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As any moderately fashion-conscious, semi-fit person can tell you, consumers are saturated with more activewear options than ever. What consumers don’t have—most consumers, anyway—is access to CreatorIQ’s data database (you know, a database, but for data?). If they did, they’d be able to pull our key metrics and determine which activewear and athleisure brands are drawing the most hype on social media. After all, how else would people make purchasing decisions if not for online hype? Our business model sort of depends on it.
So as I did with my search for running shoes all those months ago, I plunged back into the data, ready to see which brand would emerge as my savior. Come away with me on a journey of personal discovery, complete with bar graphs, insights, and who knows, maybe even an insight or two. Don’t forget to stretch first!
The Top Brand of All Time (of the Week): Lululemon
I know what you’re thinking: bit of a bold choice there, Alex. Even though Lululemon has offered men’s clothing since 2014, and has now even ventured into men’s footwear, the brand has retained a certain pigeonholed effect in the eyes of many consumers. I.e., ignorant folks like me. (I didn’t even know they offered footwear! More fool me.)
But hey, I am just a vessel for the preferences of others—more knowledgeable others, at that. And those others have spoken, or typed, their support for Lululemon across countless social media posts over the years.
Well, not countless. We actually can count them. In fact, here they are:
Lululemon Post Count: 2018 - 2024
There’s the consistent growth we know and love from our various brands of all time of the week. You’ll note that this growth has slowed ever so slightly in recent years, but the fact that Lululemon still continues to expand as such an established brand in such a competitive market remains extremely impressive. Also impressive? 5x-ing your post count from 23.9k to 127.5k in the span of six years.
We see similar improvements across Lululemon’s other key metrics:
Lululemon Creator Count: 2018 - 2024
Another nice clean 5x-ing here in Lululemon’s creator count. Note that the brand’s creator count expansion somewhat outpaces the growth of its post count: in 2024, Lululemon saw a 16% increase in the former metric, but just a 7% increase in the latter.
Lululemon EMV: 2018 - 2024
As far as EMV, here we see a roughly 4x increase over those six years, and a slightly different pattern to this growth. Things kicked into gear for Lululemon in 2022, when the brand launched the footwear collection of which I was so foolishly ignorant. Boomtimes were at hand for the brand as a whole, which saw its revenue surge 30% YoY.
Lululemon Engagements: 2018 - 2024
It’s a similar story for engagements, which took a major leap between 2021 and 2022, and then another jump from 2022 to 2023. This is a really telling sign for me as I conduct my one-man consumer research: there’s momentum surrounding the brand when it comes to creators liking, commenting, and sharing content.
Lululemon Impressions: 2019 - 2024
And of course, we can’t forget our old friend impressions. Though this graph just goes back to 2019, we find another 4x improvement over the years of our investigation, with similar YoY surges in the 2021-2023 timespan.
So why all this growth? Well, I have a theory.
One aspect I’ve always appreciated about having such a thorough archive of historical content is that I can pop in and see what I was saying about brands years ago. This allows me to compare two distinct snapshots in time, and determine whether what was driving momentum for a brand then continues to drive momentum for the brand now.
All this is to say that I wrote a report about Lululemon circa April 2020—remember that fun time?—back when the brand’s growth was really beginning to kick off. A lot has changed since almost exactly five years ago. Have the root causes of Lululemon’s success?
And who are these people?
In 2020, here’s what I noted about Lululemon:
- For an activewear brand, and among its main competitors, Lululemon saw a notably high proportion of its content creation stem from micro-creators.
- That said, its core community, while very loyal, wasn’t growing quite as quickly as some of its competitors.
- Lululemon was highly successful at fostering brand identity and rallying its community around branded campaigns or slogans like #TheSweatLife.
- However—not that this was necessarily a problem for Lululemon, given the brand’s growth—its top EMV-drivers were predominantly female. Despite offering men’s clothing, and running campaigns with the male demographic, 49 of Lululemon’s top 50 EMV-drivers circa 2020 were women. This at least suggests a slightly undertapped market.
Do these factors still hold true half a decade and one pandemic later?
1. Micro-Creators Retain Their Grip
Spoiler: yes. At least this first one.
From March 2024 to February 2025, micro-creators were responsible for 32% of Lululemon’s EMV. This actually represented a slight drop from the brand’s 2020 level of 36%. Nonetheless, the level remained well above Lululemon’s competitors: I can’t name those competitors, due to this newsletter’s rules about receiving approval from brands before identifying them, but I looked at seven other big names in the activewear space, and these brands averaged 22% of their EMV from micro-creators. A 10% difference in this stat, which usually doesn’t see a ton of variation, is huge. In comparison, Lululemon saw 17% of its from powerhouse; these competitors averaged 36% In other words, Lululemon has cemented its status as one of micro-creators’ favorite brands.
2. Slow and Steady Might Just Win the Race
As previously established, Lululemon isn’t necessarily the fastest-growing brand, with just a 7% YoY creator count growth. (Its competitors averaged a 14% YoY expansion.) But when you have creators who post about with such enthusiasm and frequency, who needs expansion? From March 2024 to February 2025, roughly 70% of Lululemon’s EMV stemmed from creators who had mentioned the brand during the preceding 12 months. And when you consider the momentum that Lululemon has enjoyed from 2020 to 2025, the old cliche might just say it best: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
3. Loyalty, Loyalty, Loyalty
To quote the old song, loyalty remains the key to Lululemon’s success. That was true in 2020, and it’s true now. More recently, Lululemon’s list of top EMV-drivers overflowed with creators who identified themselves, in their bios and branding, as specifically aligned with Lululemon. In other words, these fitness instructors, athletes, and lifestyle creators self-identify as being part of the Lululemon family. This contingent included Lululemon’s top two EMV-drivers, Jess McKay (@jkmckay on Instagram) and Nat Peterson (@hintofnattyp). Both Jess and Nat drove 2x more than the brand’s No. 3 creator, underscoring how repeated brand mentions make all the difference when it comes to powering viral impact.
4. Something for Everyone
Let’s check back in on our male EMV-drivers. After Lululemon saw activity from just one male creator among its top 50 advocates in 2020, the brand changed course slightly. In 2025, Lululemon’s top 50 EMV-drivers featured (drumroll please)…
Seven male creators, including the brand’s No. 4 overall EMV-driver! Give it up for our pioneers:
- Akin Akman (No. 4 EMV-driver)
- Hunter Woodhall
- Justin Knussi
- Phil Wizard
- John Gaset (aka Running Fitness Dude)
- Pickle Ball With Tyler
- Karimu Samuels
The top 50 also featured the official social media accounts of Major League Baseball—which, while technically gender-neutral, does sort of count as a mention for the fellas.
These creators’ presence, and their dedicated activity, represents a shift for the brand that’s helped Lululemon tap into new audiences and sustain its growth. Plus, to bring things full circle, it also makes me more likely to purchase Lululemon. If Running Fitness Dude can get past whatever minimal stigma might still exist, then what’s my excuse?
So there you have it, folks: powered by small-scale creators, brand loyalty, and a newfound foothold within the male athletics market, Lululemon is continuing to take meaningful strides as an activewear giant. I’ll be sure to check in on the brand in another five years, to see how all these trends are holding up.
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