Challenge
Keep the soul while scaling fast
In 2007, lululemon was growing faster than anyone could have predicted.
Three stores were opening every month. New hires were pouring in. The company was evolving from a local favourite into an international force.
But with that kind of acceleration came a real risk: The culture that had made lululemon so distinctive could start to fade.
Plus, founder Chip Wilson was preparing for an IPO. He knew that numbers wouldn’t be enough to convey what set lululemon apart.
He wanted to preserve the stories, values, and language that had built the brand, before the pace of expansion drowned them out. That meant capturing what made the company special … and making it shareable.
Solution
A culture book that felt like the brand itself
Echo worked with lululemon to build something more engaging than a traditional onboarding manual.
We gathered stories directly from the source — employees across the company — organizing them into themes like “Why We Are Luons” and “Keeping It Fresh.” These short reflections helped bring the company’s spirit to life.
Visual storytelling was just as important.
We curated internal photos, ad campaign outtakes, and handwritten notes. Design choices leaned into lululemon’s graphic identity, with brand-forward colours and playful layouts that echoed the energy of the people behind the brand.
The final product wasn’t stiff or corporate. It felt human, vibrant, and entirely true to the culture it was meant to reflect.
Result
A culture anchor that could scale
The culture book didn’t just live in HQ; it made its way into every store.
Each location received a copy. As the company expanded globally, the book became a vital part of onboarding and internal engagement.
New employees used it to get up to speed on the deeper layers of lululemon’s culture. Veteran staff saw it as a point of pride. The stories, photos, and language created a sense of continuity even as the company’s footprint grew.
During the IPO, the book was also used on the road as a companion to the investor pitch. It gave context, personality, and soul to the business story, and helped investors connect on a human level.
One more cool thing
A place for everyone
Near the end of the book, we added a quiet but powerful design element.
A full-page mosaic included photographs of every lululemon employee at the time of printing.
This wasn’t a stylized photo shoot or staged team portrait. It was a patchwork of real people, captured as they were.
That visual moment sent a message: the culture didn’t live at the top. It lived in every store, every studio, every person who chose to show up and live the values.
By putting employees on the page, lululemon gave them a deeper stake in the company’s identity and made the culture not just memorable, but shareable.
Want to capture your culture before it gets lost in the growth curve?
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