In the late 1990s, Chip Wilson had a very smart revelation. He noticed that yoga studios were popping up all over Vancouver and became convinced the practice was on the verge of exploding in popularity around the world. More importantly, he noticed that the women pouring into those studios desperately needed better clothes to practice in.
So, in 1998, Wilson founded Lululemon Athletica.
Even the name was part of his strategy. “Lululemon” was essentially made up. Wilson later explained that he deliberately chose a name packed with the letter L because he believed it would sound distinctly Western to Japanese consumers, where English L sounds can be difficult to pronounce. His later comments about finding the pronunciation amusing became one of several controversies that would eventually follow him.
His timing with the actual business, however, was nearly perfect. Yoga did explode, and Lululemon quickly became one of the defining brands of the movement. Wilson’s bigger insight was that women didn’t necessarily want to change out of their workout clothes the moment class ended. If the clothes were comfortable, flattering and stylish enough, they could be worn to grab coffee, run errands or spend the rest of the day around town. Long before “athleisure” became a multibillion-dollar category, Wilson was building a company around exactly that idea.
Along the way, Chip met Shannon “Summer” Wilson, who became one of Lululemon’s earliest employees and its founding lead designer. Summer helped create some of the products that established the company’s early identity, including the Groove Pant, which became one of Lululemon’s signature items. Chip and Summer married in 2002 and eventually had five sons. Lululemon went on to become a global clothing powerhouse with a very rocky stock price. Chip bought another company and invested in a bunch of real estate.
Unfortunately, after 24 years of marriage, Chip and Summer are getting a divorce. And they do not have a prenup…
(Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for imagine1day)
Becoming A Billionaire
In 2005, three years after their wedding, Chip sold 48% of Lululemon to a private equity company for $92.8 million in cash. That deal valued the company as a whole at $193.3 million.
Two years later, Lululemon went public. At the IPO, Chip sold 6.82 million shares for $114 million in cash. That reduced his beneficial ownership to 38.2%. At the $18 IPO price, Lululemon was valued at roughly $1.24 billion, making Chip’s remaining stake worth around $475 million.
He probably wasn’t quite a billionaire yet at this point in the story, but he wouldn’t have to wait long. By 2011, Lululemon’s market cap had climbed to around $6 billion, pushing the value of Chip’s remaining stake comfortably into billionaire territory.
For several years, Lululemon’s valuation bounced around in the single-digit billions. Chip also continued turning stock into cash. Most notably, in 2014 he sold 13.85% of the entire company to Advent International for $845 million.
Then, beginning around 2018, Lululemon entered an entirely new phase of growth.
Roller Coaster Stock Ride
Lululemon’s ride as a public company has been anything but smooth. The company has endured infamous product recalls – including one because customers discovered that its yoga pants were see-through – executive turmoil, controversial comments from its founder, intensifying competition and dramatic swings in its stock price.
But between 2018 and the end of 2023, almost everything went right.
Lululemon shares traded around $80 at the beginning of 2018. On December 29, 2023, they closed at an all-time high of $511.29. In other words, the stock increased more than sixfold in less than six years.
That rise wasn’t merely stock-market hype. The underlying business was exploding.
Lululemon generated $3.3 billion in revenue in 2018. Five years later, revenue had nearly tripled to $9.6 billion. The company successfully expanded beyond women’s yoga pants into men’s clothing, running gear, casual apparel and accessories while rapidly expanding its international footprint.
In 2019, CEO Calvin McDonald laid out a plan to double men’s revenue, double digital revenue and quadruple international revenue. Lululemon ended up hitting several of those targets years ahead of schedule.
Then COVID arrived.
For most apparel retailers, a global pandemic that forced stores to close was a nightmare. For Lululemon, it turned into an unexpected accelerant. Millions of people suddenly found themselves working from home, exercising at home and spending their entire day dressed in exactly the kind of comfortable athletic clothing Lululemon sold.
