lululemon Just Dropped the Perfect Shorts for Squatting With the Help of Lewis Hamilton

One of the greatest gripes athletes, from casual lifters to F1 drivers, experience with athleticwear is clothing that moves against the body, not with it. You want support that doesn't get in the way or restrict movement and comfort that doesn't bunch or slide mid-rep. Uncompromising performance was lululemon's north star for its newest innovation. The solution, Unrestricted Power™, took over three years in the making.

The capsule collection was engineered specifically for strength training with direct testing and feedback from some of the world’s most demanding athletes, including Lewis Hamilton.

It all started with the squat.

"Athletes expressed a strong desire for support around the leg muscles when lifting," says Antonia Iamartino, senior director of Franchise Innovations, Research & Product Innovation at lululemon. "We started to hone in on train."

The movement tension caused from squatting down, then standing, causes most materials to slide down. This can restrict mobility and distract from the workout. On the other end of the spectrum, more supportive tights and compressive garments can feel too immobilizing. For instance, cinching a drawstring to prevent slippage comes with the drawback of being too tight.

A New Material, Built from Scratch

Iamartino says they wanted a material that was incredibly soft, like a second skin, without being delicate. But achieving that balance required more than clever design. It demanded entirely new manufacturing solutions.

"We quickly realized there's nothing in the marketplace that was going to solve this," Iamartino says. "We had to push the limits of what a knitting machine can do [and] push the limits of how we could finish a material to go and invent something brand new."

The fabric, PowerLu™, is knit from an exceptionally fine yarn. Most of the softest materials you currently wear might have 40 filaments inside the yarn. PowerLu™ nearly doubles that. It has a smooth handfeel with high-performance stretch and recovery.

The men’s shorts in the Unrestricted Power line were designed starting at the deepest point of a squat, where the most support is needed. Rather than relying on compression alone, lululemon’s designers mapped the precise stress points and asked: What does the body need here, and how can a garment facilitate?

A stop-stretch woven inner liner delivers targeted support around the leg muscles, maintaining a close, locked-in fit without limiting mobility. That liner integrates directly into the waistband, which uses elastic wrapped with high-power yarn to keep everything in place under load.

Across the back of the short—arguably the most critical zone during squats and hinges—lululemon added a yoke to reinforce the area where garments typically slide. The outer shell moves freely, while the interior structure does the heavy lifting.

lululemon had to reengineer its production process, creating custom machine attachments capable of knitting the material at the precise support-to-stretch ratio required. The result is a circular construction method that integrates structure, flexibility, and durability in a way that hasn’t been done before.

Lewis Hamilton’s Seal of Approval—and Mine

Throughout development, lululemon leaned heavily on its athlete cohort, including Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Known for his meticulous attention to detail, Hamilton provided direct feedback on everything from seam placement to on-body feel.

“He’s incredibly detail-oriented,” Iamartino says. His feedback helped refine how the garment moves and feels under real training conditions.

He was especially impressed by how the pieces stayed in place during training.

"It just doesn't move," Lewis Hamilton says. "So when you're doing your squats, it just stays in the same spot."

It was the standout feature I noticed in testing, too. The yolk incorporated into the men's and women's shorts and tights completely locks the garment in place. I never had to readjust or tug the tights up during a hybrid session comprising squats, wall balls, and ski erg rounds.

At launch, the Unrestricted Power capsule comprises two pieces for men: Unrestricted Power Short 7” Lined and Unrestricted Power Long Sleeve. The look is streamlined and future-forward, with minimalist seams and silhouettes.

As strength training continues to grow in popularity—especially among women—lululemon says it’s doubling down on research, athlete insight, and proprietary innovation. The goal is to stay ahead of how people train, and invent solutions that don’t yet exist.