Chip Wilson
- Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is an expert at spotting trends many years before they become a reality.
- His predictions about athletic clothing spawned the fashion trend known as athleisure, in which apparel designed for exercise is worn outside the gym.
- When asked to predict the next big trend in clothing, he told Business Insider that everyone will be wearing tight Lycra.
- "In the future, everyone will have superb bodyweight because of the biometric data we are getting back" from technology like the Apple watch, he said.
Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is an expert at spotting trends many years before they become a reality.
In the late 1990s, he successfully predicted the meteoric rise of yoga as a popular form of exercise. He also predicted the fashion trend that is now known as athleisure, in which clothing designed for exercise is worn outside the gym.
It was this foresight into athleisure that gave him the conviction to invent the black, stretchy pants that would turn Lululemon into a women's clothing powerhouse now worth an estimated $18 billion.
So we asked Wilson to predict the next big trend in athletic wear.
He said the Apple watch and other technology providing biometric data will play a big role in determining what we wear.
"In the future, everyone will have superb bodyweight because of the biometric data we are getting back," he said. "Clothing will look a lot like Olympic clothing where everything is a tight Lycra."
We may even be able to use technology to change the color of our clothing.
"We'll be able to go to an app and pick whatever color we want," he said.
Ultimately, humans may have technology implanted in their arms that provides a continuous and detailed report of biometric data and what our bodies need to stay healthy, he said.
This reality is about 15 years from today, he said.
Wilson said he's aware that his ideas about the future might seem a little crazy. But that's the nature of having a mind that envisions a world that doesn't exist yet, he said.
"My expertise happen to be living five to seven years in the future," he said. His ideas, he added, "are always going to be in conflict with the present, especially to people who don't like change."
Read more about the Lululemon founder:
- Chip Wilson reveals the one question he asked himself every day while building Lululemon into the $18 billion company it is today
- Lululemon founder Chip Wilson describes how he made the company's ex-CEO cry, slams Under Armour, and insults Diet Coke-drinking women, in a new tell-all book
- Lululemon's controversial founder reveals in his new book that he isn't entirely opposed to child labor and that his own children have worked since age five