One of the company’s Instagram feeds, #thesweatlife, displays a carefully edited stream of images which are purportedly consumer selfies. Viewed en masse, these images feature a disproportionate number of portraits of women alone, viewed from above or behind, in the manner of a horror movie. In contrast to an Under Armour consumer-athlete, the Lululemon wearer actively participates in the visual dissection of her body and the branding of her Luon-clad musculature. Lululemon’s designers turn brand hunters into voyeurs, looking at less public parts of the body, pulling attention away from the full frontal engagement with the wearer’s face. Yet in the case of the Under Armour logo, the edges of the logo’s lines are virile and outward flaring, and the logo is usually centrally-placed on the wearer’s upper body. Like Lululemon, Under Armour deploys a logo derived from stylized letterforms: an interlocking U and A form the brand’s distinctive sign. Lest you find this essay an exercise in pseudomorphism, consider the design and placement of the sportswear manufacturer Under Armour’s logo. Simple brand designs are easier to read and are less painful for the livestock.” In a short manual that reads like a primer on modernist design, the association advises: “The best rule to follow is to keep the image simple. Ranch owners design their own brands, to distinguish their herds from those of their neighbors. Livestock brands are usually composed of one or more stylized letters, often set in a circle. In this lexicon, Lululemon’s modified A would read as “running circle A,” not entirely inapt. Although Lululemon would undoubtedly deny any association between the cleansing rituals of yoga and the rounding up of cattle, their signage systems have some remarkable similarities. North American cattle ranchers have been using precisely these marks to claim ownership of the continent’s primary protein source for centuries. And in fact, it turns out that stylized letters have a long history of being used to brand flesh. Since Lululemon’s public relations department resists further inquiries into the origin and meaning of the unlikely “A,” intrepid observers must turn to other sources. Despite this, sales of the pricey yoga pants continue apace, and Lululemon’s Luon pants are widely considered the most flattering choice among Anglophone yogis. Nor do they apparently care about the bizarre opinions of the company’s founder, Chip Wilson, who responded to complaints about fabric quality in 2013 by telling customers that the problem was not the product, but rather with their fat thighs. (Lululemon rose to prominence on a crest of disturbing events, including a racist anecdote about its name and a 2007 controversy about whether the company’s VitaSea clothing line in fact contained healthful marine products.)Ĭonsumers do not generally seem to know what the logo references. In fact, the appeal of Lululemon’s small, seductive logo may be one of the reasons for the company’s otherwise rather inexplicable success in a crowded and competitive marketplace. The meaning of the small, feminine marque is unclear, but millions embrace it as a sign of membership in a petite, well-toned elite. Yoga apparel brand LululemonAthletica (which began in Vancouver in 1998 and now operates roughly 250 stores worldwide) boasts one of the most effective logos on the market. However visually impoverished the iconography of the fitness market may be, it is worth examining these logos, which are part of a material quest for personal perfection in the service of capitalism. Some, like the Nike swoosh, are eye-catchingly clever, becoming part of a common visual language of fitness. Many of these marks are forgettable attempts to rouse interest in shorts or spandex. Dancewear and yoga wear, aimed primarily at female buyers, usually features more delicate iconography. Or, like REI and Patagonia’s logos, they invoke a connection between the brand and the enduring strength of a mountain range. But what is the message of the contemporary fitness logo? Some of the best known, such as Puma’s leaping cat and Adidas’ stripes, connote a combination of speed, virility, and loyalty. So it should come as no surprise that the branding of exercise wear is a complicated, profitable endeavor. A decade ago, the critic Mark Greif astutely observed the psychological, social, and gendered reality of a modern world dominated by fitness, describing landscape where runners turned public streets into a modern version of classical gymnasia, workout gear replacing dresses and suits sweat splattering innocent bystanders. That Americans live in an exercise-obsessed culture is perhaps only natural in a society where BMI correlates directly with socio-economic standing: fitness is a form of prestige.
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