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8 Outrageous Remarks By Lululemon Founder Chip Wilson

chip wilson lululemon
chip wilson lululemon

Lululemon

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is stepping down as chairman after a tumultuous tenure that has led to a series of unfortunate headlines for the company.

It's part of a larger management shakeup at the athletic retailer, which includes the announcement of a new CEO, Laurent Potdevin, who most recently led Tom's.

The move comes nearly two years after Wilson was forced to step aside as chief innovation and branding officer of the company, and one month after he suggested in a Bloomberg TV interview that some women's bodies "just don't actually work" for his yoga pants.

Here's a round-up of some of Wilson's most controversial moments:

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1. Wilson once claimed that smoking and birth control pills led to high divorce rates — as well as the founding of Lululemon.

"Women’s lives changed immediately [after the pill]. ... Men did not know how to relate to the new female. Thus came the era of divorces," Wilson wrote in a blog post in 2009.

"With divorce and publicity around equality, women in the 1970′s/80′s found themselves operating as 'Power Women.' The media convinced women that they could win at home and be a man’s equal in the business world. ... The 1980′s gave way to Power Women dressing like men in boardroom attire with big shoulder pads. They went to 3 martini lunches and smoked because this is what their 'successful' fathers did in the business world.

"... Breast cancer also came into prominence in the 1990’s. I suggest this was due to the number of cigarette-smoking Power Women who were on the pill (initial concentrations of hormones in the pill were very high) and taking on the stress previously left to men in the working world.

"Ultimately, Lululemon was formed because female education levels, breast cancer, yoga/athletics and the desire to dress feminine came together all at one time."

2. Wilson said he chose to call his company Lululemon because he thought it was funny that Japanese people couldn't pronounce the letter "L."

He told Canada's National Post Business Magazine, "It's funny to watch them try and say it," when asked about his views on the Japanese pronunciation of the company's name.

3. Wilson is an avid fan of Ayn Rand and he started printing the phrase "Who is John Galt?" on the company's bags in November 2011 without his CEO knowing.

The phrase refers to the star of Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged," which promotes the idea of individuals living for their self-interest and dismissing altruism. Customers were outraged by the move .

4. He reportedly said he favors using child labor in Third World countries because it provides them with much-needed wages, Canada's The Tyee reported.

5. When asked why customers were complaining that their pants were pilling, a problem first reported by Business Insider, Wilson said: "Frankly some women's bodies just don't actually work for it."

"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, how much they use it."

6. After his remarks caused on uproar, Wilson made a bizarre apology video.

"I'm sad. I’m really sad,” Wilson said . “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. I take responsibility for all that has occurred, and the impact it has had on you."

7. Lululemon once claimed that its pants were made of seaweed that had health benefits for women who wore them.

The company later retracted those claims.

8. Wilson said the company doesn't make any pants larger than a size 12 because it costs too much money.

In an interview with the Calgary Herald in 2005, Wilson said that it takes 30% more fabric to create plus-size clothes.

"It's a money loser, for sure," he told the Calgary Herald, according to The Huffington Post. "I understand their plight, but it's tough."



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