Lululemon's Product Chief to Exit
Lululemon's Product Chief to Exit
Top product executive for Lululemon Athletica will leave the company, just weeks after the apparel maker pulled some of its yoga pants from store shelves for being too see-through.
Lululemon also said its testing procedures were inadequate and contributed to the transparency problem, which it has said could cost the company as much as $67 million this year.
The yoga-gear maker said Chief Product Officer Sheree Waterson will step down on April 15. She is responsible for design, merchandise management and global production.
The company didn't provide an update for when the pants would be restocked in stores.
Lululemon pulled 17% of the yoga pants it had in stock in March after finding that they were too sheer in some cases. It later said the problem likely extended to pants that were at the factory and aboard ships for the summer season.
The company at the time said shipments from the pants' manufacturer didn't meet its standards. The supplier, Eclat Textile Co. of Taiwan, said at the time that the clothes weren't problematic and that all the pants it shipped had been manufactured according to Lululemon's requirements.
Lululemon acknowledged some responsibility for the mishap Wednesday, saying an evaluation showed the fabric may have met its testing standards, if at the low end. The problem stemmed from the fabric as well as subtle changes in style, Lululemon said.
"The resulting end product had an unacceptable level of sheerness," the company said.
The company said its testing protocols were incomplete and has implemented new procedures with new specifications for stretch, weight and tolerances. It also said that Lululemon employees have been stationed in factories to monitor and test products, and added that it is building a stronger internal leadership structure.
Chief Executive Christine Day said last month that the company had failed to catch the problem before the pants made their way to stores.
"It had to be engaged in a four-way stretch for the sheerness to appear," she said on a conference call with analysts and investors.
Lululemon has become a retailing phenomenon in recent years, attracting a cultlike following for its fashionable workout gear and spawning a number of competitors. But the problem with the transparent pants was the latest in a string of quality glitches that included bleeding colors on some tops last year.
Last summer, Ms. Waterson posted a letter on Facebook FB +0.61% apologizing to customers about the glitches. The letter came months after complaints started cropping up. This time, the company has moved more aggressively, pulling all of the pants from stores and offering its customers refunds.
Source: WSJ
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