much knowledge they have about their products. It’s refreshing to go into a store and find employees who know so much about the construction and fabrics of the apparel they sell.

One of the things I learned was that the wicking treatment applied to lulu’s running clothes is applied to each fiber, rather than just applied as a topcoat, resulting in much better wicking and faster drying times.

I also like that their Swiftly tees and long-sleeves have ventilation areas where women sweat most (which is different than men!). Such a cool thing to think of and apply to running clothes. As a thank you for participating in their session, each of us got to take home a top of our choice and some of their awesome running socks.

I chose the Tie and Fly tank and I wore it running yesterday. I LOVE it. I had seen it on a few other runners, and I love the design. With the vented area up the back, it kind of feels like you are just running in a sports bra—great if you aren’t so comfy running in just a bra. It is also made with their silverescent fabric (yes, they use actually silver because it has antimicrobial properties) to prevent stink. It’s all in the details…

I definitely see a lot more lulu in my forecast, hopefully my budget can keep up!