Lululemon Wunder Under Crops have been a long time favorite product of mine, like many many of you out there. Almost everywhere you go you see ladies wearing these crops everyday. You see them at the gym, on the street as runners pass, at the yoga studio. You also see them at the mall, at the grocery store and yes, even at work in some cases! You see them on ladies who dress them up with high boots, stylish long tunics, chunky jewelry and designer handbags. You see them on younger ladies paired with UGG boots, chunky cable-knit infinity scarves and long cardigan sweaters; hair in messy ponytails and Iphones in hand. Yes, the WU Crop has served us well as a multipurpose wardrobe go to for the yoga studio and beyond.
WUs came originally two ways: Reversible and not reversible. The difference in price was minimal as the regular non-reversible pair sold for $72 and the reversible sold for $82. The prices still remain today. Reversible pairs offered the option to wear either the side with a colorful waistband and the rest of the crop in a solid color, usually black or you can turn them inside out and wear them in full black (or a solid color, usually black, sometimes grey was an option as well). The Lululemon logo is stamped on both sides of reversible gear as well.
Back in the early days of WUs, they were made of a material exclusive to Lululemon called Luon. The website states the following about the material:
The following info can be found here on the Lululemon website: http://www.lululemon.com/education/info/luon/
Luon®
Luon is our signature technical fabric designed to handle serious stretch and sweat. We love Luon and we use it a lot – tanks, tops, pants, jackets, you name it. Every member of the Luon family has these performance qualities:
This material was amazing. There simply was nothing like it out there. Soft as butter, the compressive material hugged your curves and made your butt and legs look incredibly smooth. Part of what we all love about WUs is the wide waistband that holds your tummy tight, it doesn't slip or move and does not create the dreaded muffin top! This material held up wash after wash after wash. It remained soft and kept it shape and fit, just as the product info on the site said it should. For years, we were lucky enough to enjoy this exceptionally high quality material as we happily wore our Wunder Under Crops everywhere!
The Spring of 2013 brought some quality issues for Lululemon. For some reason, the material that pants were now being made of just weren't the same. They looked the same on the hanger. They felt thinner to the touch and when you put them on and bent over to tie your shoe, they were sheer. When this began to happen, ladies were attempting to return their crops and pants in droves to stores and to the GECs online. At first there were told that they must have purchased the wrong size. Size up they said. Nope. Not the problem.
Eventually the company came out and admitted that there were some quality issues with a batch of their black bottoms and there was a recall. Loads of pants and crops were pulled from shelves and from the online stores. After this happened, people were welcomed to bring back bottoms that they had purchased while this 'bad batch' was in stores. Some found it easier to make these returns while many others endured educators telling them that they were 'purchasing the wrong size', or 'those crops were designed for running not yoga so they may be sheer if you bend over, that's just not what they were designed for'. *Pause for dramatic effect* Sigh!
It was from this Luon debacle that many of us began to panic. Well, panic is a strong word when you are talking about yoga crops, I know, but any addict knows what I am talking about. We'd had 'the best stuff' and now were we going to have to settle for the lesser? Oh the humanity.....sigh! LOL Sorry, I got swept away. Enough of the drama! So what did we all do next? Well, many of us, myself included, decided to try another type of Lululemon crop made of another material while we waited for our beloved Luon to return to the shelves. I tried the Run Inspire Crops made of Luxtreme. Run Inspire Crops are cute. Luxtreme is quite a different material than Luon though. It is much more of a technical material and these crops are designed for running and are functional enough to wear at the gym for sure. They don't really work double time in your every day wardrobe, but for those of us who purchase workout wear first and foremost to, ahem, workout in, we were ok with the short term switch.
Uh-oh! Ladies quickly found that the Luxtreme material, which most of the running crops were made of, was also sheer!!! Actually, my experience was that the Luxtreme material was even more sheer than the Luon when I tested it out! EEK!
The following info can be found here on the Lululemon website: http://www.lululemon.com/education/info/luxtreme/
Luxtreme™
Every member of the Luxtreme family has these qualities:
- sweat-wicking
- four-way stretch
- serious support
- cool, smooth feel
- low-friction performance
- breathable
- designed not to shrink
Luxtreme™
A lightweight version of our Power Luxtreme fabric – Luxtreme feels cool and comfortable, keeping us moving in our hottest workouts
As a result of all of this bad press, bad material and broken hearts of Lululemonheads everywhere, Lululemon began to produce Luon and Luxtreme crops and pants again later in year.
Ladies quickly got themselves to a store or awaited their online packages to arrive in the mail and then they held their breathe and bent over in front of husbands, honest family members and friends, store educator staff and mirrors....and sighed in disappointment.
