At Ease back from the dead??
Edit: we have enough demand to make this interesting! lets go 🥳!
As such, I've made a google form to start collecting info for colors, sizes, styles, etc. (I'll make another dedicated post but wanted to put it here as well!)
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER INTEREST
Hey everyone,
Lululemon’s At Ease collection was my all-time favorite, but it’s gone – and the new stuff (Textured Double Knit) doesn’t compare.
Anyone who loved At Ease knows that the Textured Double Knit fit, fabric, and colors just aren’t the same. I have a huge collection of At Ease gear (both early pieces and updated fit pieces: 8-10 pairs of pants, 15+ hoodies, 6 pairs of shorts, etc.).
I love the At Ease collection so much that I once had a friend help me import 10 sets of bone hoodies from Tokyo. I saw them on the rack in Tokyo (the Roppongi Hills store) while there for business, and when I got home to the US, they had already been discontinued here. I regretted not buying any so much that I purchased them on the Japanese website, had them shipped to my friend’s house, and had him ship them to me in CA.
I'm seriously frustrated with Lululemon colors and the change to Textured Double Knit. I've waited and waited, and no interesting colors have some out. I'm just done waiting for Lululemon to make what I want. I dont like Rhone and Vuori is just grey-scale & brown-scale meh.
New year, new me, and all that, and so even though I’ve sworn to stay out of the textile industry (my grandfather used to run a textile mill and clothing factory), I’m thinking about doing a small, custom run of clothes to bring back my beloved At Ease pants, shorts, and hoodies in actually interesting colors. (sure we can do grey too, but I want bone, cloud blue, all the good stuff, demure colors ) This would be as small as possible of a run and sold at cost to the community. (limited initial colors and sizes)
I have strong industry connections, and I’m already in touch with mills that supplied the original At Ease line, and the factories that stitched them.
(I work in hardware tech consulting and am familiar with Asia-based suppliers - I used to work at one of the largest consumer tech companies in the world, based out of NorCal)
The plan:
- Use the same pattern blocks from Lululemon’s At Ease pieces (I have every size from XS to Large from a corporate merch purchase that im willing to sacrifice some of to R&D)
- Source fabric of the same or higher quality than the original At Ease collection
- Offer it at cost for the first batch (I'll help cover some R&D costs, but we'll need community support to meet minimum quantities if we want a top of the line supplier, and if we cant make better quality than Lulu I think we shouldn't do it at all. I want to deliver only the best if I'm going to put this much effort (and my name) into this project
What I want from the community:
I’m looking to gauge interest and would love your thoughts:
What colors do you want?
What should we bring back next if this works??
Do you want to have old Lulu back in even higher quality? (I've always wanted some more natural fibers like higher cotton content pieces, maybe you do too, maybe you dont... either way, please tell me!)
If this gets enough support, I can get samples and put some serious thought into how exactly to move forward in a community centric way.
I'm doing this because I want my old Lulu back and it sounds like everyone else does too.
Let me know if you're in! 🙌