Hasta La Creative!

The market is once again filled with doubts about Lululemon Athletica’s niche in a niche market after it revealed slower-than-expected January sales. That’s left the company scrambling for solutions; Chief Financial Officer John Currie said the brand team is working to “come up with ideas on everything we can do to get the conversation with our guests back to the fact that Lululemon has the best quality.”

The Vancouver-based athletic apparel company’s stock is now trading at a two-year low following what many call “a PR nightmare” of 2013 and slow traffic in January caused the firm’s second reduction in a month’s time of its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings guidance. Product problems, management issues that led to management changes and an increasingly competitive market are weighing on the company. Investors are worried about the first quarter and beyond. Shares of Lululemon closed trading Monday down nearly 17% at $49.70, following its $22 million quarterly sales forecast reduction earlier in the day.

“We remain concerned that this slowdown could be more brand-driven than consumer-driven, as we think the brand has suffered at the expense of product mishaps over the past few years,” wrote Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz in a Monday report.

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