Lululemon Athletica’s Tech-Enabled

RoAnn Costin is a Massachusetts financial executive who directs Wilderness Point Investments, LLC, and focuses on startups and growth companies. One company that RoAnn Costin served on the board of for more than a decade was Lululemon Athletica. She invested in the fast growing athleisure retailer prior to its going public.

As explored in a Harvard Business School article, Lululemon found a way to thrive even during the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. This was accomplished through a strategy that placed technology at the forefront. In addition, the firm was in a solid financial position heading into 2020 that included $1.1 billion in cash and no significant long-term debt.

This cushion enabled Lululemon to provide a strong support system for brand ambassadors that interact with its consumers around the world. Using Instagram and other social media, they facilitate workouts and wellness classes. A total of $2 million went toward an Ambassador Relief Fund that enabled many Lululemon ambassador studio owners to weather economic the headwinds.

At the same time, Lululemon maximized the use of shuttered retail locations by transforming them into “ship-from-store hubs” that took advantage of its RFID inventory-tracking technologies. Strategically increasing prices on popular items such as leggings and sport bras, Lululemon also launched flexible payment plans that enabled customers to spread payments across four installments. Finally, Lululemon acquired the home-fitness tech startup Mirror in 2020 and leveraged its interactive workout machine in providing on-demand and live classes. The result was that Lululemon not only stayed profitable, but was able to expand market share during a trying economic period.

Museum Receives MPSJ Grant

For over three decades, RoAnn Costin has been working in the financial services and investments industries. Leading Wilderness Point Investments as managing director, RoAnn Costin splits her time between her professional and volunteer responsibilities on nonprofit boards. She serves on the board of trustees for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, one of four inaugural recipients of a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s American Art Program.

In September 2021, four grants from the Henry Luce Foundation’s American Art Program marked the beginning of its Museum Partnerships for Social Justice initiative (MPSJ). This initiative assists and expands a group of organizations dedicated to anti-racist practices in art-centered projects. To this end, it supports art museums as they explore and develop anti-racist project models that function across the field.

Alongside the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, an organization sharing the beauty of the arts and promoting the pursuit of knowledge, MPSJ awarded grants to the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC Greensboro, the Mississippi Museum of Art, and the Memphis-Brooks Museum of Art. For 18 months, pairs of grantee museums plan on working closely in the development of anti-racist projects. The Weatherspoon Art Museum and Mississippi Museum of Art are partners, while the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum partners with the Memphis-Brooks Museum of Art.

Mobile Vision Clinics

The managing director of Wilderness Point Investments in Massachusetts, RoAnn Costin invests in early and expansion-stage non-durable product and retail companies, such as Sarah Flint. Possessing upwards of 45 years of leadership experience, RoAnn Costin shares her expertise with several corporations as a board of directors member. This includes 2020 On-Site.

2020 On-Site is a mobile eye clinic offering telehealth and neighborhood visits to companies and schools. It also provides an online shopping and virtual styling consultation services. All mobile vision clinics held by the company are state-of-the-art clinics capable of full optometric operations. According to the Boston-based business, mobile vision clinics can provide the same autorefraction, subjective refraction, and keratometry measurements as in-office optometrists. Investigators collected this data over the course of a month and released it in August 2021.

The company evaluated eye examination information from 20 individuals between 18 and 60 years of age. Each of these subjects received both an office and mobile vision clinic exam lasting for 30 minutes. Patients all received subjective refraction, autorefraction, and keratometry testing during their visits, thus granting investigators the data they needed for comparing the two testing environments.