Lululemon built an empire in China — What’s Alo waiting for?

Lululemon’s recently reported second-quarter fiscal 2025 results underscore the lucrative opportunity in China’s athleisure market: mainland China net revenue surged 25% year-on-year, cementing the country’s position as the brand’s second-largest market globally. The Canadian retailer now operates 202 stores across China, building on more than a decade of careful market cultivation. Meanwhile, Alo Yoga, Lululemon’s buzziest competitor in Western markets, has yet to establish any official presence in China. No stores, no e-commerce channels, no social media accounts. The absence has created a vacuum. Counterfeit Alo products flood Taobao and street markets, with knockoffs ranging from poorly made replicas to entirely fabricated items the brand never designed. Unauthorized resellers offer wildly inconsistent pricing and quality, while copycat brands operating under names like “Ola” and “Ala” confuse consumers and erode recognition. Why counterfeits threaten Alo’s premium image For a brand built on premium positioning and carefully curated aesthetics, the proliferation of counterfeits poses a fundamental threat — one that grows more difficult to reverse the longer Alo stays out of China. While the Los Angeles-based brand has captured significant buzz among Chinese consumers through celebrity endorsements and social media visibility, industry experts warn that hype alone cannot sustain market position. Without official channels to control brand narrative, product quality, and the customer experience, Alo risks squandering the goodwill it has organically built and faces an increasingly steep climb to catch Lululemon. “The prolonged absence of official channels has allowed counterfeits to flood both online and offline markets, eroding the brand’s premium image and, at its core, undermining consumer trust,” Bryce Quillin, economist and co-founder of luxury strategy firm It’s a Working Title, tells Jing Daily. The question is no longer whether Alo should enter China, but whether the window to do so effectively is already closing. How a California wellness vision became a global phenomenon Founded in 2007 in Beverly Hills by Danny Harris and Marco DeGeorge, Alo has built itself around a holistic wellness philosophy that extends beyond yoga apparel. The name “Alo” (Air, Land, Ocean) reflects the brand’s commitment to sustainability and harmony with nature. Alo champions a distinctly Californian vision of wellness: optimistic, balanced, and rooted in a mindful connection between body and spirit. The company invests heavily in design and marketing, enlisting supermodels like Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid not merely as spokespeople, but as living expressions of the brand’s lifestyle. Their frequent presence in street-style photography has built powerful visual associations. Wear Alo, and you embody wellness and aspiration. Through this carefully cultivated celebrity strategy, Alo has grown from functional apparel into a status symbol shorthand for Californian wellness and aspirational living. This transpacific reach, amplified by social media, established Alo in Chinese consumers. By curating a West Coast lifestyle that blends wellness, minimalist aesthetics, and mindful living, Alo tapped directly into aspirations among China’s emerging middle class consumers in first- and second-tier cities seeking health, sophistication, and status. Alo emerged as Lululemon became synonymous with mainstream yoga studios and everyday streetwear. Consumers sought something more exclusive and distinctive. With heavier celebrity endorsements and more fashion-forward designs, Alo quickly earned the label “the younger Lululemon,” a fresher alternative for consumers seeking differentiation. Yet this celebrity-driven, Xiaohongshu-amplified rise was largely beyond Alo’s control, creating organic momentum without official infrastructure. While generating buzz, Alo’s absence created an opening for counterfeiters. A market flooded with fakes Without official sales channels or social media accounts in China, Alo has left a vacuum that unauthorized resellers have rushed to fill. The market is flooded with resellers offering erratic pricing and uneven quality. A T-shirt may sell for under 100 RMB ($14), while genuine pieces approach 1,000 RMB ($140). Knockoffs branded as “Ola” or “Ala” blur the lines further, confusing consumers and undermining brand recognition. Worse, some counterfeiters have begun inventing products Alo never created. These poorly made items distort Alo’s product narrative and damage consumer perception. “The prolonged absence of official channels has allowed counterfeits to flood both online and offline markets, eroding the brand's premium image and, at its core, undermining consumer trust,” Quillin says. Jing Daily contacted Alo