The good news: the Orlando outlet has some Seawheeze leftovers! I saw a few rumors on facebook last week, and was curious if a single rogue piece had made it, or leftovers were indeed put out for sale to the general public.
I happened to be on vacation for the Epcot Food & Wine Festival at Disney World, so I took Sunday morning off from the caloric intake to check out the Orlando lululemon outlet.
Pieces were sporadic, but there was a selection in assorted sizes from both 2015 and 2016. Nothing from 2015 that I liked was in my size, and I got everything I wanted in person at last year’s showcase, so while I got a handful of items, none were SW.
The bad news: there were a couple of old guys buying up a lot of it with a glaringly obvious intention to resell online.
EDIT: As you can see in the background of the photo of the hats, there’s a pile of SW stuff being held behind the register for THOSE GUYS.
Almost 2 days later and I still don’t like what I saw down there.
There was a very unsettling vibe to both of them. Neither of them spoke, and one had a phone glued to his head the entire time. They looked COMPLETELY out of place, a pair of scruffy 50-year old men doing multiple laps trolling the women’s section. At one point, I grabbed a pair of those wacko teal/orange SW Speeds off the rack right in front of them, just to make a silent statement that I knew the shady business they were up to.
As I went to pay for my haul (a Swiftly Racerback, an Invigorate Bra, a two-piece swimsuit, a Vinyasa Scarf and some razzle Speed Shorts – all for $200, btw), I said something to the girl behind the register how frustrating it was to see people hoarding that stuff with such a blatant intent to resell.
She said that Eds used to be able to approach bulk buyers in the store and limit how many of certain pieces they could buy, because it wasn’t fair to other shoppers. But, at some point in the last year, the lululemon corporate office said they were no longer allowed to do that, and told them to sell the clothes to whoever was willing to buy them.
Is business really that bad that you’re willing to enable these types of people to take advantage and profit off of the customers who will actually WEAR the product… all so you can make a quicker dollar by the time the next fiscal quarter closes? The more I sit down and think about it, the more annoyed I am by this.
What does everyone think?
It’s sad, I’ve had to ween myself off of all of the brands I love (including Lulu) because there are always people who will find some way to ruin it. Resellers is why we can’t have nice things.
Agree! I hope those guys get stuck with a pile of things they can’t sell.
I saw maybe 2 pairs of blue striped Sea Wheeze crops at the North Georgia outlet (which is new and small). Nothing that interesting to me.
Same for the Orlando selection. The only thing in my size was a pink Stash It Tank and the black/yellow Pace Rivals, but they were the old slippery fullux I didn’t like. I may have gone for the crazy pink/orange crops, but they only had a 12.
There were some CRBs, skirts, bras and shorts at the Gilroy, CA outlet last weekend. I think they were from the first two Seawheeze races- girl running and mermaid logos.
I tried on a few things, but in my opinion, they were all things that didn’t sell out for obvious reasons- fit kind of funny, odd color combos, somewhat sheer, etc. I ended up leaving them behind.
Agree, nothing made me hold it up in triumph when I pulled it off the rack. I was, however, stoked to find swimwear.
Seems it’s just leftovers that no one wanted to buy in the first place so it was dumped in an outlet store. So who cares who buys it?
What color is your vinyasa? I’d be excited to find those!
Valid point about the aesthetic of some of the things that made it to the outlet, but there were a few things I would have grabbed if they had them in my size.
If you resell because you impulse buy, no longer wear or fit into something, that’s fine by me. I do it when there’s something in my closet someone else could get better use out of.
However, purposely stockpiling so you can take financial advantage of people turns me into a bunch of sour grapes. It’s like ticket bots swooping in and buying up all the good seats to a concert before even the fastest-fingered human being can fill in all of the information required to purchase, so a reseller can take you to cleaners for a markup.
I got the hero blue/electric coral striped Vinyasa Scarf for $29… and there are SO. MANY. brand new listings for the same scarf NWT on Poshmark in the $50-60 range right now.
I think they would have been much better off – doing a special “seawheeze online event” – so all of us could have participated – they probably could have sold most of the items at full price. I loved the 2015 collection – all the bright colors/patterns. I wasn’t able to go and so paid “a lot” more than face value for 3 pairs of speed shorts and 2 bras – but I love love love them. Seeing the turquoise/orange shorts for $39 is stupid – I would have paid $52 easy (assuming my size). They have been selling outlet items in WMTM (do a store check on some of the wunder unders and see outlets listed). Too bad and too stupid – they could have had a great Lulu fan event – instead a couple of old guys will be selling this stuff on ebay. Grr
Sarah, that’s a great idea I’m totally on board with! Just like the did a quick flash presale with SW runners this year, I agree they should leverage their online sale platform a bit more and get people hyped for online events.
Lots of people willing to pay full price unfortunately don’t live within an easy driving distance of an outlet (myself included – I got lucky my vacation happened when it did), and it would be great to sell to people who will WEAR the gear, not scam others.
Does anyone know if any other outlets have Seawheeze stuff? (the Washington ones selfishly)
Sounds like the wealth has been spread out! So far I’ve seen Orlando, heard about Northern GA and Eastern MA, and I *think* I saw someone mention somewhere that some stores in WA had a stash too.
I agree with one of the above comments: sell it online. They’te bound to make more money that way. I also think people need to stop buying items with jacked up prices to stick it to the resellers.
Agree. If I see an item I like from an obvious dealer, I will keep on looking until I find it from a less deceptive seller.
Wrentham Outlets in MA had a few of the Seawheeze Lulu items for sale when I was there Nov 1st. Mostly in size 2. there was a really cute blue skirt with black and blue striped lining from Seawheeze 2014 available. There were also a few things from Seawheeze 2013 (an ugly yellow swiftly), Seawheeze 2015 (black & blue CRB of the bacterial-looking-squiggle prints), and Seawheeze 2016 (yellow and black fingerprint bottoms). So quite a few things. There was a variety of sizes of items but the cuter ones were only available in size 2.
I wonder where all this product leftover was from? Those showcase stores claimed to have sold out so quickly on the first day always.
There are certain items that do go fast, but there are some inevitable duds. Last year, I did my one early morning run through the store and was out within an hour of the store opening.
This summer, I did loop back around and there were certain items/sizes that don’t go. If SW gear starts hitting outlets 1-2 years after the races, we all can expect to see a TON of cropped CRBII’s from the 2017 lineup in the future.
Popular items go super fast (cough cough rainbow reflective), but at the end of the one-day sale the racks aren’t 100% empty.
I was in the 2017 Seawheeze race and lined up for the store. Glad I didn’t line up overnight – I only bought a pair of socks and was not a fan of the colors/designs. To me they were the worst of all the Seawheezes I’ve attended (I’ve been to all but the first one..) – nothing that special or fun.
Well, there was the reflective stuff – but I didn’t line up early enough to get that. And there is no way the reflective gear will be in an outlet.
About resellers, I agree. It sucks when people who actually wear the product can’t get it because of them. I have re-sold stuff myself but it was from impulse buys or things that no longer fit anymore. I’ve never re-sold anything for much more than I bought it, tho.