Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson is helping fund a $36-million school of design focusing on high-tech clothing at Canada's Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Kwantlen and the provincial government
are each investing $12 million while Chip and Shannon Wilson, his wife, are
donating $8 million. Lululemon Athletica will provide
the remaining $4 million. The complex on Kwantlen's Richmond campus will be called Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design.
The money will cover new labs, teaching studios, a research center and a student gallery. Construction is scheduled
to begin before the fall of 2013 with the planned opening set for 2015.
“It’s going to be marrying technical people who know what they’re doing
with students here with the right machines,” Wilson told students,
faculty and media who attended the announcement at Kwantlen’s main
atrium, according to the Vancouver Sun.
“Students can come out of this school fully versed in the ability to make highly technical outerwear.”
