Lululemon has removed a design of leggings from stores after customers complained they gave them “long butt.”
After the athleisure company launched its $98 Breezethrough leggings line on 9 July, the product swiftly received backlash despite being marketed as a new innovative style, recommended for its lightweight fabric and quick-drying material. In one video, a reviewer on TikTok complained: “What’s really weird actually with these ones is the back seam. Do you see that? I’m not sure what’s going on over there, but that’s not very cute.”
“I also am not a huge fan of the butt seam,” another TikTok reviewer added. “I just think it’s a little bit extra. Don’t love it.”
On the company’s website, the leggings reportedly received 3.1 stars out of five on 112 reviews, with the polarizing back seam frequently complained about, according to JP Morgan analyst Matthew Boss. He wrote that customers noted that the V-shaped back seam gave them a “long butt.”
Upon the negative reaction from customers, the retailer recently pulled the product from their websites and stores. The business move perpetuated skepticism among stock analysts like Boss, who due to fallout from the bungled product rollout, removed Lululemon stock from his Analyst Focus List, and lowered his stock price target from $457 to $338.
This isn’t the first time Lululemon has come under fire, with founder and ex-CEO Chip Wilson having made derisive comments about the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts in the past.
In an interview with Forbes, the 68-year-old former CEO insisted that making Lululemon products more accessible would hurt the brand. He told the outlet: “They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody.”
“I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody,” he continued. “You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”
Wilson’s history of anti-Asian, sexist, and fatphobic comments has landed Lululemon some unsavory headlines over the years as well as after some of its employees accused the company of performative activism and tokenistic campaigns.
Long before he left the company, Wilson claimed in 2005 that he chose a brand name that included three L’s specifically because the sound does not exist in Japanese phonetics. He told Canada’s National Post Business Magazine at the time: “It’s funny to watch them try and say it.”
Wilson, in particular, was ousted from his role as CEO after comments he made in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Street Smart in 2013 led to backlash. At the time, the founder responded to mounting criticisms that the company’s popular leggings were low-quality and see-through, telling the outlet that they were not meant for everyone – namely, curvier women. “They don’t work for some women’s bodies,” he said, blaming women’s bodies for the leggings becoming sheer. “It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there.”
One of the company’s retail stores in Maryland called out the then-CEO’s words in a poignant window display, writing: “Love: cups of chai/apple pies/rubbing thighs?” The company had the display taken down and Lululemon issued an apology on Twitter, now known as X, distancing itself from Wilson’s remarks.
The businessman stepped down as CEO in December of that year, and two years later he completely left the company’s board. The Canadian company has since tried to shake off its elitist reputation as a brand exclusively made for upper-middle-class white women, by enacting a diversity and inclusion initiative and inclusive marketing campaigns.