for comment, but the brand has yet to respond. Lululemon’s decade-long head start The contrast with Lululemon’s methodical approach is striking. Since entering China in 2013, Lululemon has built a brand ecosystem anchored in digital infrastructure and community engagement. The company joined Tmall in 2015, launched its own e-commerce platform, and expanded across local channels including WeChat Mini Programs, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, steadily deepening consumer touchpoints. Crucially, community management has been at the heart of Lululemon’s localization strategy. The brand connects daily with users through stores and product educators, while large-scale campaigns like the Summer Sweat Challenge integrate sport, social interaction, and lifestyle, converting offline traffic into highly engaged community assets. These systematic, long-term efforts have established in Chinese consumers’ minds that Lululemon “sells more than products, it sells a lifestyle.” The results speak for themselves. Revenue in mainland China reached $393 million in Q2 fiscal 2025, contributing 16% of the business’ global income. Official sources indicate Lululemon now operates 202 stores across China. By contrast, Alo has yet to establish any substantive local community or channels for deep consumer engagement. Upon entering China, it would not only confront Lululemon’s first-mover advantage, but also face multi-layered competition from global giants like Nike and Adidas, as well as domestic challengers such as Maia Active. Crucially, after years of market education, Chinese consumers' expectations for premium athletic wear have matured. Demand has shifted from chasing brand halo to seeking a combination of product performance, technological innovation, and community culture. In this context, Alo’s emphasis on style and ambience may spark short-term buzz, but it exposes a core weakness: a lack of technical foundation and functional support. Among savvy, pragmatic consumers, this thin value proposition is unlikely to endure. Why South Korea isn’t a China shortcut Alo has not ignored Asia entirely; it opened its first Asian flagship in Seoul in July 2025. But why enter South Korea instead of tackling the larger Chinese market directly? Lucrezia Seu, founder of Plush Consulting, tells Jing Daily that the choice reflects strategic logic rather than avoidance. “Though small, the Korean market is the epicenter of Asian trends and an ideal testing ground, with a core consumer profile closely aligned with Alo’s high-end wellness positioning,” she says. But this seemingly prudent strategy may underestimate the complexity and time-sensitive nature of the Chinese market. South Korea and China differ fundamentally in market size, consumer structure, channel ecosystems, and competitive landscape. A model validated in South Korea cannot be assumed to work in China. From buzz to business Alo’s challenge in China is not merely a question of timing, but a systemic brand dilemma. Its immediate task is to evolve from what industry observers call a “media headline” brand into a business with operational depth. Ludovic Bacqué, senior advisor at Shanghai-based Daxue Consulting, tells Jing Daily that the current competition between the two brands can be summarized as a contest between “buzz and foundation.” Alo resembles a brand driven by personal shoppers and social media in China, giving it an advantage in visibility and conversation. Lululemon, on the other hand, represents a business model grounded in a solid offline retail network and community ecosystem. Until Alo completes its transition from a “story” to a “business” and establishes a localized operational foundation, it will be difficult for the brand to pose a substantial challenge to Lululemon. Bacqué offers recommendations: “The brand should not only fight counterfeits legally but also reclaim control of its own narrative. Make authenticity part of the experience.” He suggests a key move would be for Alo to partner with major Chinese platforms as soon as possible to assert brand control and rebuild trust. “Most importantly,” he adds, “Alo should avoid a slow, phased market entry strategy and instead adopt an explosive, omnichannel approach to suppress the gray market and establish a clear and authoritative brand presence.” A narrow window of opportunity Alo’s case serves as a warning to any brand eyeing China: in this fast-moving, competitive, and opportunity-rich market, visibility does not equal market share, and hype does not automatically translate to loyalty. Only by seizing the moment and building genuine connections through official channels can a brand create a sustainable ecosystem. Otherwise, even the hottest buzz will eventually fade.

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Lululemon built an empire in China — What’s Alo waiting for?