I’m not so sure what I’m hoping to see in tomorrows upload. Of course I’d love to see the next run of Gratitude Wraps which are supposedly Ghost and Blurred Grey according to a couple of product alerts, but I’d much rather have a chance to buy one in store since I’m not wanting to go thru the ordeal of trying to get one on upload. Either way, I’ll be prepared and hope for the best. Also, I’d love to see those three pinks; Sweet Tart, Paris Pink and Heathered Dusty Rose. I doubt those will be uploaded tomorrow.

Yesterday I got the Run: Dog Runner Pants and I really, really like them a lot. I wore them all evening yesterday and then again today to take my kids to preschool. I got them nice and dirty with playdough, clay, sludge and painty hand prints so now sadly they are ready for the wash. 

I really like this years Cuddle Up colors compared to last year. I think my favourite one is the Heathered Black Swan which is much nicer in person then it’s photographed. The stitch colors contrast so nicely with the Black Swan. I also really like the Ghost and Heathered Lilac versions. I don’t plan on getting one of these any time soon but if they are around next month I may pick one up to wear under my puff vest. Depends on what else is out at the time though. October to December are usually killer for my budget since so many great items come out so close together so I try to only get items I love and need in both color and design and that I’d get a lot of wear out of. 

I kind of have an unpopular opinion on the Herringbone Full Tilt and Wunder Unders. Although I really like the idea of the textured print..I sort of hate replacing running luon (or RULU ;-/  thats an eye roll emoticon) with a less soft cozy material. The Wunder Unders look really nice but I HATE that contrast seam detail at the gusset…I think it’s called? Front and Centre is what I mean. It just looks so conspicuous. They are also pretty thick and I didn’t have that desire to try them on when I felt them. 

What are you guys hoping to get on tomorrows upload? 

Cuddle Up Jacket Heathered Black Swan, Heathered Lilac, Ghost, Black

Run Full Tilt Pullover Ghost Herringbone Deep Coal Herringbone, Black Heathered Deep Herringbone, Lilac Heathered Coal

Scuba Hoodie Deep Camo, Deep Camo Black Dip Dye, Black Swan Creekside Camo

Run Free Tank Ghost, Heathered Black Swan, Heathered Black

Active Strength Tank

Power Technique Tank

Cross My Heart Bra

Run: Dog Runner Pant

Wunder Under Pant Black Herringbone

Looks like a Lilac and Deep Camo Tinted Canvas Print is coming.

I’ve been hemming and hawing for the past 4 weeks on what pants to get and have gone from wanting black Dance Studio Pants to Grooves to Tadasana Crops. I sort of need crops for Crossfit but I also sort of want long pants for lounging in and wearing with scubas and run pullovers. These Dog Runner Pants got my attention because they are so simply designed without some of the funky seam details or ruching that lulu usually puts on their track style pants. They are a strait cut pant made of glyde so it also doesn’t have those faint lines you see with the Dance Studio Pants that are made of Swiftly.

I tried on my Dance Studio Pant size which is size 10 and initially I thought I needed to size up to a 12 which my store didn’t have (and it seems like they don’t even come in a 12) but now that I’m home and looking at pictures I think the 10 is the right size. My one bone to pick with these is that since there is an inside running luon legging/liner and the pants are slightly fitted thru the upper thigh, if you have athletic thighs the inside pocket liner will drag against the inner liner and it may bunch up a bit which you can see in some of the pictures below. So my ruling on these pants is that they are TTS but slightly more fitted than DSP pants…but also it has 4-way stretch instead of the DSP’s 2-way so they are just as comfortable. I wish they could make these in an unlined version as well because I love the simple streamlined design of them compared to the Dance Studio Pants, Yoga Camp Pants and other track style pants. 

The inside liner is long and super soft running luon. It takes a minute or two of adjusting them so they fit properly underneath the pants but once they are on right they are snugly soft. These pants are a bit warm for lounging around inside a warm house but they will be perfect for running on very cold days, going for walks and especially for Trick or Treating on Halloween. If it rains on Halloween I’ll be totally set since these are durable water repellent.  The length of the pants are pretty much the same as the DSP’s and the rise is slightly higher than the DSP’s which works better for me as far as muffin top prevention.  For $9 more than DSP’s these are a great price considering they are double layered two pants in one. I highly recommend these pants if you are in need of a cold weather out door pant. I didn’t love last years Dog Whisperer Pants because they had a really unflattering huge upper thigh pocket meant to fit a tennis ball for your dog and a 10lb bag of kibble so you can see how those would ad unflattering bulk to someone with big quads. 

