Can Lululemon ever be cool again?

Lululemon has a long way to go in regaining its cachet with customers, but it’s at least officially done fighting with its founder. The athleisure brand’s messy brawl with Chris Wilson has finally ended in a truce, which sent shares 2.90% higher today.

Wilson has agreed to stop bashing the company for 18 months. In exchange, he will get to name two new directors to the company’s board after its annual meeting in June: former On co-CEO Marc Maurer and former ESPN CMO Laura Gentile. Wilson will also get to nominate a third director with product and brand expertise in apparel by October.

This deal settles a drama that goes waaay back to 2013, when the store was forced to recall 17% of its yoga pants for being too sheer. Wilson’s defense? “Some women’s bodies just don’t actually work” in Lulu’s pants. Cue the body-shaming backlash—Wilson resigned as chair, and lingered on the board, but left two years later.

Late last year, though, Wilson resumed bad-mouthing the company for killing creativity and “losing its cool” with its once-loyal fan base. In December, as Lulu’s second-biggest shareholder (with 8.7% of shares), he upped the ante by launching a proxy fight aimed at overhauling the company’s board.

How Lulu lost its mojo

Wilson’s vendetta is not simply the revenge plot of a scorned CEO. Lululemon’s US store sales have slumped due to tariff costs, shaky consumer confidence, and a product line that’s failed to impress. Shareholders have also lost their love of Lulu, with shares tumbling more than 36% this year.

It’s been nothing but upheaval for Lulu lately. In January, CEO Calvin McDonald stepped down, with former Nike executive Heidi O’Neill slated to take the helm in September. Then the company issued weak guidance for 2026 in its Q4 earnings announcement in March, warning that its proxy battle with Wilson could drag down the company’s bottom line.

Lulu has remained tight-lipped through Wilson’s months-long tirade. But on May 18, the company issued its first public retort since the proxy battle kicked off. In a letter to shareholders, the board accused Wilson of “outdated perspectives” and “troubling conflicts of interest” that could derail the company’s recovery, painting his board picks as “an attempt to regain increased influence over the company that he has coveted since he left.”

Thankfully, all this dirty laundry has been ironed out before the company’s annual meeting on June 25…at least in theory. Whether today’s ceasefire is enough to bring back the customer base whose bodies “just don’t work” remains to be seen.—JD