Summer and Chip Wilson Candid Conversation
addy Co-Founder Stephen Jagger moderated a fireside chat with Summer and Chip Wilson at The Zajac Ranch for Children’s ‘Lunch with a Legend’ series. The conversation covered a broad range of topics including commercial real estate, philanthropy, raising their family, the acquisition of Amer Sports (which includes Arc’teryx, Wilson, Atomic, Salomon and many more brands) and wrapped up with their thoughts on Vancouver’s new mayor and the question – if there was one thing you could change about Vancouver, what would it be?
About Summer and Chip Wilson
Chip Wilson
Chip is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, devoted husband and dedicated father to five sons. He creates possibilities for people to live longer, healthier, more fun lives in his pursuit to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness.
Chip’s entrepreneurial and apparel career began on the West Coast in 1979 as Founder & CEO of Westbeach Snowboarding Ltd. After selling Westbeach in 1997, he founded lululemon athletica inc. in 2018, creating an entirely new category of technical apparel now called “athleisure” – a $400 billion global industry. Lululemon went public in 2007, and has a current market cap of approximately $41 billion.
His family office, Hold It All Inc. reflects his diverse interests – apparel, real estate, private equity, passive investments and philanthropy.
In 2019, he partnered with Anta Sports, Fountainvest and Tencent to buy Amer Sports, a sporting goods company which includes globally recognized brands such as Arc’teryx, Salomon, Wilson Sports, Peak Performance, Atomic and Suunto. Chip currently sits on their board of directors and acts as an advisor for Anta Sports (currently valued at $52 billion) and Optimi Health.
In 2021, Chip released the newest edition of his book, ‘The Story of lululemon by its Founder: Chip Wilson’ to share the secrets behind effectively building a culture-driven company.
His family’s Wilson 5 Foundation is passionate about arts and parks. Chip and his wife Shannon’s passion for design, ingenuity and people development is reflected through their support of the Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and the Wilson Arts Plaza at Emily Carr University.
Shannon Wilson
Shannon was the design team lead at lululemon athletica, creating some of lululemon’s most iconic designs (such as the Groove Pant & lululemon Hoodie). Together by marrying fashion, function, and form, she focused on creating “Technical made Beautiful” for sport. And every thing she has done in business, fashion, and life has contributed to the genesis of this new movement of technical apparel design. Shannon also co-founded the meditation blog, whil.com, with her husband, lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson.
Chip and Shannon are now the lead investors in whil which is a full service digital health and wellness platform focused on bringing mindfulness to the world. Shannon and Chip are both passionate about leading this discipline and have established the Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University to help create the next generation of technical apparel designers right in the back yard where they pioneered it. In 2007, they established imagine1day, a non-profit organization that’s committed to bringing quality education to all Ethiopians funded free of foreign aid by 2030. Closer to home, they support the Children’s Hospital’s annual ChildRun and continue to support homeless issues in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. They are inspired by the power of art and fell in love with the public art piece in Vancouver known as A-maze-ing Laughter. “This is art at it’s best. It’s interactive and instantly brings smiles to all ages.”
The Zajac Ranch for Children
This event was put on by The Zajac Ranch for Children which is on the shores of Stave Lake, in Mission, BC, serves children with serious and chronic illnesses and disabilities during summer months.
Fun event! Thanks to Summer and Chip for being open to answer questions on such a vide variety of topics.
Thank-you for sharing this interview Stephen. It is always interesting and inspiring to hear from successful business people.