Run: Dog Runner Pants

In these pictures you can faintly see the pockets thru the glyde liner and see how they would look if they bunched a bit with more athletic thighs. 

Looks like one of the new improvements to the website is a Live Chat option (lower right) of the product pages. 

Run: Dog Runner Pants

Cuddle Up Jacket

Scuba Hoodie Black Swan Creekside Camo

Herringbone Wunder Unders

 Ghost Cuddle Up Jacket with Herringbone Wunder Unders

 Scuba Hoodie Black Swan Creekside Print

 Dog Runner Pants with Full Tilt Pullover in Herringbone

Run Free Tank

 Run Full Tilt Pullover; Ghost Heathered Coal Herringbone

 Active Strength Tank

Power Technique Tank

Lots of you have been patiently waiting for the Cuddle Up Jacket to finally arrive ever since we saw a sneak peak of them on this product alert from August 30th from a store that mistakenly sent it out. I think the Black (or is that Black Swan) and Ghost are the new cuddle ups but the second two are possibly Lilac and then I think thats last years Wish Blue Cuddle Up but I’m not too sure. Nope, It’s probably Black, Ghost, Lilac, Black Swan. Last years Lilac had contrast stitching on the logo so this one is definitely new.

Black, Ghost, Heathered Lilac and Heathered Black Swan

Really great news considering the chaos that ensued on thursday when the Gratitude Wraps were uploaded to the website. I’m hoping these upgrades mean much smoother transactions when the next batch of Gratitude Wraps are uploaded (Ghost and Blurred Grey). 

I suspected this would happen with the upload because the Gratitude Wraps were not widely released in stores before they were uploaded online, in fact we were told these were not going to be released in the US stores at all leaving hopeful buyers dependant on the small quantity being uploaded to the e-commerce site. Shoppers where also given an unusual heads up from Lulu about the upload of the Gratitude Wraps on the Lululemon Facebook page and so buyers knew to be online bright and early. Unfortunately, many buyers that placed orders the moment the upload happened got ‘sold out’ messages, while others who got online later where able to place and complete their orders.

The other issue that happened were that single orders were somehow duplicated and customers had multiple holds on their funds for multiple purchases when they only intended to order once. Some people had their orders completed only to receive confirmation of the wrong sizes and then later cancelled altogether. I’ve been informed of instances where these orders where cancelled but holds on paypal funds still remain. One reader had her order cancelled but has not been refunder her $300+ order amount back to paypal and has no idea when she will get her money back. Since Thursday, some Gratitude Wraps have been restocked online and it would have been nice if those had been made available to customers that had transactions gone wrong that had missed out rather than releasing them to others for general purchase. 

I’m not sure what upgrades are happening on the e-commerce site or if they are changes we will see directly. Where things went wrong during the upload aren’t exactly clear to us as far as the transactions themselves or the site crash but I do hope we see a better system for uploading low levels of inventory that are expected and known to be much anticipated by large numbers of people. The fact that so many people where online that day hoping to order the Gratitude Wrap where completely expected and predictable. Customers have been requesting the return of this wrap for two years and there are several online groups dedicated to this one design. Stores sold out within hours on Monday when they were released. I was able to track blog stats prior to the online release and I had a huge spike in traffic starting Monday when they were released in BC stores 4 days before the upload and on upload I had record breaking numbers. I assume the Lululemon website also uses site metrics and analytics and were able to see this big increase in traffic as well as on the facebook page which uses similar metrics to track visits. 

Will you attempt to order online again for the next release or was this too stressful of an experience to be repeated?

There are TWO pinks coming, not just Paris Pink! I have word that the Cool Racerback Tank featured on the website graphics under ‘Tanks’ in light pink is actually Sweet Tart Pink which was used in the Ivivva line back in April (posted here). I think this is a heathered or static Sweet Tart Pink because it looks a bit different from the Ivivva picture. Or perhaps this is heathered Paris Pink and Sweet Tart Pink is the more neon pink…

Or is this Sweet Tart Pink?

Sweet Tart Pink at Ivivva