Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald: “We’ve moved well beyond [our founder’s] misguided views”

Calvin McDonald is a busy man. Five years ago, he became Lululemon’s CEO, helping to drive the brand’s revenue from $3.3 billion in 2018 to a projected $9.6 billion in 2023, and quadrupling the brand’s international footprint. It’s arguably one of the most impressive success stories in retail, especially when you consider that much of that tenure was during the pandemic.

As the leader of a performance activewear brand, McDonald likes to stay close to Lululemon’s customers, ambassadors, and employees by taking part in the brand’s athletic events. In December, he joined 30 Lululemon employees at an Ironman event in Indian Wells. And he’s about to join the brand’s ambassadors at a three-day training camp in San Diego.

But McDonald has also had to confront a string of crises over the past few months. This past November, Business of Fashion published a damning exposé of Lululemon that asserted its corporate culture is unwelcoming of Black people. Then, in January, Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson, told Forbes that he didn’t like the company’s “whole diversity and inclusion thing” and that “you don’t want certain customers coming in.” Even though Wilson left his CEO position two decades ago, his comments provoked another round of backlash against Lululemon.

McDonald posted a note on LinkedIn to refute Wilson’s comments, but he hasn’t been particularly outspoken about these issues with the public, preferring to address them internally. I sat down with McDonald to talk through his plan for making Lululemon’s culture more inclusive and continuing the brand’s remarkable growth trajectory.