If you were active on social media back in 2016 or 2017, chances are someone in your feed was selling LuLaRoe leggings. The brand was everywhere for a while, then seemed to quietly disappear from conversation, leaving a lot of people wondering whether it shut down completely or is still limping along somewhere.
The real answer is that LuLaRoe never actually closed, but it’s a shadow of what it used to be. Between lawsuits, inventory problems, and a shrinking consultant base, the brand has gone through a rough stretch that’s worth understanding in detail.
The Rise of LuLaRoe: A Family Business with Big Dreams
LuLaRoe started in 2012 as a family venture founded by DeAnne and Mark Stidham, built around a simple idea: sell comfortable, affordable clothing while giving women a chance to run their own small business. From the beginning, it leaned on a multi-level marketing model, where independent consultants sold products directly through social media and in-person pop-up events.
The brand’s colorful, bold prints quickly became its signature look, especially on its buttery-soft leggings. Consultants loved the flexibility of working from home and setting their own hours, and the “be your own boss” pitch resonated with thousands of women looking for extra income, which helped the company grow at an unusually fast pace.
Is LuLaRoe Still in Business? The Answer and Its Implications
Yes, LuLaRoe is still operating today, even though its peak years are clearly behind it. The company continues selling products and supporting a consultant network, though both are far smaller than they once were, and rebuilding trust has become a constant theme in how it talks about its future.
Part of that trust problem traces back to 2019, when the Washington State Attorney General sued LuLaRoe, alleging its business model functioned as a pyramid scheme that preyed on consultants with unrealistic income promises. The company settled in 2021 for $4.75 million, agreeing to reform its practices and improve transparency across its MLM structure.
What Are the New Plans and Features?
To try to stay relevant, LuLaRoe has expanded well beyond its original leggings-only lineup, adding dresses, tops, and accessories to give customers more reasons to shop. The company has also worked to simplify the selling process so consultants can manage their businesses with less friction than before.
Digital tools and social media promotion now play a much bigger role in how LuLaRoe operates, with more emphasis on online shopping rather than relying purely on in-person pop-up events. These changes reflect an attempt to modernize a business model that was built for a very different retail environment.
The Challenges of Rapid Growth: A Double-Edged Sword
LuLaRoe’s fast rise was impressive, but it also created problems that took years to surface fully. The same explosive growth that made it a household name in the MLM fashion space also stretched its operations and quality control past what the company could reliably manage.
By 2016, LuLaRoe was pulling in more than $2 billion in annual sales, an extraordinary number for a company only a few years old. That scale, achieved so quickly, left little room for the kind of careful planning that usually keeps a growing business stable over the long run.
LuLaRoe’s Current Struggles: Inventory Woes, Declining Sales, and Reputation Damage
Inventory mismanagement has been one of LuLaRoe’s most persistent problems, with consultants repeatedly receiving damaged, unappealing, or outdated stock they couldn’t sell. That left many consultants absorbing financial losses while also damaging their relationships with customers who expected better quality.
At the same time, overall sales have declined as shoppers gravitated toward cheaper or higher-quality alternatives elsewhere. Consultants were often stuck holding surplus inventory nobody wanted, which only deepened the financial strain that many of them were already facing.
LuLaRoe’s Efforts to Stay Competitive
Staying relevant hasn’t been easy in a retail environment where multi-level marketing has lost much of its earlier appeal. LuLaRoe has focused on improving product quality, expanding its style options, and building a stronger online presence to reach shoppers who no longer engage the way they used to.
The company doesn’t have the hype it once enjoyed, but it’s clearly trying to hold onto its remaining loyal customers rather than chase rapid growth again. That shift toward stability over expansion reflects a more realistic approach given where the brand currently stands.
LuLaRoe vs. Competitors: How Does It Stack Up?
Where LuLaRoe once had a fairly unique space in the market, it now faces real competition from established brands like Lululemon, Athleta, and Old Navy. These companies have built loyal followings through consistent quality, smart design, and shopping experiences that are simply easier and more predictable for customers.
LuLaRoe’s dependence on independent consultants creates inconsistencies in service and product availability that centralized competitors don’t have to deal with. While rivals control their own inventory and e-commerce directly, LuLaRoe’s decentralized model leaves it more exposed to the kind of inefficiencies that hurt customer trust.
Impact of LuLaRoe on Customers
For a lot of women, LuLaRoe offered more than clothing; it created a sense of community and a genuine path to earning income from home. Customers who loved the quirky prints often got caught up in the excitement of limited-edition drops, which became a big part of the brand’s early appeal.
Not every experience was positive, though. Plenty of consultants ended up with unsold inventory and real financial losses, and customers raised recurring complaints about leggings tearing or wearing out quickly. The brand built strong loyalty with some, but left others genuinely disappointed.
LuLaRoe’s Future Prospects: Can the Brand Recover?
LuLaRoe is still in business, but its long-term future is far from guaranteed. The company has made some effort to address its problems, including new designs and adjusted inventory practices, though these steps haven’t been enough to reverse its overall decline so far.
Rebuilding trust with both consultants and customers remains the biggest hurdle standing in the way of any real comeback. Since consultants are the backbone of LuLaRoe’s entire business model, the company’s ability to recover largely depends on whether it can give them a genuine reason to stay.
Conclusion
LuLaRoe is still around, but it’s operating under serious pressure from years of inventory issues, declining sales, and legal battles that damaged its reputation. Its reliance on a much smaller consultant network than before only adds to the uncertainty about how sustainable its current model really is.
Competitors have adapted faster to what today’s shoppers actually want, putting LuLaRoe at a clear disadvantage. Whether the brand can turn things around will depend on how seriously it addresses its weaknesses instead of simply waiting for its old momentum to return.
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