‘I wouldn’t be stressing over it if I was Lululemon’: Why experts say the polarizing Team Canada uniform may not actually be a misstep

Athletes model Lululemon’s new Team Canada uniforms for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Toronto, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Laura Proctor

Whenever Team Canada laces up its skates and clips on its skis for another Olympics, fans back home become armchair critics — and it’s not just the performances they’re judging.

The last few Games have shown that Canadians love to hate their team’s uniform. They griped about the graffiti-inspired jean jackets Hudson’s Bay made for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and compared the pattern on some of the red-and-white pieces in Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s collection for the 2024 Paris Games to uncooked bacon.

This year, they’re likening the maroon and red colour scheme Lululemon is using for the uniform to a Tim Hortons cup and complaining that a puffy, shawl-like vest the team wore at the opening ceremony was akin to a sleeping bag or oversized oven mitt.

But experts say none of that criticism really matters because outfitters don’t hang much of their business on these Olympic collections.

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They’re usually produced in smaller quantities, sold for a short period of time and treated more like a marketing tool or product test bed than a major brand builder.

“As long as the conversation is about the esthetic and not about the quality, fit or functionality for athletes, it’s not a negative thing,” said Lisa Hutcheson, a retail strategist with J.C. Williams Group.

“I wouldn’t be stressing over it if I was Lululemon.”

This year’s Olympic collection is the third from the Vancouver-based apparel retailer, which did not respond to a request for comment. It features a darker palette of reds, maroons and glacier-inspired blue-greens and makes use of a topographical map of Canada in some of the designs.

Many of the jackets have large hoods to offer more coverage and built-in, backpack-like straps so the garment can easily be carried when it’s warm out.

Some of the pants are designed so athletes using wheelchairs can comfortably sit and perform in them, and many of the pieces are made with abrasion-resistant fabrics and magnetic zippers.

Several of those features, like the jacket straps, were hits during prior Games and have since been included in broader collections Lululemon makes, said Hutcheson, who feels the company uses the Olympic uniform as a test bed.

“If there’s some items that really stand out in their sell-through, that might be something that they’ll consider moving forward,” she said.

“Maybe they’ll sell more cape-like jackets ... so this is the time to test the products and see whether or not it could be something that you make, maybe minus a giant Canada flag — or maybe it has a Canada flag.”

The cape-like jacket she was referring to is actually a maroon-coloured quilted vest, which features a giant maple leaf. When the arm holes are zipped up, it turns into a scarf and when it’s cinched with a drawcord, it becomes a pillow.

Like Hutcheson, Liza Amlani thinks the frosty reception the vest has received online “will not hurt” Lululemon because the collection is so fleeting.

While reviews of the uniform have been “mixed,” the co-founder of the Retail Strategy Group said the overall assortment is “strong.”

“The colour palette and silhouettes strike a balance between performance and everyday wear, making the product accessible not just to athletes, but to Lululemon’s broader customer base,” she said in an email.

Others appear to agree. Fashion magazine Vogue recently named it one of the best uniforms of these Olympics and athletes have had few qualms about showing it off in social media videos

When figure skater Lia Pereira opened her haul, she even said on Instagram, “I was in fact, NOT ready for how cool this Canadian kit is!! Lululemon you have outdone yourself.”

Yet TikTok still abounds with people who say the green pieces in the collection aren’t patriotic, they don’t like the street style look and they wish the collection had an iconic item like the red mittens HBC made when it was outfitting the team before Lululemon.

These critics shouldn’t be discounted just because athletes like the uniform, said Henry Navarro Delgado, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s fashion department.

He pointed out the Olympic uniform is a very small collection, but developing it is expensive, even for an athleticwear giant like Lululemon.

“By selling versions of those products to the general public, that’s the only way that they can recoup the expense of developing those products in the first place,” he said. “So if people don’t like them and don’t buy them, it makes no sense ... from a business perspective and it’s just not good for Lululemon.”

But once athletes are at the games and items are in stores, it’s too late to do anything about negative feedback that emerges, he said.

“All you can do is just remember it for next time, if you have that opportunity again.”

Lululemon signed a six-year contract with Team Canada that will last long enough for it to dress the country’s athletes at the next Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2026.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press