The fanny pack’s days as an eyeroll-inducing tourist accessory are over. The company’s sleek Gen-Z version of the waist-hugger is dominating wardrobes—and social media feeds.
At $38, it appears to be
Lululemon Athletica
‘s (ticker: LULU) “everywoman” product. Earlier this spring, websites with mass appeal—the likes of Today.com, People, and Good Housekeeping—alerted shoppers when the product was finally back in stock (and with new colors!). It’s a testament not only to the brand’s trendsetting prowess, but the stark power of social media to drive fashion choices, and sales.
The belt bag first hit Lululemon’s shelves in 2018. By the summer of 2022, it began to explode in popularity, with TikTok users flooding the platform with videos detailing their experiences with the bag—overlaid with viral sound bites like, “Capitalism really popped off today ladies.”
The hashtag #lululemonbeltbag has accrued 121.3 million views on the short-video platform so far. The athletic-wear maker has struggled at times to keep it on the shelves, which has only added to the product’s allure.
Last August, TikTok user allycase1—who currently has north of 150,000 followers—demonstrated how many belt bags she could spot in an hour. The grand total? Twenty-six, roughly one bag sighting every two minutes.
In fact, LTK, a marketing platform for social media influencers (it calls them creators), listed the Everywhere bag as one of its top traffic products from Gen Z creators in the 2023 first quarter.
“They’ve always approached advertising in a much different way than, you know, some of the other athletic brands,” Wedbush analyst Tom Nikic told Barron’s in April. While peers like
Nike
often pull in celebrity sponsorships, Lululemon is “much more grass roots,” relying more on “word-of-mouth” to expand the brand.
It’s a smart approach in a highly digital age, where younger consumers typically turn to social media for inspiration, instead of the red carpet. According to LTK’s study of Gen Z shoppers published in April, 75% of the demographic said they make purchases online from creator recommendations.
Still, the belt bag follows a long line of generational fashion trends—akin to the bell bottoms of the 1970s, its predecessor fanny pack of the 1980s, and the 1990s’ scrunchies and tube tops.
What makes the bag so popular beyond social media is perhaps its simplicity. TikTok videos illustrate what can fit inside—it’s more than you might think—a small credit card sleeve, sunglasses, a phone, a lip balm. It’s neat, it’s organized, and is, in some sense, an answer to Nora Ephron’s diatribe against the plagues of the purse, described in her 2006 book as “a morass of loose Tic Tacs, solitary Advils, lipsticks without tops, ChapSticks of unknown vintage.”
Tic Tacs could still disappear into the Everywhere, but the bag’s minimalistic nature suggests they’ll be much easier to find.
And while Lululemon’s loftier price tags stopped some consumers from stretching into its yoga pants, the wallet-friendlier Everywhere lets shoppers showcase the brand’s prestige while staying in the double-digits. It is, after all, more realistic for an 18-year-old to fork over $38 for a bag than $100-plus for leggings.
The bag’s dominance is paying off for Lululemon, long known for its high-end yoga pants and leggings. The retailer’s accessories sales have boomed, with its “Other” segment (which also includes its struggling in-home fitness company and fledgling footwear businesses) notching $894.1 million in net revenue last year, more than tripling from $284.2 million in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
That is evident from Lululemon’s stock, too, which has rocketed 220% over the past five years—turning lemons into lemonade as its comfortably chic products transitioned seamlessly from remote work staples back into fitness class go-tos.
Other brands want to capitalize on that success, with belt bag look-alikes swamping
Amazon.com
results, and websites like Teen Vogue rounding up slightly cheaper options in articles like, “The 15 Best Lululemon Everywhere Belt Bag Dupes and Alternatives.”
But the question, as with any trend, is when will it start to sputter. While CEO Calvin McDonald has emphasized that Lululemon’s accessories business is more than just the belt bag, some Wall Street analysts aren’t so sure.
Randal Konik, a stock analyst at Jefferies, has concerns about the fair-weather nature of fashion trends among younger consumers. If the winds change on the belt bag, that could pressure the company to expand its footprint within the teenage demographic, he told Barron’s in April.
The company is “doing very well for now,” Konik explained, but “we’re saying it’s going to be hard for them to sustain this amount of momentum into perpetuity.”
In March, Lululemon’s CEO assured investors the accessories business’s success was about more than one item: “It’s not a one-hit wonder.”
The next glimpse into how long Lululemon’s must-have accessory can stay on top will come June 1, when the company reports financial results. Investors will be on alert for any signs of shifting consumer taste.
That’s because the staying power of Lululemon’s most popular items has been a powerful financial force in the past. In the 2022 fourth quarter, Lululemon’s adjusted earnings trounced Wall Street estimates, and sales jumped 30% to $2.8 billion from a year earlier.
For the results coming Thursday, Wall Street analysts are expecting sales of $1.92 billion for the first three months of the year, which would mark a nearly 20% jump from a year ago, according to FactSet.
And Lululemon Athletica has its eyes set on a strong year ahead overall. Back in March, the company projected 2023 revenue between $9.3 billion and $9.41 billion, up notably from $8.1 billion recorded in 2022.
To hit that mark, the retailer has to tackle twin initiatives—executing on top longstanding products like yoga pants to hold on to existing customers, while also innovating in segments like accessories, where the belt bag and similar products open the door to more, and younger, consumers.
So far, Lululemon has proven it can do just that. Only time will tell whether it’s got it in the bag.
Write to Emily Dattilo at [email protected]
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