With two new C-suite leaders announced, and a search underway for others, change is underway at Lululemon. Here’s what analysts think of Heidi O’Neill’s first move as CEO.

A month into her tenure as CEO, Heidi O’Neill has made her first steps toward revitalizing the athleisure brand. The executive announced a slate of changes to Lululemon’s senior leadership team Wednesday, including a new chief operating officer and chief product officer.

The latter position, to be filled by Athleta CEO Maggie Gauger, is particularly important for Lululemon as it oversees design, merchandising and product innovation.

Analyst reactions to the news were mixed, with William Blair analysts Sharon Zackfia and Dylan Carden noting that Gauger has had “little tangible success” at Athleta over the past year. Her prior two decades were spent at Nike, where she overlapped with O’Neill.

“Having executives from Nike and Athleta at the top makes sense on paper as these people are experienced — but the performance of both of these brands has been far from stunning,” GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders told Retail Dive. “There is a great deal to prove in terms of how the new team will deliver.”

While change on the product front is welcome and necessary, it’s also not a complete refresh. William Blair analysts noted that Lululemon has not replaced the brand’s global creative director, for example. Jonathan Cheung was named to that role in 2024.

“While refreshing to see a shake-up occur given deteriorating trends (constant-dollar comps down a worse-ever 10% in the July quarter), we are surprised to see no change in the global creative director position as trends have worsened since his full assortment arrived this spring,” those analysts said.

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