In 2020, the company’s online revenue doubled. When physical stores fully reopened, growth accelerated even further. Revenue jumped 42% in 2021 to $6.3 billion, then climbed to $8.1 billion in 2022 and $9.6 billion in 2023.
By the end of 2023, Wall Street no longer viewed Lululemon as a niche yoga brand. Investors were valuing it as a global athletic-apparel powerhouse with the potential to challenge companies like Nike.
At its peak, Lululemon was worth more than $60 billion.
That was very good news for Chip.
By early 2024, Chip Wilson’s net worth had climbed to roughly $7 billion, up nearly $4 billion from 2020, largely thanks to Lululemon’s soaring stock price.
Unfortunately, the stock was about to make the round trip.
Crashing Back To Earth
Beginning in 2024, cracks started appearing in the growth story.
Lululemon’s core North American business slowed. Customers complained about a lack of exciting new products. Competition from upstarts including Alo Yoga and Vuori intensified. By 2026, even sales of Lululemon’s signature leggings were falling sharply.
The stock followed.
From its $511 peak at the end of 2023, Lululemon shares eventually collapsed to around $100. The stock is now down more than 50% since the beginning of 2026 and roughly 80% from its all-time high.
Chip hasn’t run Lululemon for more than a decade, but he has remained one of its largest shareholders and one of its loudest critics. He has repeatedly attacked the company’s leadership, product strategy and board and recently waged a proxy battle that resulted in changes to Lululemon’s board.
Fortunately for Chip, he made one enormous investment outside Lululemon before the stock collapsed.
The $3 Billion Amer Sports Investment
In 2019, Chip joined a consortium that acquired Amer Sports, the Finnish sporting-goods company behind Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson Sporting Goods, Atomic and Peak Performance.
Chip initially invested roughly €550 million. When Amer returned to the public markets in 2024, he invested another $324 million.
Today, Chip-controlled entities own nearly 100 million Amer Sports shares, representing roughly 18% of the company. At recent prices, that stake is worth close to $3 billion.
Ironically, Chip’s stake in the company that owns Arc’teryx is now worth substantially more than his remaining interest in the company he actually founded.
He also controls a major real estate portfolio through Low Tide Properties, which has spent more than $2 billion acquiring and renovating properties, primarily in Vancouver and Seattle.
Add everything together – Amer Sports, Lululemon, real estate, cash and other investments – and we currently estimate Chip Wilson’s net worth at $6 billion.
No Prenup
Chip and Summer Wilson are divorcing after 24 years of marriage. A family-law proceeding was filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in April, though the contents of the case are not available to the public. Here’s something we do know, though: Chip and Summer do not have a prenuptial agreement.
So does that mean Summer is about to receive $3 billion? Not exactly.
British Columbia law generally allows someone to keep the value of property they brought into a relationship. That would potentially protect whatever Chip’s Lululemon ownership was worth when his relationship with Summer began.
The important part is what happened afterward.
Increases in the value of excluded property during a marriage are generally considered family property and can be subject to division.
And just look at the timeline.
- Chip and Summer married in 2002.
- Three years later, Lululemon was valued at just $193 million.
- The 2007 IPO came after the wedding.
- The $845 million stock sale came after the wedding.
- The Amer Sports investment that is now worth nearly $3 billion came after the wedding.
- Low Tide Properties was founded after the wedding.
And Summer herself wasn’t simply standing on the sidelines while all of this happened. She was Lululemon’s founding lead designer and helped create some of the products that established the company’s early identity.
That does not mean she automatically owns half of every dollar Chip accumulated. The ultimate calculation could involve tracing decades of stock sales, investment proceeds, corporate entities, real estate purchases and other assets.
But with no prenup and the overwhelming majority of Chip’s fortune created during their marriage, the financial stakes are obviously enormous. However the assets are ultimately divided, Summer’s settlement could conceivably run into the billions – making this one of the most consequential billionaire divorces in recent memory.
