Encore: Murder at Lululemon | Part 1
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What crime occurred at the Lululemon store in Bethesda?
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And welcome to The Hunt. As you know, we release a lot of one-off interview episodes, and then sometimes we have more developed multi-part series. We're about to start one of those multi-part series next week. But while we're getting ready, we thought we'd give you the first episode of another one we did. It's called Murder at Lululemon, and this one is a wild ride. It tells the story of a deeply unsettling crime, one that took place in a wealthy suburb inside a store better known for $100 leggings and aspirational wellness culture. Now, I'll admit, I love Lululemon. It's one of the few things I splash out on when I want to treat myself, a total guilty pleasure. Guilty because who really needs $100 leggings?
But clearly, I am not alone. I have been on New York subway cars where every single person is wearing at least one piece of Lulu. But so far, 2026 has been a rocky year for the brand. In January, the company faced backlash over a new line of leggings that customers say were unexpectedly see-through. Sound familiar? It's a total callback to the brand's infamous 2013 recall. But at least this time, founder and now former CEO Chip Wilson hasn't sparked additional outrage by blaming the faulty product on the women who bought it. Some women's bodies just actually don't work for it. The response this time has been much quieter. It's possible you haven't even heard about it. And for what it's worth, customers are saying online that they've been able to return or exchange their leggings pretty easily.
But Chip Wilson is still stirring the pot. He's been publicly criticizing the company for losing its edge and trying too hard to be everything to everybody. And maybe he's right. They've lost market share, and their CEO, Calvin McDonald, recently stepped down, leaving the struggling brand without a leader at its helm. And underneath all this is the bigger issue. Maybe Lululemon's time has passed. As you're about to hear in this story, Lululemon didn't just sell leggings. It sold a whole philosophy of self-optimization, a vision of discipline, control, and constant self-improvement that helped define wellness culture for my generation. Millennials, that is. And now that worldview, the one Lululemon once represented, sort of seems like it's falling out of favor.
Gen Z is rejecting the whole Lulu ethos. The silhouettes are looser, the vibe is less polished, less controlled. You might even call it a reaction against the kind of self-discipline that Lululemon is all about. Because if this story tells you nothing else, it's that a culture obsessed with control doesn't eliminate ugliness. It just pushes it out of sight. So here's the first episode of Murder at Lululemon.
I think we've all seen the type of person who is super into yoga because there's darkness lurking and gets super into exercise generally because there's darkness lurking and there's anger there. That's a woman named Kat. She used to work at a Lululemon store. And there is at Lululemon this culture of intensity, like you're going to your workout classes and you're wearing the clothes and you are setting your goals and you're going to achieve your goals. And I can see how like it's not a lot of lackadaisical laissez-faire kind of personalities. Kat worked at Lululemon on a pretty street in Soho, in New York.
How did Lululemon's culture influence its employees?
Back then, she had just graduated college.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What crime occurred at the Lululemon store in Bethesda?
0:00–4:19
2
How did Lululemon's culture influence its employees?
4:19–8:45
3
What were the events leading up to the murder on March 12, 2011?
8:45–12:33
4
What details emerged from the police investigation?
12:33–16:32
5
Who were the victims involved in the Lululemon murder case?
16:32–23:30
6
What were the circumstances of the attack on Jaina and Brittany?
23:30–29:35
7
How did the community react to the Lululemon murder?
29:35–31:12
8
What implications did this murder have on Lululemon's brand image?
31:12–33:55