Lululemon’s Align pants are soft, but its new material is even softer

In 2015, Lululemon struck gold. After years of research and development in its Vancouver labs, Lululemon’s designers and material scientists debuted an excessively soft, lightweight, stretchy material called Nulu. And it’s put this new material into its Align yoga pants.

Eight years in, the Align pants remains one of the company’s best-selling products. It has spawned a constellation of other garments made from Nulu, including bras, hoodies, and bike shorts that have helped Lululemon become an activewear juggernaut, generating $8 billion in annual revenue. Dozens of other brands have tried to copy the material—although no one else seems to have nailed the formula.

Now, Lululemon wants to assert its dominance in the realm of cozy materials, believing it’s key to the brand’s continued success. The company tasked its designers to create an even softer, lighter material, and on October 17, Lululemon will release this fabric—called Ultra Soft Nulu—which it has incorporated into a new collection of garments called Wundermost.

Patti Stapp, Lululemon’s VP of raw materials, spent a year and a half devoted to crafting this new material with her team of a dozen engineers, designers, and material scientists. Unlike many other activewear brands, Lululemon develops most of its fabrics in-house, rather than picking or modifying fabrics that already exist on the market. This has been a key to the brand’s success over the years, and one reason it has continued to stand out in a very crowded activewear market.

Stapp says the team helped make this fabric even softer than Nulu by using new brushing techniques, which refers to the way a machine creates friction on a fabric to make a fluffy texture on the surface. This is a tricky process because brushing is key to creating softness, but brushing too much can weaken the fabric and reduce its durability. The team had to go through a long period of trial and error, putting each prototype through rigorous quality testing. The fabric is also double-knit, which involves creating a material that is textured on both sides. “It feels good against the body, but it also feels good when you feel it against your hand,” she says.

I had a chance to test out some early pieces, and the Ultra Nulu does, indeed, feel unbelievably soft and stretchy. But it is also thinner and lighter than Nulu, giving it an even silkier and more luxurious feeling. The 9-piece Wundermost collection includes bras, bodysuits, and shirts, but over time, Lululemon expects to introduce the material into a broader range of garments. “This is going to be peoples’ first taste of Ultra Soft Nulu,” says Clare Robertson, Lululemon’s senior design director. “We wanted them to experience it as close to the body as possible.”

But another thing that stands out about this collection is that it is more fashion forward than many of the company’s other garments. There’s a mockneck sleeveless tank top in the mix, along with an asymmetrical one-shoulder bodysuit. You could style these pieces for a party or a date. “These pieces are definitely meant to be seen,” says Robertson.

In many ways, the Wundermost is a continuation of Lululemon’s expansion into new categories of clothing. Lululemon pioneered athleisure, the idea of wearing activewear outside of the workout and into everyday life. Many of its customers found its yoga pants so comfortable, they began wearing them to brunch, even to the office. Over the past decade, this became a widespread trend that has dominated the fashion industry.

Lululemon now has business casual clothes for the office and even a minimalist streetwear line called Lab. Wundermost provides customers with even more options, such as body-hugging fashion-forward looks. “Our philosophy is that movement happens throughout your life, not just when you’re exercising,” says Robertson. “And you shouldn’t have to sacrifice fashion for functionality.”