Reading the tennis tea leaves in Lululemon’s latest earnings

Why tennis is central to Lululemon’s turnaround story—plus the late scramble at Front Office Sports to take the sport seriously (kind of).

Lululemon reported fourth-quarter earnings yesterday, and from my vantage point one thing stood out: tennis is no longer a nice-to-have side category. It’s one of the most visible arenas where the brand is trying to prove it still has cultural and technical juice.

The topline numbers were fine enough, but the actual mood of the call was corrective. North America remains the problem child, with the company guiding for revenue there to be down 1% to 3% this year, while executives repeatedly returned to the same themes: too much markdown activity, not enough product newness, and a need to restore the brand’s full-price health. In other words, Lululemon is trying to claw its way back to feeling premium again.

That’s where tennis comes in. On the call, the BNP Paribas Open sponsorship wasn’t positioned as just a nice brand flourish. It was presented as early evidence that its…