Lululemon Developing New Materials And Products For Milan Olympics

Team Canada athletes will sport an alpaca wool sweater at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina. They’ll also have proprietary new fabrics for waterproofing and wind proofing. Then there’s a fully weather-ready boot. Lululemon has gone technical as it outfits the Canadian contingent across the cityscape in Milan and the mountaintop experience in Cortina.

“Most of our fabric will be brand new for this collection,” Catherine Lebrun, Lululemon’s design director on the collection, tells me. “What’s great about this one, is it is the first time we get to redo an [Olympics] season.”

Lululemon first outfitted all of Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing before crafting a Summer Olympics collection for Paris in 2024. Now Lebrun says the Canadian brand will take learnings and create a fresh technical approach for the multi-city 2026 experience.

To start, Lebrun says they tracked the weather from the six different locations holding events, splitting those cities into two groups: city (think: Milan) and top of mountain (think: Cortina). With the two different environments, Lululemon could start building layers for everything from the Opening Ceremony in Milan to podium stops and media appearances to the Closing Ceremony in Verona.

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“There are a lot of layering systems,” Lebrun says. “We will start from the base and build up, based on thermoregulation.” Lululemon used the cold chamber at its Vancouver-area headquarters to test fabrics and insulations with athletes, working to build unique stacks of materials that could work in the expected temperatures and environments. Each “moment” comes with a different approach.

For the Opening Ceremony, which requires athletes to wear the same outfit an entire day while transferring between indoor and outdoor settings, Lululemon opted for a synthetic base and a lighter-weight Primaloft insulation. Every athlete will have a fully weather-proof shell jacket over top, so they all look the same, no matter which layers they have beneath. Athletes will also have a transformable vest.

“Most of the fabric will be new for these games,” Lebrun says. That includes the Opening Ceremony shell, a waterproof layer developed specifically for the Olympics. The three-layer shell design that’s popular in the industry (and at the brand) was developed for the drape so the structured and tailored look fit the inspiration befitting of Milan’s fashion scene.

Lebrun says the fabric technology continues throughout the event. Weather protection materials are either waterproof and windproof or water resistant and wind resistance, and these differing protective shells sometimes come paired with Primaloft or RDS down. Down is popular for top of mountain environments, while Primaloft fits city environments as it is more packable and better withstands rain.

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Keeping athletes comfortable starts with base layers, though. To make that happen, Lululemon is employing a range of materials, including synthetics, merino wool and alpaca wool. An alpaca sweater not only represents the first time the brand has used alpaca wool in an Olympic collection, but also the first time it has introduced a sweater for the Olympics, which can be a difficult piece for an Olympian due to the sometimes-tricky washing requirements. “Not a lot of countries will have a sweater for that reason,” Lebrun says. “We did all the testing and were really passionate about getting them a soft sweater for the media moment. We wanted them to be in alpaca.”

Also new is a fully waterproof boot insulated with Primaloft so it doesn’t get too puffy. It will become the first boot Lululemon will sell at retail. As Lululemon embraces inclusivity and adaptability in its clothing—seated-fit pants are now a staple for the brand’s collections for Paralympic athletes—the boot fits that theme with a tongue design that stays open for easier on-off. Expect all athletes to wear the boot during the Opening Ceremony.

To give the new materials a Canadian expression, Lebrun says they are “always looking at ways to reinvent or reinterpret how to make things feel fresh.” That includes with the color red. The Opening Ceremony kit has the darkest red yet, helping stand out but also give the athletes a unique color that can live on well after the games. A maple leaf pattern will stand out on the darker background. In contrast, the Closing Ceremony features different shades of green as a nod to the landscape of Canada, specifically tied to the green shades found in a glacier. The podium look, though, offers the brightest red Lululemon could chemically create. “It is really bold,” Lebrun says, “to celebrate that moment they made it. We want them to feel that pride.”

For patterns, Lululemon further embraced the landscape of Canada. A reinterpreted topographic map of Canada covers the podium jacket. The way the pattern and a transparent red overlay work together means each jacket is different.

The alpaca sweater features singular print, this one inspired by the traces left on snow and ice. “There’s this idea of leaving a trace, whether a ski or snowboard or skating, there is always a trace, and those curves feel close to the Lululemon design language,” Lebrun says.

Whether patterns, colors, new material technology or fresh products, the Olympics possess a major stage for brands to branch out. That includes with a winter boot or alpaca sweater.

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