Lorna Jane is an athletic apparel retailer with headquarters in Brisbane, Australia and regional offices in the United States, Singapore, China, and New Zealand.

Lorna Jane produces and sells a wide range of garments, including tights, sports bras, tops, shorts, pants, jackets and hoodies, shoes, and various accessories.

"[14] In 2015, Australian consumer organisation Choice evaluated a pair of Lorna Jane tights alongside equivalent garments from six competitors at a range of price points.

[21] Executive marketing and e-commerce manager Jessie Dean told Australian broadcaster the ABC that "It is important to us that our manufacturing source reflects who we are as a brand and our active living philosophy.

"[22] Clarkson says she would prefer to be still manufacturing in Australia, but the closure of Australian fabric mills and a lack of government support for the clothing industry made that impossible to sustain.

"[24] Founder Lorna Jane Clarkson (née Smith) was a dental technician and part-time aerobics instructor who was dissatisfied with the workout clothes available to women in the late 1980s and started making her own.

[27][3] By 2000, the business required a larger factory, and to fund this expansion, the Clarksons sold their home and bought a building in Fortitude Valley[28] for $465,000.

[31][32] Rather than waiting for economic conditions to improve, Lorna Jane continued its expansion by taking opportunities for leases in favourable locations that would have been unavailable to the company in a stronger climate.

[33] In response to the 2010–11 Queensland floods,[34] Lorna Jane initiated a charity programme where the company would allow customers to exchange used activewear (of any brand) for a store credit.

[36] Following a year-long consultancy with the Wharton Business School and the University of Queensland into strategies for entering the US market,[35] March 2012 saw the opening of the first US store[37] in Malibu.

[20] At a time when ecommerce was replacing traditional bricks-and-mortar retailing, Lorna Jane adopted the unconventional approach of investing more in physical stores.

[20] The Clarksons chose California as the brand's initial entry point to the US because they found the active and outdoor way of life there to be similar to Australia.

[20] In the same year, the company introduced the "Active Living Rooms", with the first one opening at the Gasworks development in Teneriffe, Queensland,[39] and also launched a fashion-forward range named "Uniquely" that further blurred the line between activewear and casualwear.

[12] In early 2014, the Clarksons and CHAMP considered the possibility of an initial public offering, with bankers pitching exit strategies for the private equity firm.

[43] In May, the Financial Review reported that CHAMP's board scrapped the idea of an IPO after receiving at least five expressions of interest from large US businesses in the fitness industry[44] and appointed Credit Suisse to negotiate a sale instead.

[51] In August 2014, Lorna Jane began registering its designs for garments and accessories with Intellectual Property Australia as a pre-emptive step to help protect them against copyright infringement.

In September 2015, Amy Robinson, a former manager of the Lorna Jane outlet store at the DFO Brisbane centre, commenced legal action against the company, complaining that she was bullied regularly when she worked there for six months in 2012.

[63][64][65][66] Rebecca Treston QC, representing Lorna Jane pointed out that in a twelve-page letter to management in 2012, outlining various grievances, Robinson had not once mentioned being bullied over her weight.

On 16 October 2015, a 32-year-old Gold Coast psychologist (kept anonymous in press reports) said that she had received unsolicited contact from a man who claimed to be representing Lorna Jane, offering her work as a model.

[70][71][73][74] After direct contact between the woman and Lorna Jane, the company revealed that other women had been approached by the same man,[71][74][72] including two yoga instructors in Hobart,[74] and that they were working with Queensland Police's Cyber Crime Unit.

[79] In March 2019, Carolyn Taylor, a Bendigo based physiotherapist claims the activewear company's leggings infringe her patent that was filed in 2010 and licensed to manufacturers.

Lorna Jane is pleased to continue offering its full range of active core stability and other products to all its customers.

[81][82] In July 2020, Lorna Jane was fined AUD $40,000 by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), over a range of activewear that the company promoted as protecting wearers against COVID-19.

"[84] and claimed "With Lorna Jane Shield on our garments it meant that we were completely eliminating the possibility of spreading any deadly viruses"[85] This marketing move was criticised by health organisations, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

RACGP president, Dr Harry Nespolon, criticised Lorna Jane for allegedly exploiting fears regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that "active wear is great for the gym but it can’t protect you against viruses or bacteria".

In July 2021, the company was fined $5 million, with the court holding that Lorna Jane sought to exploit that fear and concern of the public through the use of misleading, deceptive and untrue representations about the properties of LJ Shield activewear.