Lulu Lemon Store Gets Robbed Again

Secrets Lululemon Doesn't Want You To Know

Lululemon

Founded in 1998 with a current Forbes Enterprise Value of $8.8 billion, Lululemon Athletica, known primarily as simply Lululemon, is virtually a household name. Known for its high-end (and often pricey) athletic apparel, it is a brand adored past many. Yet, Lululemon has had its fair share of sordid history. Because of that history, the brand can exist quite polarizing. Hither are some of the secrets Lululemon doesn't want yous to know or wishes y'all would forget.

Clandestine messages

Lululemon

One of the things people dearest about Lululemon (beyond their vesture) are their reusable bags with the inspirational manifesto printed on the side. While the manifesto encourages people to remember that "friends are more important than money" and to "cull positive thought," the messaging on Lululemon bags hasn't ever been quite so innocuous. When a Toronto mother done her daughter's reusable handbag in 2008, she was surprised to come across the messages that were visible when the manifesto began to peel abroad. "There is little deviation betwixt addicts and fanatic athletes. Both are continually searching for a way to remain in a creative land" read 1, while another asserted "Y'all but have 30,000 days to live and then yous are dead." While the mother told CTV Toronto that she thought it must be some kind of joke, Lululemon responded to CTV Toronto that information technology wasn't a joke. Instead, when they found out that some of their customers weren't keen on the messaging, they stitched over it rather than replacing the bags. After the newly ignited controversy, they reportedly destroyed the remaining bags.

Their bags may have been unsafe

Speaking of the Lululemon reusable bags, risque messaging isn't the only reason they've been controversial in the by few years. Durable and water-resistant due to being fabricated with polypropylene, people use the bags for far more than shopping. While polypropylene is considered safe and often used in nutrient packaging, some of the bags potentially weren't. The bags that debuted for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics that had images of athletes on one side and the manifesto on the other were recalled due to reports of high levels of lead and concerns about the potential for atomic number 82 poisoning. According to the Montreal Gazette, Lululemon staff were advised to return their bags days before the public was informed.

The Lululemon murder

Getty Images

In 2011, Lululemon employee Brittany Norwood murdered her co-worker Jayna Murray at the Lululemon store in Bethesda, Maryland. According to the investigators and trial records, Murray discovered Norwood was attempting to steal trade and confronted Norwood, who then used at to the lowest degree six weapons to bludgeon Murray to death. Not only did she impale Murray, Norwood tried to comprehend by staging it equally a sexual assail gone awry, tying herself up and claiming to be a victim when she was constitute. Norwood was convicted of first degree murder and is currently serving a life judgement. Fifty-fifty though the 2 were Lululemon employees, you may exist asking yourself what this has to do with the store. Some speculate that the highly competitive nature of Lululemon every bit a workplace may have contributed to the murder. A sometime employee told Cosmopolitan that the employee culture was cult-like. Whether the murder was straight related to Lululemon beyond location can't be known. Still, Lululemon probably wishes you would forget that information technology happened there.

They made faux claims nigh their clothes

Getty Images

A Lululemon line called Vitasea was purported to be fabricated from seaweed cobweb that reduces stress and provides anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, hydrating and detoxifying benefits. In Nov 2007, The New York Times reported that Lululemon made simulated claims about its Vitasea line. The New York Times reached this decision later on commissioning a lab to test a shirt from the line and compared the results to a like test washed past some other lab. Both labs constitute that there was no significant divergence between the Vitasea shirt and a regular cotton shirt. While Lululemon released a argument of their own that same November attesting that their own lab results confirmed that the seaweed levels matched what the tags and care instructions said, they were ordered by a Canadian bureau to remove all wellness claims from the reportedly seaweed-based products in Canada.

Their wearing apparel were recalled for being shoddily made

Getty Images

Health claims aside, there accept been other issues with Lululemon clothing. Afterwards customers complained that women's blackness Luon pants were see through, Lululemon pulled them off the shelves, attributing the sheerness to a quality control problem where the pants were being made in Asia. The call up reportedly affected 17% of the women'southward pants sold in stores. Simply a few months after, complaints started rolling in over again. Customers complained that the pants were still too sheer and as well reported excessive pilling and seams falling autonomously after just a few uses. Both the Principal Product Officeholder Sheree Waterson and CEO Christine Solar day left Lululemon within months of the recall and connected product complaints

The founder has been defendant of fat shaming

On the heels of the complaints about sheer and shoddily made yoga pants, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson institute himself in hot water afterward he told Bloomberg TV in November 2013, "Frankly some women's bodies just don't actually work for it" and "it's actually about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how much they utilise it." Co-ordinate to a report by Huffington Post that cited one-time employees, Lululemon shuns plus-size shoppers. The report suggested that it was company policy to discourage plus-size customers because "no client wants to endure the embarrassment of asking a clerk to become notice a bigger size." Time described the comments every bit fat shaming and many outraged women agreed.

The founder's controversy doesn't finish there

Shutterstock

Beyond his comments about women'south bodies, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson has said a lot of other controversial things. In a weblog post published on the Lululemon site in 2009, Wilson claimed that smoking and nascence command increased the divorce charge per unit. He is quoted equally proverb, "Women's lives inverse immediately [after the pill]. ... Men did non know how to relate to the new female. Thus came the era of divorces." Canada's The Tyee reported back in 2005 that Wilson favors using child labor in Third World countries because it provides them with much-needed wages.

