I have been wearing Lululemon and Athleta clothing for around 6-years now. I do think that Lululemon has cuter clothes and better style of clothing, but for quality purposes I would choose Athleta over Lululemon. From wearing both I’ve had more experience having to exchange my Lulu clothing due to a whole or a tear in the fabric than my Athleta items. Although it may not seem like it because both brands are used for the same reason but there are quite a few differences between the two.

Lululemon will always draw in more customers  just for the fact that they sell men and women clothing while Athleta only sells women clothing. Along with that, Lulu also has a clothing line for kids. The kid clothing line is more reasonable, pricing wise than the adult clothing. Lululemon and Athleta are both very expensive brands but between the two Lulu is definitely the more expensive one. That is one of many negative’s Lululemon has towards their name. For sizes, Athleta also wins over Lululemon, Athleta carries sizes 00-16 with still larger sizes online. Athleta wanted to make bigger their sizes so their clothing wouldn’t be only for a few body types. Lululemon only carries sizes 2-12, the owner did not want to make larger sizes, because with largest sizes comes more fabric and when they are using more fabric they would have to raise the prices.

Gap inc. owns Athleta, Banana Republic and Old Navy. With Gap owning all of these stores it gives people the advantage of getting discounts at the stores if you open up a card with them. Unlike Lululemon, where they are their own company and can not provide any rewards at other stores. Once again Athleta beats Lulu in the sales category as well. While Lulu only has a rack or two of sale items, with headbands, water bottles and underwear are always marked final sale, Athleta has a 60% sale two times a year, they also have multiple sale racks in the back by the fitting room areas, plus nothing is on final sale so you can return anything you buy. If you are a Fitness Instructor of any kind you automatically receive a discount. At Athleta, Fitness Instructors get 30% off, although it only works for full priced items, but at Lulu Fitness Instructors get 15% off and will work for all items, clearance items included. It may sound like Athleta has the better Fitness Instructor discount but if you are shopping in the clearance rack at Lulu you might find something that has a better sale and you will still be able to add that 15% off the clearance price.

At Athleta they have computers around the store where you can order something online in the store if they don’t have in stock, at Lulu you don’t have that option. For me, I love that Athleta provides these computers because i’m not able to wear their normal length leggings, I have to order XL (extra long) leggings, which they don’t carry in the store. So i’m able to try on the leggings I want and a worker will get me online to order what I want in whatever size I need. All stores have different return policies, between Athleta and Lululemon they are very different. At Lululemon once you buy an item you have only 14 days to return it with all tags attached. With Athleta it’s a totally different story, Athleta has a “Give-it-a-workout-guarantee” where the customers can wear the clothing item as many times as they want, because as you are standing in the fitting room your shirt or shorts you have on might be comfortable but once you start working out in them they could feel weird or uncomfortable.