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  • Lululemon Lawsuit: Athletic Clothier Catches A Break

    Lululemon Athletica has suffered a lot of bad press over the past year. Scarcely over a year ago, complaints started cropping up about the quality of their black Luon yoga pants. Namely, the pants became embarrassingly sheer when worn.

    The company issued a recall. Unfortunately, to return the pants, some customers reported being asked to put their pair on and bend over in front of Lululemon employees to demonstrate the material’s sheerness. Consumers balked at the humiliation.

    Amid the recall crisis, founder Chip Wilson only dug the company in deeper. In an interview with Bloomberg, Wilson blamed the sheerness and pilling on “the rubbing through the thighs” and said “sometimes this material does not work for certain people’s bodies.” Customers were offended by the implication.

    Some unsavory info about Wilson supporting child labor and finding amusement in Japanese people trying to pronounce “Lululemon” also surfaced, adding extra fuel to the fire.

    Lululemon was having a public image crisis that would quickly affect their profits to the tune of two billion dollars. Company shareholders filed a lawsuit against Lululemon in 2013. They charged that Lululemon misrepresented the quality of its products by hiding defects in the Luon material, costing the company millions in inferior yoga pants. Investors claimed that if the product had been properly tested on real people before mass production and distribution, the recall would never have happened.

    Luckily for Lululemon, that lawsuit was dismissed Friday, according to Reuters. U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest reasoned that “if Lululemon secretly knew that the (alleged) fix for its quality issues was simply to employ more people to wear its yoga pants and exercise, it would have done so-rather than the alternative of losing two billion in market capitalization.” Although Judge Forrest is still reviewing shareholders’ objections, she said she was not inclined to change her mind on the matter.

    In other news, Wilson is leaving his non-executive chairman position and Laurent Potdevin is replacing Christine Day as chief executive officer. Vindicated and under new leadership, it looks like Lululemon might have a chance to turn its luck around in 2014.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Lululemon Founder Blames Women for See-Through Yoga Pants Problem

    Lululemon Founder Blames Women for See-Through Yoga Pants Problem

    Remember the yoga pants by Lululemon that were recalled earlier this year because of the slight issue of them becoming see-through? Lululemon founder Chip Wilson found himself in hot water last week after he blamed women for the problem with his yoga pants. People were outraged with his comments, no surprise there, and Wilson has since issued an apology via YouTube and Twitter.

    Lululemon issued a recall back in March of this year on 17 percent of its black yoga pants after receiving complaints that the material was too thin, which made them see-through during workouts. Women who owned the defective pants, which cost anywhere from $72 to $98 retail, were given full refunds or replacements. At the time, Lululemon blamed the problem on receiving a defective batch, but a few days ago, founder Chip Wilson told Bloomberg the issue was really with the women who wore the pants.

    While Wilson admitted there was a problem with the design of the pants, he said the issue was more about the type of women who tried to wear the pants. “The thing is that women will wear seatbelts that don’t work [with the pants], or they’ll wear a purse that doesn’t work, or quite frankly some women’s bodies just actually don’t work for it,” Wilson said. “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time and how much they use it.”

    Let’s just say that women in general were less than pleased with Wilson’s claim that a lack of “thigh gap” was causing the pants to be defective, rather than the material. Check out some of the ticked off comments women made on Twitter below.

    Wilson has since issued an apology for his comments via YouTube and Twitter. “I’m sad, I’m really sad,” Wilson says in the video. “I’m sad for the repercussions of my actions. I’m sad for the people of Lululemon who I care so much about, that have really had to face the brunt of my actions.” Check out his apology video below.

    Do you think Wilson’s comments were out of line, or are people just too easily offended these days? Respond below.

    [Image via YouTube]