Lululemon's New Walnut Street Store

With double the space at 1718/1720 Walnut, lululemon skipped the easy move — more product, same old store — and built somewhere we genuinely want to linger.

We’ve walked past 1718/1720 Walnut a hundred times this year watching the lululemon construction bit by bit. And the reality is so much better than any rendering they could have shown us.

*1720 Walnut, still the anchor address, now stretching next door to hold twice the store.*

Lululemon combined its longtime 1720 Walnut store with the space next door — Indochino who moved a few blocks away still on Walnut— into one nearly 7,300-square-foot flagship. That’s the practical version. The real story is what they built with all that extra room, because this isn’t just a bigger version of the store that’s been here for years; it’s a whole new shopping experience, and one that allows lululemon to expand its community offerings — absolutely perfect for Walnut Street.

A design lululemon hasn’t finished rolling out to all stores

*Cargo pants, flip-flops, and noise-canceling headphones — the unofficial uniform of everyone dodging small talk on Walnut Street this summer.*

Walk in and the first thing you notice isn’t the merchandise — it’s the wood. Warm, curved paneling everywhere. Terrazzo counters in dusty rose and cream. An archway leading back to the fitting rooms with “Why not try, and see?” lettered right into the wood above your head. It doesn’t look like a big-box athletic store. It looks considered, almost residential, like someone actually sat with the space before deciding what went where.

*This archway leads to the fitting rooms; it’s the kind of detail you’d expect in a boutique hotel.*

*Turns out “just going in for one thing” gets a lot harder when the store is 7K+ square feet.*

We asked the team on-site about it, and they told us the nearest lululemon with this style of design is their recently renovated SoHo location in New York. That’s not a small comparison. SoHo is one of lululemon’s flagship testing grounds — the kind of store corporate builds when they want to make a statement. Rittenhouse getting that same treatment says something about how this location is viewed by their corporate team.

*A woven textile piece behind the register — one of several art installations throughout the new space.*

Twice the room, twice as nice

*The wall where Indochino once measured you for a suit now measures you for joggers.*

The new footprint splits roughly down the middle: women’s on one side, men’s on the other, each with enough space to actually breathe. The pant wall on the men’s side alone runs the length of what used to be a full separate store. Fitting rooms tripled. Each one now has a wireless charging shelf built into the wall, so your phone doesn’t die while you’re deciding on a size.

*Three times the fitting rooms means this hallway should rarely ever have a line anymore. So no more excuses to not try on things in-store, right?*

*The real MVP of this renovation. Nobody’s ever been more excited about a phone charger.*

The accessories assortment got the same treatment: there are bags, belt bags, water bottles, socks, keychains, everything pretty much that you need and more.

*Every bag on this wall is one Rittenhouse Square walk away from becoming someone’s entire personality.*

Built for Philly, not just placed in it

The clearest sign this store was designed with real intention: a laser-cut wood installation near the entrance, shaped like an arched window, packed with Philly iconography — City Hall, the LOVE sign, a soft pretzel, the Liberty Bell, a basketball. It’s not a generic athletic-wear store with a city name slapped on. Someone thought about what makes this specific city recognizable and built it into the wall.

*City Hall, LOVE, a pretzel — laser-cut into the wall near the entrance, and unmistakably Phill*y.

That same intention shows up in how lululemon treats this block year-round, not just on opening day. Every marathon weekend, their team is out on Walnut with a DJ and cowbells, cheering on runners as they pass. No product to sell in that moment, just showing up. Inside the new store within the fitting rooms area there’s a “What’s Happening, Philly” board doing the same thing on a smaller scale: bios and quotes from local run clubs, yoga instructors, and trainers, plus a hand-drawn map of nearby meetup spots. It reads less like store signage and more like a community bulletin board, which we believe was the intention.

*Local run clubs and instructors get their own dedicated board near the fitting rooms, such as the Rittenhouse Square Run Club, which meets right outside the door.*

What this means for the neighborhood

*A curved wall of headless leggings, standing guard over more Align colorways than any one person needs — and somehow still not enough.*

A renovation at this level — new design language, more square footage, a build-out this deliberate — isn’t a small commitment. It’s the kind of investment a brand makes in a location it expects to matter for a long time. Combined with what we’re seeing up and down Walnut Street lately, it’s hard not to read this as a vote of confidence in Rittenhouse and Philly, as a whole.

*The men’s side now — moving mannequins mid-workout and all — sits on what used to be Indochino’s fitting floor*.

This one’s worth the walk-through even if you’re not shopping. Go look at the wood, the archway, the wall of Philly icons. It’s a genuinely different kind of store, and it’s ours.

📍1718-1720 Walnut Street