Lululemon Athletica, best known for its premium athletic apparel, especially yoga and workout clothing, collaborated with the professional American football league, the NFL, to manufacture clothes for all 32 teams.
This collaboration will mark the first time the retailer has offered officially licensed products for the NFL or any of its franchises.
The collection, which is launched today, will have both men’s and women’s apparel and accessories with NFL team symbols. Some of Lululemon’s most notable products, including its Steady State men’s franchise and women’s styles such as Define, Scuba, and Align, are part of the collection.
The retailer struck a partnership with the NHL last year to release team-branded items. It has also grown its roster of sports-linked ambassadors to include PGA golfers Min Woo Lee and Max Homa, ATP tennis pro Frances Tiafoe, NFL player DK Metcalf and NHL player Connor Bedard. Earlier this year, the retailer made perhaps its biggest splash to date, naming F1 champion Lewis Hamilton as an ambassador.
For the NFL, partnering with Lululemon on a new collection is another opportunity for the league to broaden its reach for team gear.
The new launches will be available on the league’s e-commerce site as well as at team retail locations and via Fanatics, which has a longstanding partnership with the NFL and holds the league’s consumer product licensing rights for fan gear.
Executive Statement
According to Celeste Burgoyne, president of Lululemon’s Americas division and global guest innovation, the retailer sees an opportunity within sports where it can provide “the best product for these fans in the premium space to be able to celebrate their teams. It really is about enabling their existing guests to be able to now wear Lululemon in arenas and stadiums, but it’s also about a new guest and expanding and really connecting their worlds in order to grow their guest base.
