Lululemon Membership: Namaste or… Not Today?
Lululemon, the athleisure darling that practically invented the $100 legging, now has free membership program. We won’t call it a Loyalty program because it doesn’t care how loyal you are and isn’t a Rewards program because it’s light on rewards. You can see how this is going to go.
This isn’t your typical earn-and-burn program. There’s no point system, no cashback, and no "spend $150, get a free tank top" sort of setup. Instead, Lululemon leans heavily on partner perks and soft benefits that with the goal (we think) of highlighting their connected brand allegiances and making you part of an in-crowd… even if that crowd is mostly just giving up their email so Lululemon can track you.
(Note: Lululemon has a subscription-related level called the Lululemon Studio All-Access Level but you have to own the lululemon Studio Mirror hardware. We are not reviewing that here).
Let’s stretch into the details.
Image Credit: Shutterstock
How You “Earn”
Spoiler: you don’t.
The Lululemon Membership program is free to join and everyone is put at the Lululemon Essential Level. There is no point accumulation or spend tracking. Instead, your “value” comes from:
1. Partner Perks
Lululemon has teamed up with 12 brand partners as of this writing, and these are positioned as the real benefits of membership. Think fitness apps, smoothie joints, and boutique wellness brands. In theory, this sounds fabulous. We love it with brands extend the rewards programs to partners as it tends to make them richer and more interesting (see: our review of Adi Club).
Image Credit: Lululemon.com
But for Lululemon, we were disappointed:
Many offers are limited-time only for your first or few visits.
A bunch of brands don’t have national presence (Erewhon, we’re side-eying your $25 green juice that’s only available in LA)
Some of these same membership offers you can find elsewhere
Discounts are weak.
Here’s a rundown of the current offerings and our assessment:
2. Lululemon-Specific Benefits
This is where the membership shows a bit more promise:
Free hemming – actually useful, especially for those of us who don’t have mannequin bodies.
Free exchanges or credit on sale items – a rare find in retail land
Early access to product drops – sounds good, but since membership is free and open to everyone, it doesn’t feel all that exclusive
Receipt-free returns- It’s 2025 stores should be able to look up anything without a receipt regardless.
Peloton Classes- free, but in the Lululemon App.
Membership Events- the elusive benefit with no details.
How You Redeem
On the plus side there is nothing to keep track of because there are no points. On the flip side there is not a lot of value provided.
Most of the Partner Perks link you out to a third-party site where you manually enter a code or sign up. It’s not exactly seamless.
What’s the Value?
Without a points structure or tangible cashback, and with no spend requirements to gain access to the benefits, it’s all for the for taking even if you don’t drop a dime on their clothing. So there is no return value for us to calculate like we do with other programs.
🕵️♂️ ANY Fine Print?
Honestly, not much. But not because it’s super consumer-friendly — more because there’s not a whole lot going on.
What you do need to know:
Partner offers vary widely and change often. We hope that means they will get better.
You have to opt-in or manually access most of the perks. This is not the program you can be passive and get something.
There's no long-term tracking of your engagement or loyalty. You can buy all the workout gear you want but with this membership there is no reward for your sweat equity.
This is a low-commitment program, which is fine… but it also means low reward.
OUR VERDICT:
This program feels less like a “membership” and more like Lululemon collecting your info and throwing a few coupons at you type program. Sure, there are a couple of nice-to-haves — especially the hemming and exchange policy — but the overall vibe is underwhelming.
It’s a shame because they could do so much more with it than $3 discounts or 50% off a random latte (ok, Chai Latte is random for this author, perhaps common for you).
Sorry, but this one lands squarely in the Robbed camp. Sure, you don’t have to spend anything to join or gain access to (near nothing) benefits, but you will be robbed of your hope for a reward program that actually delivers something meaningful.
Rewarded or Robbed?
🚫 ROBBED!
Leave us a comment! Do you agree or disagree? Any further tips about Lululemon Rewards?