Lululemon heard the response of the many and claimed that they had checked the quality of the materials and that they were following the same original recipe for Luon. A company CEO was let go during this time. They were watching stringently for quality issues with their product and that they adamantly stood behind their pants. The only problem was that we could still see though them!
After a few more months of complaints from customers, differing opinions about sizes and fit, and a ridiculous tv interview comment made by Chip Wilson (founder of Lululemon) about women's thighs and yoga pants, they came out with something new called Full-On Luon.
The following info can be found here on the Lululemon website: http://www.lululemon.com/education/info/luon/
Full-On Luon®
A tight-knit version of our Luon fabric, Full-On Luon is a high-performance fabric that gives incredible support and coverage with a cottony-soft feel (seriously, it's like wearing a hug while you move).
Wunder Under Crops and Groove Pants were now being sold in this new material online and in stores. This time I made my way to a local store that carries a few Lululemon items. I purchased two items there made of Full-On Luon and then ordered another online. Here's what I got:
1. Groove Pants, Slim Leg, reversible, black.
These were very thick and opaque! They definitely passed the bend over test! I bought them in my regular size 6 and they fit true to size (tts). The material is soft but definitely is not the same material as the Luon of the past. This is the closest they have come in years and I am very happy with these pants for sure!
2. Practice Daily Crops, Indigo.
These were very soft. The indigo color was beautiful! The design was fun! I was in love with these crops. That is, until I tried them on. I ordered them in my usual size 6 but the waist was huge on them! At first I just thought, ok, I'll order a size 4! No problem! Then I did the bend test in front of my mirror. O-M-G! Not only could I see my underwear through the pants, but I could almost read the size tag through the material! They were that sheer! Sadly they were returned as quickly as they arrived!
3. Wunder Under Crops, Reversible, Black/Winter 2013.
These were a cross between the Full-On Luon feel of the Groove Pants that I bought and the sheer Luon of the spring. Put them together and you get a slightly less opaque version of the Wunder Under Crops. These are definitely ok to wear in down dog, but you can slightly see the outline of your underwear. I usually wear either a black or nude color under them. Definitely wearable. They are compressive and fit tts in my regular 6. The material is a little stiffer and sort of feels like there may be a higher polyester count in them than in Luon of the past maybe.
Another material that Lululemon brought in during this time was called Power Luxtreme. Wow! Wunder Under Crops have been through a lot in a year! I bought a pair of these crops too of course!
The following info can be found here on the Lululemon website: http://www.lululemon.com/education/info/luxtreme/
Power Luxtreme™
Power Luxtreme fabric is cool to the touch and fits like a second skin – we love this technical fabric for its support and smooth, low-friction performance.
Interlock Power Luxtreme™
Two layers of Luxtreme knit into one powerful fabric, Interlock Power Luxtreme offers great support and coverage with a cool, smooth feel. It forms to your body so much it’s like it was made just for you.
Full-On Luxtreme
Two layers of Luxtreme™ knit into one powerful fabric - Full-On Luxtreme fabric offers great support and coverage with a cool, smooth feel. Full-On Luxtreme fabric is sweat-wicking, four-way stretch and breathable
As you will notice on this tag, it says the material is IPLUX (Interlock Power Luxtreme). This is what my WUs were made of. The next thing we knew, the website read Power Luxtreme. I noticed just today that it now reads Full-On Luxtreme!
Call it what you like as long as it does the job if you ask me! My experience was that these were tts and they sit slightly lower on the waist than traditional WUs. These crops are very lightweight and stay in place nicely when running, jumping, squatting, downward-dogging, etc. These crops were nice and compressive and they passed the bend over test with flying colors! They have a glossy-sheen finish since they are made of Luxtreme so I won't be wearing them as part of my wardrobe outside the gym but they are definitely a go-to item when I run, do bootcamp classes or go to yoga for sure!
I've tested a number of items in the growing world of athletic wear, both the expensive and the more economical varieties. My conclusion so far is that no other crops compare to the Lululemon Wunder Under Crops of the past. A few come very close. Those that come close to the WUs of years gone by are certainly rivals for the current state of the WUs being produced, that's for sure. I will continue to try these crops out as Lululemon continues to fiddle with their materials. Whatever I don't feel live up to the very high standard that Lululemon set years ago will inevitably go back to the store! My hope is that the company finally listens to the diehard fans who keep telling them to go back to basics and the bring back some of their more basic designs and materials, especially the originally Luon Wunder Under Crop!
Cheers!
Jamie
PS - I'd love to hear what some of you readers think about all of these quality issues and any other opinions you may have about this product or any others that you have come across along your fitwear journey!
