The Story of Lululemon: Little Black Stretchy Pants

By: Chip Wilson

Narrated by: Chip Wilson

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

The unauthorized story of Lululemon.

This is a book about ordinary people who took an opportunity to be creative, to be innovative, and to maximize their potential.

Chip Wilson’s part in this story comes from the learning of thousands of mistakes. He set the culture, business model, quality platform, and people development program and then got out of the way. Lululemon’s exponential growth, culture, and brand strength have few peers, and it is because of those employees who choose to be great. 

This book is also about missed opportunity - five years of missed opportunity. Chip was playing to win while the directors of the company he founded were playing not to lose.

©2018 Time Is Tight Communications Ltd (P)2018 Time Is Tight Communications Ltd

A unique perspective.

Very cool story that reminded me of Shoe Dog with more cultural lessons. Very cool that it was also narrated by Chip and his family!

Chip is an Excellent Product Man

So interesting-Chip made a great product using unorthodox marketing. This combination made a world wide positively recognized company. He blazed the way for people and product to grow in ways that were beneficial to both. Loved it!!! Financial and/or creative minds will enjoy this book.

Score settling second rate business advice

I wanted Chipp's insights into Athleisure, I got Chipp's self serving opinions on corporate governance.

Fantastic Listen, Chip!

Awesome! Loved to listen to the story of Lululemon and Chip's experience. Highly recommended and Learned alot.

Very inspiring and eye opener

As a entrepneur it's very important to nurture yourself with inspiring story to keep your dream one, and this book give this and more. It gives a lot of insights to don't fall into some traps we face during our journey to achieve our dreams.

Inspiring, real and kind of heartbreaking

I am a 30 year old entrepreneur and new father. My business is still in the smaller stages of culture building. We are growing at amazing speed but it’s been so wonderful building these careers for my amazing employees.
This book is a priceless gift and it is a reminder of sticking with your values.
I would have loved to see what Lululemon could have become but I am so grateful for the insights of Chip Wilson.

A much needed dose of truth.

We need more leaders and entrepreneurs like Chip Wilson - leaders who dare to speak the truth and play the long game to make business work in an intelligent way, entrepreneurs who make choices that might not be understood or appreciated at the time, but make sense.

I have been a part of lululemon, and am happy to have left the company. I found this book when I was in the process of making the difficult decision of parting ways with the brand. Everything that Chip talked about, the sound reasoning behind every decision made - such as the encouragement of personal growth, encouraging entrepreneurship within the company, the decision to limit sizing, the vision of the vertically integrated business model, the ‘supergirl’ as the ideal employee and client... all made sense and came from backed thought processes. Since Chip left the building, all the decisions he made, that ultimately made Lululemon what it is today, have been reversed one by one. What is left now, is a powerful company that does not remember what its original manifesto is for (it even changed the manifesto), its commitment to the perfect pant, its commitment to empowering the educator. The linguistic abstraction used in the company is losing its meaning FAST. I encourage anyone involved with the brand to plug back into its original meaning, and give this book a listen.

I also encourage creatives, founders to listen to what Chip has to say. Let’s learn from Chip’s insights and aspire to build great businesses.

Enjoyed it from start to finish!

Truly amazing story of a legendary brand. I have never purchased any item but really enjoyed every minute of this story. A must for any entrepreneur.

Don't judge a book by its cover

Not a lululemon enthusiast, but enjoyed chip's story and business advice. Especially the last part.

Awesome Founder

Chip seems like an amazing guy! I have so much respect for visionary creative founders, especially one’s like chip that build a business for all the right reasons. If only more businesses operated with the Lululemon ethos the world could be truly amazing.

Learned so much reading this

Loved this book. At par with the likes of Shoe Dog in my opinion, a top class autobiography. He is authentic, honest, doesn't hold back. Many golden nuggets and valuable advice for entrepreneurs. Also loved that he shares his list of favourite business books, allowing me to know what to listen to next.

Starts slowly. Stick with it.

I bought this because someone else compared it with Shoe Dog which is a brilliant book. As I started listening I was disappointed. It wasn't helped by the narration (Chip himself rather than a professional) and the clips of people narrating their own bits.

However, the book comes into its own in the second half. I am really pleased I stuck with it.

There is a lot to learn from this book and I have altered my thinking as a result.

I recomend you listen to it.

loved it!

very insightful, educational and inspiring!

I liked the personal touch about his life and how he found a work life balance

Culture is everything

Thoroughly enjoy and rate this book. It’s definitely in my top ten business reads. Fantastic to learn about the journey from single product to going public as well as the challenges that come along with that. Chip’s unwavering dedication to his mission and people is admirable. I really recommend this book to anyone who not only wants to start a business, but change the world.