Months after the surprise departure of Mirror founder Brynn Putnum, Lululemon announced today which has former Twitch content director Mike Aragon to run the connected fitness brand. Effective January 17, Aragon will assume the role of CEO of Mirror and Lululemon’s Digital Fitness range.
“Mike Aragon has an impressive track record of building successful brands by connecting people and building communities through digital content and experiences,” said Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald in a statement linked to the news. “He’s the ideal leader to chart the way forward for MIRROR as we engage with lululemon’s 10+ million guests who live the hard-earned life.”
Putnum stepped down as CEO in September with immediate effect, according to a memo that noted that Lululemon was looking for “the right candidate to drive the brand’s next phase of growth.” The news followed the fitness brand’s $500 million acquisition in 2020 from the connected fitness startup, and the pandemic was fueling interest in the category.
Aragon joins the company after nearly five years serving as CCO of Amazon’s live streaming service, Twitch. Prior to that, he served as general manager of Crunchyroll’s controller, Ellation and vice president of PlayStation Network/Sony.
“Mirror has a strong market position with a growing subscriber base, and I look forward to building on that solid foundation and setting the next chapter of growth with the talented MIRROR team,” he said in the same statement.
Interest in home fitness continued as the pandemic raged, although the reopening of gyms has impacted the results of competitors like Peloton. Mirror has also seen an increase in competition from other full-screen training platforms such as Tempo and Tonal. Earlier this week, Nike has filed a lawsuit against Lululemon for infringement of six patents relating to Mirror and Connected Apps.