Chip Wilson blames women's bodies for lululemon complaints

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      Six months after lululemon athletica started dealing with customer complaints about its yoga pants, the company’s founder has fired back. Chip Wilson told Bloomberg TV on November 5 that customers’ bodies are to blame when it comes to issues such as see-through fabric and pilling.

      “There has always been pilling. The thing is, women will wear seatbelts that don’t work, or a purse that doesn’t work, or quite frankly, some women’s bodies just don’t work for it,” Wilson told Bloomberg TV’s Trish Regan during an on-camera interview. “They don’t work for some women’s bodies.

      “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time,” Wilson added.

      When the show’s host questioned whether Wilson was implying that lululemon pants aren’t built for women of all sizes, his wife Shannon Wilson, who was also being interviewed on the show, clarified that it was more about what activities customers are doing while wearing the pants.

      “What’s the use and what’s it being up against? Are you sitting on a cement ground?” she asked.

      “I just think it’s how you use them,” Chip Wilson clarified.

      Later in the interview, Wilson said that the Vancouver-based apparel company is still on the hunt for a new CEO

      Comments

      31 Comments

      The Truth Hurts

      Nov 6, 2013 at 10:47pm

      So fat women can't wear the pants. So what? It's a fact. It's not a personal attack on fat women. I mean, I can't fit into the bras made specifically for heavy women that have double D, E, and F cups. But I don't cry because of the excess material. Nor do I lunge at the CEO of the bra company if he says some women don't fit his bras. I just go to the company that makes stuff that fits me. No brainer. Fat women: there is nothing wrong with being fat. Or skinny. Or in between. Get over yourselves.

      Disgusted

      Nov 6, 2013 at 11:49pm

      I happily await news of thigh-rubbing women everywhere taking back their pilling, worn, cheap-ass (but pricey!) Lululemons for a FULL REFUND!

      As Dan Savage might advise:DTMFA!!

      PS Good luck with that CEO hunt, Chip Dude. With press like this...

      Ongoing Issues

      Nov 7, 2013 at 6:02am

      They've had several issues with quality of product before. Instead of an introspective look at the company he blames the shape of womens bodies as women haven't been constantly attacked about the same issue for years. He's the type of guy to say 'Yes' if his wife ask if she looks fat in her lululemons

      ellzee

      Nov 7, 2013 at 7:33am

      To be fair, he didn't blame women's bodies, exactly. Though I don't many women whose thighs don't rub together (men either,) so maybe he should be getting some better quality fabric. But he was mostly blaming the activities they do.
      I agree with The Truth Hurts. Not that big a deal.

      Nicky

      Nov 7, 2013 at 7:44am

      So lululemon takes a superior Canadian made product, out sources for cheap manufacturing, mass produces an inferior product and then blames the consumer base whose thighs rubbed together in his product with out complaint before his product was "made in China"... interesting marketing strategy.

      Alan Layton

      Nov 7, 2013 at 8:39am

      Here we go again. Yes he broke the cardinal rule and said women do indeed look 'fat in those pants'. Now he'll pay for it and the company will most likely lose millions and people will lose their jobs.

      Pat Crowe

      Nov 7, 2013 at 8:39am

      In heaven....all the women are fit, trim and wear yoga pants. But you can still see through them. A gift from GOD himself.

      WTF

      Nov 7, 2013 at 9:24am

      Sheep consumers buy mass made in Asia by slave like factory workers making non-biodegradable clothes that pollute and contribute to GHG.

      SLAVE like Third World Labour is used to make these and other major brands the primary motive being Profit before Human Rights, Dignity & even Lives.

      Their slogan should be Pants before Human Lives in the third world we just care about how much money we make that's all.

      Lululemon contracts out work to 85 factories currently, up from 50 last year, and 30 when it went public in 2007, according to company data. Less than 3 per cent of the factories are located in Canada, compared with 36 per cent in 2006, about 50 per cent a year earlier, and 100 per cent when it started in 1998.

      Child labour can be 'okay'

      According to those who attended BALLE BC conference, Wilson told the delegates third world children should be allowed to work in factories because it provides them with much-needed wages. They also say he argued that even in Canada there is a place for 12- and 13-year-old street youths to find work in local factories as an alternative to collecting handouts.

      Sources...

      http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business...

      http://thetyee.ca/News/2005/02/17/LuluCritics/

      Monika

      Nov 7, 2013 at 9:40am

      Shortly after Lululemon was sold. They announced they were changing the quality of their products.

      WTO

      Nov 7, 2013 at 10:46am

      Who is the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland is what we should be asking ourselves.
      The WTO organization decided in 2005 to drop quota's on apparel imports. Since then almost the entire domestic industry, mills, factories in Canada and the US have been decimated.

      Buy Canadian or USA made- local.

      http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/texti_e/texti_e.htm