Chip Wilson’s divorce puts $1 billion Lululemon stake in play

Chip Wilson is divorcing his wife of more than two decades without a prenuptial agreement, leaving a fortune Bloomberg values at $6.1 billion to be divided by a Canadian court.

The Lululemon founder, 71, and Shannon Wilson, known as Summer, filed proceedings at the Supreme Court of British Columbia in April, according to Bloomberg, which reported that the couple had told friends of the separation. They married in 2002.

She was not a bystander in the business. Shannon Wilson was among Lululemon’s earliest employees and became its lead designer, and she founded the luxury apparel company Kit and Ace in 2014 with her stepson JJ Wilson.

Both still hold shares. Chip Wilson owns about 8.6% of Lululemon, worth roughly $1 billion, and Shannon Wilson about 1%. His larger single asset sits elsewhere: he holds close to 18% of the Finnish sportswear group Amer Sports, worth nearly $3 billion.

The timing is awkward for the company. Lululemon shares fell more than 17% on Friday after management cut its full-year sales outlook, and the former Nike executive Heidi O’Neill takes over as chief executive on Monday, Sept. 8.

Wilson has spent this year fighting the board he is now the second-largest shareholder of. He launched a proxy contest in early 2026, arguing that Lululemon’s directors lacked the visionary creative leadership the company needed. The two sides settled in May, with two of his nominees joining the board and Wilson agreeing to an eighteen-month standstill and non-disparagement clause that bars him from criticising the company publicly.

He founded Lululemon in Vancouver in 1998 and is widely credited with creating the athleisure category. Born Dennis Wilson in Los Angeles in 1955, he took a degree at the University of Calgary and holds American and Canadian citizenship. Forbes ranked him 574th in the world and eighth among Canadians.

The couple’s philanthropy has run largely through Africa. They founded imagine1day in 2007, a nonprofit committed to bringing primary education to 80% of Ethiopian children by 2030, and it has been the most substantial charitable commitment of their marriage. They have separately given C$134 million, about $97 million, to the BC Parks Foundation through their family office, House of Wilson.

Neither side has said how the assets will be split, and without a prenuptial agreement British Columbia’s family property rules apply to what was accumulated during the marriage. Lululemon investors will be watching whether any settlement requires selling shares.