Retail

Adidas Signs On Former Lululemon CEO Christine Day

Paul Ausick

Published: February 17, 2016 12:10 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 1:04 pm

Former Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) CEO Christine Day has signed on as a strategic adviser to Germany-based sportswear maker Adidas. Day is currently the CEO of frozen-food company Luvo and is not relinquishing that job for her role at Adidas.

According to a report at The Wall Street Journal, Day signed on as a consultant with Adidas in May of last year.

Day served as CEO of Lululemon for more than five years before resigning in June of 2013 after customer complaints that the company’s new yoga pants were transparent. The firestorm that followed was fanned by founder and former chairman Chip Wilson’s comment that “some women’s bodies just don’t work” with the company’s pants.

Her rather abrupt departure from Lululemon can’t be attributed to a lack of success. In her more than five years as CEO, Lululemon’s stock price rose by a factor of five, and revenues and profits followed. Day also spent 20 years at Starbucks, beginning in 1986 and rising to head of Asia/Pacific sales in 2003. She left in 2006 to become CEO at Lululemon in 2008.

Day also owns a stake of just under 15% in Luvo, where she took over as CEO in February 2014, shortly after leaving Lululemon in January.

Since last summer, Day has been advising Adidas on retail strategy and collaborations with smaller brands.