(Bloomberg) -- At-home athletes exercising in front of Lululemon Athletica Inc.'s two-way workout screen could one day finish their sweat session with toned arms plus a pair of new yoga pants on the way.
The retailer, which bought fitness company Mirror for $500 million in June, isn't currently selling apparel through the interactive home-exercise display. But the instructors leading the live and on-demand classes are already decked out in Lululemon apparel, and Chief Executive Officer Calvin McDonald envisions a future where athletes following along at home will be able to order their instructor's outfit right off the screen.
“It's a journey. Having the instructors wear Lululemon is the logical first step,” McDonald said in an interview. “Having that as a platform to introduce new colors, new fabrics, new technology is absolutely an evolution of that.”
The line between content and retail is increasingly blurring, with streaming e-commerce -- or live selling -- a growing trend, especially as many homebound shoppers opt to avoid the mall. In China, TV watchers who like what an actor is wearing can sometimes purchase the item directly from their phones. The intersection of shopping and fitness is a plausible next step.
“Down the road, are there opportunities where we can add content to Mirror where you could choose to enter into a shopping opportunity and there's technology to support that? I think that's very logical,” McDonald said. “But it's not the reason Day One you'd buy the Mirror.”
When a retail component launches, McDonald said it's important the experience feels authentic, especially since customers buy Mirror -- which retails for $1,495 -- in order to sweat, not shop.
The last thing he wants is for users to feel like they're “watching the Home Shopping Network.”
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