When Lululemon came into my neighborhood in Cincinnati a
couple of years ago I don’t remember very many people in the neighborhood who knew what it was.
Being an 18 year old high school senior that went to to all male school with
over 1600 guys, Lululemon was not on the radar for any of us and if it was, it
wasn’t for the clothes it was because they were the company making yoga pants,
and when you go to a school with over 1600 guys you can bet there were
conservations about yoga pants, just not maybe about the quality of them.
However, Lululemon grew very rapidly in Cincinnati. I
progressed very quickly from a store that had a female only stereotype, to a
store that a lot of friends shopped at but no one really wanted to admit, to a
store where we have taken an active role with the brand by attending some
events.
Every Week, there is a run club that is organized by the store and it has grown to become a
pretty big community event for our urban Cincinnati neighborhood. As a high
school student I did not really think anything of this, but now as almost a
college graduate I really appreciate the microculture that LuluLemon
Cincinnati has been able to create. According to Babin and Harris chapter 10 the concept of micro culture is, “a group of people who share similar values and
tastes that subsumed within a larger culture” (Babin and Harris 191).
Lululemon has created a microculture within the larger
running and yoga culture that is very prevalent already in my neighborhood. By
offering these classes no longer is Lululemon just a chain-store from
Vancouver, British Columbia that offers very high quality work out clothing, it
is now a part of a community were the those who share a passion for running and
yoga can meet and train.
This summer I took an internship away from Ann Arbor and
Cincinnati, and moved to an apartment building where I did not know anyone, and
it was really hard living in a downtown high rise building where I did not
have any friends or family. Most days I would come home from work and go on a
run. However, when I got home from my 12 week program I was shopping at the
Cincinnati Lululemon when I heard an employee tell a recent graduate who had
just moved to the area that they running club was a great place to meet new
friends that have similar interests.
This is when it hit me that the store is creating
relationships and a culture of connecting people within the larger work out
culture. When I move again this summer to start my career, I am going to look to
join a new Lululemon microculture to help in my adjustment to post college life.
Works Cited
Babin, B., & Harris, E.
(2014). Chapter 10. In CB: Consumer behavior : Student edition 6 (Student
ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Community Events. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.lululemon.com/stores/us/cincinnati/hydeparksquare/events
