Vuori, the activewear brand from California, has launched its first store in China.
The 1,600-square-foot store is located in Shanghai’s Jing’an Kerry Center, a lifestyle-driven shopping mall in downtown Shanghai. The storefront neighbors popular sportswear labels such as On Running, Salomon and Arc’teryx.
Before the opening, Vuori operated a nine-month-long pop-up at Kerry Center to test the retail temperature. Its Tmall store opened in late 2022.
“China has always been a key target,” said Andy Lawrence, vice president of international at Vuori.
Facing fierce competition among its peers, such as Lululemon, On Running and Maia Active, a local player, Lawrence believes Vuori’s clean and subtle color palette, high focus on comfortable performance fabrics, and a smaller logo treatment, are all elements that will help the company stand out from the crowd.
Vuori, which means “mountain” in Finnish, was founded by Joe Kudla in 2015. Kudla saw a market opportunity for men’s workout shorts that can take the wearer from the gym to lunch. That also explains why early local media reporting has framed the brand as “Lululemon for men.”
However, the biggest difference between Vuori and Lululemon is the clientele. According to Lawrence, initial results in the store and on Tmall show that the brand’s Chinese audience is split “pretty evenly between men’s and women’s,” he said. “We’re really the only brand in our competitive set that’s 50/50,” he claimed.
On Tmall, men’s Kore Short, men’s tech Ts, as well as the Performance Jogger tops the bestseller list. “Within our suite of products, trendy and more fashion-forward have resonated right out of the gate in China, such as the alternate wide-legged styles, which is very interesting for us,” added Lawrence.
The store, which represents Vuori’s take on American West Coast living, has soft cream and natural wood interiors, a warm lighting system, and quotes on the wall that read, “Run.Surf.Hike.Train.Chill.”
“We want to be talking about versatility, and that we have a pretty broad spectrum: we want to take you from a super hard workout to a work day,” explained Lawrence.
Relatively small in square footage compared to its U.S. flagships, the store stands out for its multimedia video display of Vuori content, which Lawrence believes is an effective retail strategy for China.
To coincide with the launch, Vuori hosted a series of group exercise events with its fans under the same banner at the outdoor piazza of the mall.
As for future expansion plans in China, Lawrence said Vuori will focus on Shanghai first, with a second store coming to Grand Gateway 66 shopping mall this fall.
“We’ll potentially look for one more store in Shanghai; some early conversations in Beijing are already happening,” revealed Lawrence. “China is not one singular market, you really can’t blanket it with locations.”
Lawrence said Vuori will be listening to its customers and taking the time to grow, which also means he and Kudla will be able to understand the market’s unique quirks, as well as its ebbs and flows — which have been increasingly hard to read due to the uncertain economic outlooks.
“Yes, you read about the economy and the macro stuff, but when you get down to it, there is a very sizable customer base who is increasingly interested in being active and outdoors, and our aesthetic and the coastal California aesthetic seems very timely,” said Lawrence, taking an optimistic stance.
“We believe that China will end up being our biggest international market,” he continued. “It’s still pretty early, but we are very bullish.”