Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson is partnering with Lululemon, the province and Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) to build a $36 million school of design in Richmond.
Wilson and his wife, Shannon, will chip in $8 million and Lululemon will contribute $4 million. The B.C. government and KPU will each pay $12 million.
The school, to be known as the Chip and Shannon Wilson School of Design, will enable KPU to increase the overall number of design students by 57% to 651 domestic, international, continuing education students.
Facilities will include:
- new teaching studios;
- testing and prototyping labs; and
- a materials and research centre.
Wilson had been focusing his philanthropy on his charity imagine1day, which builds schools in Ethiopia.
Last year, he told Business in Vancouver that he was putting on hiatus his high-heeled charity run, the Chip's Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile. Instead, he said, he would give money to BC Children's Hospital, which had been the beneficiary of his run, through its Childrun fundraising event.
The Wilsons this summer pledged $1.5 million to keep the A-maze-ing Laughter art exhibition at English Bay in Vancouver.
Wilson also told BIV this summer that he would be willing to contribute "a few chips" to build a bike and running path to connect Kitsilano Beach and Jericho Beach.