The proper noun Lululemon is entrenched in racism

Getty Images

According to Business Insider and Financial Post, Lululemon founder Bit Wilson told Canada's National Post Business magazine (which is now called Financial Postal service mag), "It's funny to watch them endeavour and say information technology," when asked near his views on the Japanese pronunciation of the company's name. While Wilson reportedly now denies proverb this, a now-deleted blog postal service from 2009 on the Lululemon website stated the following near the name, co-ordinate to Fiscal Post: "It was thought that a Japanese marketing firm would non try to create a North American sounding brand with the letter 'L' because the audio does not exist in Japanese phonetics. By including an 'L' in the name it was idea the Japanese consumer would find the name innately North American and accurate. In essence, the name 'lululemon' has no roots and ways nothing other than it has iii 'Fifty's' in it. Nothing more and naught less." While the weblog may now exist deleted, the Internet never forgets. The permalink to the blog mail service notwithstanding exists, though information technology now redirects to the Customs events page, in hopes you'll forget all about information technology. If that weren't enough, he fifty-fifty more recently tardily-shamed a reporter by suggesting she's on Jewish Standard Time and therefore doesn't respect other people'south time.

Ayn Rand is an inspiration

Getty Images

Founder Chip Wilson reportedly kickoff read Ayn Rand'south Atlas Shrugged when he was xviii and since and then has had an affinity for the philosophies fix forth in the book. The problem? The primary philosophy in the book, Objectivism, has been criticized for beingness based on selfishness. According to NPR, Ayn Rand said — while describing the respond to the book'due south often-repeated question "Who is John Galt?" — "His highest moral purpose is the achievement of his own happiness." Wilson's affinity for the book led to bags printed with "I Am John Galt" on the side. For many, this is contrary to what a yoga-based company should represent and sparked outrage among some. While the original Lululemon blog mail service "Who is John Galt?" has also been deleted, a cached version of the page still exists. Information technology notes that Wilson realized "the impact the book's ideology had on his quest to elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness (it is not casual that this is Lululemon's company vision)" and that the bags "are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. Nosotros all accept a John Galt inside of us cheering us on."

They accept been criticized for existence phony

Getty Images

In addition to the outcry that Objectivism does non mesh with what yoga stands for, other yoga devotees have called questioned Lululemon's claim that they sell "yoga-inspired athletic apparel" while many of their products have cipher to do with yoga. Others reported in the same article have criticized the positive messaging of the Lululemon manifesto as beingness vague, unrelated to yoga, and as a slogan for selling rather than actual yoga credo they merits the brand is congenital on. Old employees have been critical too. In an bearding Jezebel article, one former employee said, "Immediately subsequently I started work at Lululemon, I realized that most all their talk near empowerment and happiness was empty." Other former employees have shared like stories, begging the question of what Lululemon really stands for.

Lulu employees body-shamed a woman to tears

In January 2017, a adult female named Heather Albert posted a heartbreaking story on Facebook detailing her traumatic body-shaming experience while shopping at Lululemon in Park City, UT. "I had weight loss surgery a year ago, and take lost 80lbs. I'm pretty proud of myself!" she wrote. Albert was in Park City for piece of work and her fiancée insisted that she go to Lululemon to buy herself something.

She described how, "Before long later on I walked in, I heard ane ED whisper (loudly) to the other, "DO we even have anything in her size??" and both proceeded to giggle. I was the only client in the shop. I knew information technology was directed at me. I was mortified," she wrote. "I was then embarrassed! I had a work office to become to that night, when I got dorsum to my hotel I cried in the shower."

She explained that the comments weren't even true, which made them even more disruptive and hurtful: "At present, I realize that non everyone fits into Lulu," Albert wrote, "just I'm a street size 10/12 and in Lulu I'one thousand a 10/12 acme and an viii/10 bottom. I'1000 not even close to maxing out on size there!"

Albert'due south post received supportive comments including, "I habiliment the same size and have always been treated this way in Lululemon. It's an unfortunate brand result," and "I wouldn't spend another dime at that place if I were you lot! And Lulu should definitely make this state of affairs right!" Luckily, it seems Lululemon did, in fact, make it right. In the comments section, you tin can see the brand responding with a sincere amends and asking Albert to reach out directly. Albert posted an update ii days after her original post:

"I met with Carissa, who is the Regional Manager of lululemon for all of Las Vegas and Utah. She was very sweet, compassionate, and atoning about my feel. She assured me that this is not representative of the brand civilization, and that everyone involved in the Park Urban center shop was going to be involved in a meeting and trained on customer care and diversity. I feel very satisfied that this effect has been taken care of and I am happy with the event. Thank you Carissa for making my negative feel into a positive educational activity opportunity."

Albert besides spoke with Cosmopolitan.com, inspiring us all with her level-headedness and lack of spite: "The near important part of my decision to brand my experience public was to ensure that the individuals involved are re-educated," she said. "I would never want anyone to lose their job over something like this — I'd much prefer diversity and inclusion training, then that it turns the negative feel into something positive, a learning experience."

Although Lulu apparently doesn't desire to be associated with body-shaming and dealt with this swiftly, by the time they rectified the situation with Albert, it was already too late. Major sites reaching millions of people picked upward the story, making u.s.a. wonder how Lulu manages to keep digging themselves into such a deep PR hole.

Tin can Lululemon survive?

Shutterstock

From risque and controversial messaging related to its manifesto to problems with the products themselves and criticism almost the employee culture, Lululemon has many secrets they would like to continue buried or wish you would forget. Despite this the brand continues to endeavour to reinvent itself, while entertaining the thought of taking over other brands in the same space. Notwithstanding, Lululemon'south stocks accept been volatile. Just fourth dimension volition tell if Lululemon volition survive its sordid past and the ever-increasing competition, or if as some suggest, the Lululemon reign could exist over.

lafleursaper1981.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.thelist.com/31726/secrets-lululemon-doesnt-want-know/

Share this post