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Open for business: Lululemon
by Lolasouthwell Lola fashionpeopleLululemon, a Canadian business that helped turn sweat into an industry, is now in El Paso. The 16-year-old Vancouver-based company specializing in yoga and technical athletic clothing opened a showroom Thursday at 2430 N. Mesa.
“How ever you sweat, we have the clothing for you,” said Mila Marcus, the showroom’s manager. “It’s not just yoga and run.”
Mila Marcus is the daughter of Mindy and Meyer Marcus, owner of Mimco, the commercial real estate giant in El Paso.
The 1,700-square-foot building has all the character of a Kern Place home, and Marcus said that won’t change.
“This is my great grandmother’s house, and it was my uncle, Hal Marcus’ art gallery, so there’s sentimental value to this location,” she said. “We’re keeping the design and layout of the showroom very local, very El Paso. You’ll find a lot of local inspiration in here.”
A showroom is described as carrying key styles, rather than the company’s full product line. Its hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, until Lululemon decides the time and the market are right to expand it to a fulltime store schedule.
“This is the way they test a new market,” said Marcus, 24, a graduate of LA’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.
She spent six years studying there, earned an associate degree in design and a bachelor’s in business management. She’s graduated eight months ago and spent some time working at an orphanage in Costa Rica before returning to El Paso.
Her assistant manager and longtime friend, Amber Coutiño, was working in Dallas when she got the call from Marcus.
“I interviewed several people for the position, but had in mind exactly what I wanted, and Amber was the first person I could think of,” Marcus said. “She had been wanting to move back so we just made it happen.”
Marcus said she got hired in a similar manner when her friend, Ryan Prieto, who once worked for Lululemon and now owns Casa de Yoga two doors over at Boston and Stanton, called and told her about the job opening.
“She said, ‘You’re perfect for this,’ and the next day I began the interviewing process,” Marcus said. “We’re grounded in the community, so we’re actually here not only to have the product. It’s also to build a community with the Lululemon name and to build the health and fitness community and to bring the communities of health and fitness together.
“If you want to know where to sweat in this city, come to us. That’s our way of promoting our local instructors, guys, Yoga studios and cycling routes and running routes.”
Marcus said the showroom’s merchandise will include an array of yoga and athletic apparel for women and men. Lululemon advertises some gear as “no-stink.”
“It’s true,” she said, picking up a running shirt with shiny threads on the inside layer. “We have a line called Silver, and it literally has a silver thread lining.
“Silver technology helps inhibit the growth of odor causing bacteria on the garment.”
The lightweight tee shirt goes for $64.
Often popular with young adults focused on health and fitness, Lululemon sells women’s and men’s sports tops and bottoms, plus accessories for yoga and running. Its yoga pants are about $98. Women’s sizes range from 2 to 12; men’s from small to XXL.
El Paso could be one of the largest cities in the country without a lululemon athletica store.
The cities of Albuquerque, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio have multiple stores.
Lululemon hit a snag earlier this year, when yoga pants made of a fabric called Luon were found to be too sheer.
The company yanked them from store shelves and online.
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