Antonia Iamartino didn’t invent leggings, but she did revolutionise the category, which is a challenging thing to do when you’re talking about a few panels of fabric, some stitching and, well, not much else.

Iamartino, who has worked at Lululemon since 2005, created the Align leggings, which debuted 10 years ago and have become synonymous not only with yoga, for which they were created, but also with a certain type of Millennial and Gen Z consumer. The one who wears athleisure 24/7, has a favourite smoothie combination, and has as many steps in their skincare routine as an alcoholic has in their recovery. Align leggings are also a bestseller: a pair sells approximately once every 2.5 seconds (according to the company) and while Lululemon doesn’t divulge sales information by product, it’s a sure bet that they have helped nudge the Canadian athleisure behemoth to its current market cap of $US37 billion ($57 billion).