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Lululemon's Cancelled Founder Scores Billions With Finnish Athleisure Venture

Jamel Toppin for Forbes

Back in 1998, Chip Wilson predicted that yoga would be one of the next big trends in retail. He launched Lululemon that year in his home city of Vancouver, Canada. That decision catalyzed the "athleisure" movement, making it cool and stylish to wear athletic clothing every day.

In late 2023 the now 68-year-old Wilson, whose estimated net worth is over $7.5 billion, had another prediction, "I feel like I'm right in the middle of the biggest change in the way people have dressed in the history of the world," he told Forbes.

Wilson was not talking about Lululemon, the company he founded but where he left his role as chair of the board in 2013 amid controversy following his comments about women's bodies. He was referring to the success of his newer investment: Helsinki, Finland-based sportswear outfit Amer Sports, the parent company of outdoors brands like Arc'teryx (outerwear), Wilson (tennis rackets), Salomon (running shoes and ski gear) and Atomic (ski gear).

In 2019, right around the time Lululemon revoked his right to nominate a director to its board, the entrepreneur spent around $1.1 billion of cash from selling Lululemon shares to buy a nearly 21% stake in Amer Sports. He was part of an investor group led by Anta, the owner of Fila and largest athletic company in China, that spent a combined $5.2 billion to take over the Finnish conglomerate.

His stake in the company is now worth about $3.2 billion, double its value when it went public in February 2024. (Wilson bought an additional $324 million worth of shares at the IPO.) That's just $200 million less than his remaining 7% stake in Lululemon, whose stock has dropped about 16% over the past year amid rising competition from the likes of Alo Yoga and Vuori. Despite having no active role in running the company, Wilson is still Lululemon's largest individual shareholder – and occasionally a thorn in its side. .

Wilson has also made a decent return so far investing in Anta directly. He bought nearly 16 million shares of the Chinese conglomerate back in 2019 for $100 million–they are now worth $160 million.

In an interview in late 2023, Wilson told Forbes his key focus was on Amer, whose sales are predicted to surpass $5.1 billion in 2024, up from $4.4 billion in 2023 and $2.5 billion in 2021. "It's just where my brain is probably 90% of the time," said Wilson, who serves on the company's board of directors with Anta cofounder Ding Shizhong, medical scrubmaker FIGS cofounder Trina Spear and former CEO of Hugo Boss Bruno Salzer. The Lululemon billionaire also said he was attempting to transform Amer brands from "very male, very engineering, very wholesale"-focused to be more appealing to the everyday customer.

From the outset his Chinese partner had high hopes for Wilson to help make Amer more international. "We reckoned that he is a very talented person, has great passion on brand management. He also likes the Anta brand a lot," read a transcript from a 2019 conference call with Anta management. "We will meet very often in the future."

Amer's biggest markets in 2023, the last year the data was available, were in the Americas, which made up about 40% of its revenue, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which comprised a combined 33%. But that is changing as its business in China and Asia Pacific grows rapidly, up 54% and 42% during the first nine months of 2024, according to its latest financial results, eclipsing the tepid pace of growth in the other key markets by a factor of 7-fold and 10-fold, respectively.

According to Morningstar analyst Ivan Su, Amer's recent success is tied directly to the booming popularity of outdoor wear in China. "In the U.S. And Europe, outdoor [apparel] has always been there. But in China, outdoor is something that only started to become mainstream during Covid-19," explains Su.

When Amer first went public in 2024, outerwear brand Arc'teryx was viewed as its "golden goose," says Su. But other brands, including Salomon and Wilson, have done better than expected, especially in China. "Salomon is gaining traction in the hiking crowd," he adds. And Wilson, which is best known for its classic rackets, is having success selling its apparel–especially to female tennis players in China.

Outside of his investments in Amer and Anta, Wilson has funneled about $70 million into finding a cure for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), a rare form of muscular dystrophy that he was diagnosed with 30 years ago. He's also an investor in other up-and-coming retail companies including Sheertex, a firm that makes tights out of bulletproof vest materials.

All of these investments have given Wilson a chance to earn back respect in an industry that turned against him. He famously stepped away from Lululemon amid backlash after blaming an issue with see-through leggings on "some women's bodies," specifically those with thicker thighs. He's continued to make controversial comments since his departure. In his 2023 interview with Forbes, Wilson criticized Lululemon's push toward "diversity and inclusion" and described some of its models as looking "unhealthy," "sickly" and "not inspirational."

Wilson is candid about his own shortcomings, and strengths. On his website, "chipwilson.Com," the entrepreneur includes the following in his bio: "I am a terrible salesperson, but I know how to make the best product in the world and price it to sell in quantity...I think an entrepreneur is someone who is too incompetent to work for anyone else and is driven to bring unpopular ideas to fruition."

ANTA Sports Products Limited (OTCMKTS:ANPDF) Sees Large Decrease In Short Interest

ANTA Sports Products Limited (OTCMKTS:ANPDF – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 959,300 shares, a decrease of 19.1% from the December 31st total of 1,186,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 228.4 days.

ANTA Sports Products Stock Performance

Shares of OTCMKTS ANPDF traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $10.42. The company had a trading volume of 924 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,023. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. ANTA Sports Products has a 12 month low of $8.05 and a 12 month high of $13.97. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $9.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $10.00.

About ANTA Sports Products

(Get Free Report)

ANTA Sports Products Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research and development, design, manufacturing, and marketing of shoes, apparel, and accessories in the Mainland of China, Hong Kong, Macao, and internationally. The company's products portfolio includes running, cross-training, basketball, professional competition, training, physical education classes, outdoor sports, triathlon, golf, skiing, camping, hiking, urban outdoor, tennis, and other sports under the FILA, FILA KIDS, FILA FUSION, AMER, KOLON SPORT, ANTA, DESCENTE, and ANTA KIDS brands. Recommended Stories

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Three NBA Players Will Don Kyrie Irving's New ANTA Shoe Silhouette As 'Brand Ambassadors'

ANTA have released a first look at a new line of Kyrie Irving shoes, and the brand's Chief Creative Officer has managed to sign three high-profile NBA players as ambassadors.

Chinese sports equipment brand ANTA, for which Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is the Chief Creative Officer, have dropped a new signature line inspired by the eight-time NBA All Star.

Irving and ANTA have also enlisted the help of three other household names to don the shoes on-court; a former Nets teammate in current Cavaliers forward Caris LeVert, active teammate Daniel Gafford and Los Angeles Clippers' Derrick Jones Jr.

"These guys are my brothers, players I've shared the journey with. Together, we aim to inspire the future of basketball and create a legacy that resonates globally," said Irving in a written statement.

The collection, part of the signature line dubbed 'KAI', will feature several colorways of the new KAI 1 Team Shoe. It promises to be an affordable shoe at $100 a pair, and all three of the new brand ambassadors will be wearing them during NBA games.

"We spent countless hours studying AAU and streetball players to create a shoe that meets their needs while reflecting my storytelling and style," said Irving.

"The KAI 1 Team Shoe is not just for me – it's for the everyday player striving to create their own story."

This isn't the first time Irving has managed to sign his nearest and dearest on to the brand.

During last year's NBA Playoffs, Drederick Irving, his father, became the first Dad to be involved in a brand's shoe deal and have his very own line.

Irving was famously dropped by Nike after he posted a controversial link on his social media, containing was widely considered to be antisemitic content.

As a result, Irving signed a lucrative five-year deal with the Chinese sportswear brand which is thought to be worth more than the $11 million per-year he pocketed with Nike.

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