Lululemon Strikes A Yoga Pose

"It's a little mind-boggling when you think about it," writes Mike Albo in the New York Times. "Our all-consuming consumer culture completely transformed a 5,000-year-old discipline into a comfy, cozy branded existence, and all it took was just one short decade."

He's talking, of course, about yoga, perhaps better punctuated as "yoga"; these days, the ancient practice has become less lotus pose and more lifestyle. You know: more Lululemon.

Lululemon, the yoga-centric retailer that has blossomed from local Vancouver boutique to national presence over the past few years, has long been the subject of a sort of chicken-egg debate. Is the pricey purveyor of stretchy pants and lollipop-colored tank tops merely reacting to the buildout of "yoga" as a scare-quoted-brand, or perpetuating it?Continue reading...