August 17, 2025

TIVP033: Lululemon (LULU): Still the King of Athleisure? w/ Shawn O’Malley & Daniel Mahncke

1 hour 27 minutes

Shawn O’Malley and Daniel Mahnke break down Lululemon (ticker: LULU), an iconic brand famous for pioneering the now ubiquitous athleisure industry. Lululemon has a fiercely loyal customer base, with industry-leading rates of repeat customers, sales per square foot of retail space, and very little need for discounting, if any.

In this episode, you’ll learn about why the market has soured on this powerful brand, despite incredible success growing internationally, leaving its P/E ratio at a relatively low 15-16x. You’ll also learn about how Lululemon controls all of its touchpoints with customers, selling primarily DTC, as opposed to wholesale like Nike and Adidas do, as well as whether LULU is attractively valued today, plus so much more!

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN

00:00 – Intro

04:23 - Why Lululemon has such a cult-like following.

07:19 - What makes Lululemon products so special.

15:41 - How new competitors are challenging Lululemon on the margins.

20:59 - How the future of Lululemon may be defined by China and menswear.

26:48 - Why the setup for LULU stock may be even more attractive than Nike.

53:48 - What to know about possible yellow flags with the business, like its declining inventory turnover ratio and expanding cash conversion cycle.

01:01:57 - Why the company’s acquisition of the sports-tech hardware company, Mirror, failed so miserably.

01:07:15 - How to think about modeling LULU’s intrinsic value.

01:16:16 - Whether Shawn and Daniel add LULU to their Intrinsic Value Portfolio.

*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

Get smarter about valuing businesses in just a few minutes each week through our newsletter, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Clay Finck and Kyle Grieve’s discussion of LULU on We Study Billionaires.

How Vuori and Alo are taking on Lululemon.

Explore our previous Intrinsic Value breakdowns: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Uber,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Nike,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reddit,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nintendo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Airbnb⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠AutoZone⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alphabet⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ulta⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Deere⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Madison Square Garden Sports⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Check out the books mentioned in the podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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