[EXCLUSIVE] Free People Bringing Their Athleisure Line to Atlanta

Atlanta will soon be home to one of the first stand alone locations of FP Movement, an athleisure line from popular women's retailer Free People.  Permits filed with the City of Atlanta indicate that the new FP Movement will open at Phipps Plaza in place of ENNYLUAP, a local boutique from designer Amanda Williamson. (ENNYLUAP will itself relocate May 28 to a new space on the first floor of the Nordstrom wing.) Before ENNYLUAP, the Lilly Pulitzer adjacent space was occupied by ill-fated children's boutique Peek.  

According to the permit filed for converting the space, an estimated $180,000 will be spent renovating the roughly 1,600 square foot space to suite FP's needs.  

Free People, a division of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Urban Outfitters, Inc., first launched FP Movement as a shop-in-shop in 2014.  The company opened the brand's first stand alone store this past fall at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles.  A second location later opened at Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.  Unlike their Century City and Boulder stores, where the FP Movement opened in the same center as an existing Free People store, the Buckhead Free People store is located in Lenox Square.  

In the months since the initial openings in Los Angeles and Boulder, FP Movement stores have also opened in Coco Walk in Coconut Grove, Florida, and in Chicago with locations listed as "coming soon" to the Domain in Austin, Texas and Fashion Valley in San Diego.  

According to online research, FP Movement is already available at Atlanta area retailers Mountain High Outfitters, Dillard's and Nordstrom, among others.  

Many would agree that Canada's lululemon both popularized and dominates the athleisure-wear market, but several new "me too" competitors have sprouted up in recent years.  Athleta, from Gap Inc., operates several stores in Atlanta including one at Lenox Square.  Fabletics, a digitally native athletic apparel line which started in 2013 with actress Kate Hudson as one of its co-founders, began opening brick and mortar stores in late 2015, and in early 2020 opened their first Atlanta area store at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody. 

American Eagle Outfitters also launched OFFLINE by Aerie as an extension of the retailer's lingerie line Aerie.  The first stand alone OFFLINE by Aerie opened this past October at CoolSprings Galleria in Franklin, Tennessee.  A source familiar with the retailer's plans tells ToNeTo Atlanta that an Atlanta area store is likely to open by the end of the year.  

What is your favorite athleisure brand?  Have you ever been to an FP Movement store?  When was the last time you shopped in Phipps Plaza?

Please share your thoughts below.