The athleisure clothing company Lululemon is a continuous source of controversy. Chip Wilson, the company’s founder, is one of the biggest culprits.
Most women nowadays own at least one pair of leggings or yoga pants. Some of us essentially live in them. Even if you have never purchased a pair of Lululemon yoga pants, most of the fashion craze stems from this one brand. Women with extra money to spend flocked to the brand and its various knock-offs. Lululemon offers discounts to fitness instructors to further its appeal to people who work out. However, Lululemon has racked up several controversies through the years and drawn criticism from employees and customers alike.
Chip Wilson founded Lululemon with his wife during the late 1990s. The aim of the brand was to provide yoga clothing that made women look attractive while working out. Wilson explained as much in a 2015 New York Times profile, in which he said that the brand had been so successful “because I was probably the only straight guy that was making women’s apparel, and I knew what a guy liked.” The brand took off amongst upper-middle-class women, the majority of whom are white. Employees of the company complained that the focus on white clientele made expanding Black employment more difficult. Business of Fashion published an extensive report, for which 14 former and current employees were interviewed about problems at Lululemon. These interviews revealed a “culture that is unwelcoming to Black people.” There are several claims that employees of color are not treated as well as white employees, and that anyone who points out the lack of diversity sufferers negatively.
The BoF report goes into detail about one store in particular. In 2021, Lululemon opened a store in Hyde Park, in an area that serves a predominantly Black clientele in Chicago. Managed by Michael “Muffy” Collins, this location hired only Black employees. Yet many white customers complained the move was “off-brand” for Lululemon. Although the location was profitable, Lululemon decided to close the store and most of the employees were fired. Collins has openly discussed his treatment as a Black man in the company, which differed vastly from his white co-workers. In claims made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Collins says he underwent eight rounds of interviews when he applied for the job at Lululemon despite having extensive athletic store management experience. Collins also claims a white manager with less experience only went through two interviews.
In 2020, Lululemon sparked another controversy over a class the company offered to customers. A yoga workshop from Lululemon was promoted as a way for participants to “resist capitalism.” Workshop takeaways included how “gender constructs across the world have informed culture and the ways violent colonialism has erased these histories to enforce consumerism.” As a billion-dollar private company founded by a white man who put Atlas Shrugged quotes on merchandise, Lululemon unsurprisingly faced criticism over its lack of awareness. Lululemon epitomizes capitalism. This includes charging massive amounts of money for its products while using unethical labor. Factory workers in Bangladesh made claims dating back to 2019 that they were underpaid, beaten, and verbally abused by their employer.
The controversy begins with Chip Wilson
Much of the toxic work culture can be traced back to the company’s founder, Chip Wilson. In addition to the aforementioned comment about making clothes to highlight women’s bodies, Wilson has a long history of saying awful things. During an interview in 2004, many claim Wilson said he named the company Lululemon because it had multiple “L” sounds in it, which marked it as a Western company. Since the “L” sound isn’t part of the Japanese language, Wilson found it funny when Japanese people tried to pronounce it. Later, Wilson told the New York Times he never said it, but the quote has endured.
When droves of customers complained about the quality of the costly leggings, Wilson blamed women’s bodies for ruining the products. Customers said the pants were too sheer and started piling on the thighs after wearing them only a few times. “They don’t work for some women’s bodies,” Wilson told the Times. “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how much they use it.” Although he apologized for the statement, as head of Lululemon, Wilson repeatedly refused to make any clothing over size 12 because it was “too costly.” Pants in sizes 10 and 12 were relegated to hidden parts of the store.
Wilson’s frequent racist and sexist remarks led to him resigning as leader of the company in 2015. Yet the billionaire continues to make toxic statements with regards to the brand. During a recent interview with Forbes, Wilson lamented Lululemon’s recent focus on inclusion and diversity. “They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Wilson said. “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody … You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.” With his previous statements in mind, Wilson only imagines wealthy, thin, white women wearing Lululemon. Maybe that is something consumers will keep in mind the next time they are in the market for new leggings.
(featured image: Gary Hershorn, Getty Images)
