Meet Lululemon Founder Chip Wilson

Wilson lived in California up until the age of five when his family moved to Calgary. He relocated to Edmonton for university in 1973 before moving back to the US for work two years later, according to his website.

He lived in Alaska and worked on an oil pipeline in 1975. During this time, Wilson said he read the top 100 books of all time.

“By the age of 19, I might have been the wealthiest, most traveled and best-read boy in the world,” Wilson wrote on his website.

He went on to become an economist after receiving his degree in economics from the University of Calgary in 1979.

His entrepreneurial streak began in 1979 with Westbeach Surf Company. He started making shorts inspired by those he saw on a trip to California in 1979, Wilson writes in his book, “The Story of Lululemon.”

“The mistake that led to my success was an inability to sell my long, baggy, wild-patterned shorts to wholesalers. Consequently, I was forced to open my own store,” he writes on his website.

He opened his own stores and owned the manufacturing — a move that he said tripled profits, he writes

Over the years, his company evolved to serve different types of athletic lifestyles, like skateboarding and snowboarding. In 1997, Wilson sold Westbeach.

Wilson led an active lifestyle growing up. He played football, wrestled in university, and completed an Ironman triathlon in 1983, according to his website.

Four years later, he was diagnosed with the rare, slow atrophying muscular dystrophy. As a result Wilson said he dedicates “considerable time and money into discovering a cure.”

The first Lululemon store opened in 2000 in Vancouver, Forbes reported. Wilson is often credited with creating and normalizing athleisure for everyday wear rather than just for workouts.

Wilson once said he named the company Lululemon because he believed Japanese people can't pronounce the letter L.

“It's funny to watch them try and say it,” Wilson told Canada's The Tyee in 2005.

He has also said that brand names with the letter L in them are considered more authentic to Japanese consumers.

His now-wife, Summer Wilson, started as the founding lead designer for the brand, according to her website.

Wilson and Summer wed in 2002, according to his site. He had two sons from a previous marriage, and he and Summer eventually welcomed three more.

The couple live in Vancouver where Wilson has permanently lived since 1986, per his website.

After taking the company public, Wilson took the role of chief innovation and branding officer. His CEO successor was former Starbucks executive Christine Day. The pair clashed often.

In January 2012, Lululemon announced that Wilson would step down from his role as chief innovation and branding officer. His vision for the brand's direction was a source of friction between him and former CEO Day.

Following his resignation, Wilson began a sabbatical in Australia for over a year before Lululemon called him back to help handle a crisis, according to a 2015 press release.

Women, children, and minorities have been the subject of Wilson's most offensive takes over the years. Most of which he's had to later clarify or apologize for.

The lululemon founder once blamed birth control for higher divorce rates since “Men did not know how to relate to the new female.” Wilson has also spoken in favor of children working in factories to earn money and avoid poverty.

“The single easiest way to spread wealth around the world is to have poor countries pull themselves out of poverty,” Wilson told The Tyee.

Amid tension with Day and a year of scandals for Lululemon, Wilson stepped down from his role as chairman of the board in 2013.

In his book, titled “Little Black Stretchy Pants,” Wilson said he made Day cry during a 2013 meeting when he called her a terrible CEO and questioned her vision for Lululemon. Wilson wrote that he suspected her reaction was fake, and Day announced her resignation one day later.

On his website, Wilson said he had his own reason for leaving the company.

“I lost control of the culture and product development,” Wilson wrote. “At odds with a board of directors who did not want to invest in the future, I departed in 2013.”

In the deal, Wilson sold half of his shares in the company to investment firm Advent International for $845 million, Inc. reported. Today, Wilson owns an 8% stake in Lululemon, according to Bloomberg.

In 2019, Wilson invested $100 million in the Chinese activewear company for a 0.6% stake, Forbes reported. Anta owns a majority stake in Amer Sports, a conglomerate of brands which includes Arc'teryx and Wilson Sports. Wilson said in an interview that he owns a 20% stake in Amer.

Wilson's 8% stake in Lululemon makes up a major portion of his wealth, per Bloomberg. Lululemon reported revenue of $10.6 billion in the last fiscal year, which ended in February 2025.

His waterfront mansion was valued at ​ $74 million in 2023 and has seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, according to CBC. The property, which was constructed in 2008, has a pool and tennis court.

Low Tide Properties invests in, develops, and operates commercial and residential buildings in Vancouver, with a focus on building lab and hospital spaces. It also owns multi-family properties in Seattle.

Wilson told Real Estate Magazine that started the company with a goal to invest 65% of his family's wealth into real estate in three cities by 2030.

In 2018, the Wilsons established the Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Richmond, British Columbia. They donated $12 million towards the program and a $36 million new facility on the school's campus.

He has allocated some of his wealth towards his charities Imagine1Day, which funds schooling for children in Ethiopia, and Wilson 5 Foundation which supports land conservation and public art installations in British Columbia.

Wilson's rare muscular disease affects an estimated 900,000 people globally. Wilson has an even less common form known as FSHD2, which affects just 5% of those with the disease, Business Insider reported.

In 2022, Wilson created his philanthropic venture Solve FSHD and pledged $100 million into finding a cure for FSHD.

On his website, Wilson wrote, “I have a great fascination for the subject of longevity as I see aging as a disease.”

In his quest to cure FSHD, he has experimented with longevity and wellness treatments popular among wealthy entrepreneurs trying to prevent aging. Some of his methods include hormone therapy, electroacupuncture, and daily doses of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin, according to Bloomberg.

Wilson told Forbes in an interview published in January 2024 that he doesn't agree with the “whole diversity and inclusion thing” that Lululemon has embraced.

“They're trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody. And I think the definition of a brand is that you're not everything to everybody,” Wilson said.

“You've got to be clear that you don't want certain customers coming in,” he added.

Wilson has had some choice words for Lululemon's leadership over the years as the brand loses ground to brands like Alo Yoga and Vuori. In October 2025, he compared the mistakes that the brand has made to a plane crash. He also doesn't appear to be a fan of CEO Calvin McDonald, who is set to exit the company in 2026.

He blamed the brand's “loss of cool” on McDonald and his team for losing its innovative edge, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Although Wilson hasn't held a management position at Lululemon in over a decade, he's still voicing his strong opinions on how the company should be run. After Lululemon named CFO Meghan Frank and chief commercial officer André Maestrini as co-interim CEOs earlier in December, Wilson said the CEO succession plan was a “total failure of board oversight.”

“Shareholders have no faith that this board can select and support the next CEO without input from a board with stronger product experience,” Wilson said in a public statement.

On December 29, he confirmed that he has nominated three inependent director candidates to the company's board, effectively launching a proxy fight at the athleisure brand. His nominations include former On Running co-CEO Marc Maurer, former ESPN chief marketing officer Laura Gentile, and former Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg.

“They can play an essential role in refocusing on the inspirational customer, revitalizing its bold vision, attracting the best people and maximizing value for all shareholders,” Wilson said.