Lululemon, you either love them or hate them. For those not familiar, Lululemon Athletic, or also known as Lulu, is an athletic brand that sells clothes, both athletic and lifestyle apparel, accessories, and even personal care products.
Lululemon is known to have its controversies. Their founder has made previous remarks about women’s bodies that are fatphobic saying that their clothes only work if you have a thigh gap. They also were in the news during the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
News broke that the company drew up two statements to release after the death of George Floyd. The first one, which ended up being released, had “Black Lives Matter” on the campaign. The second one, stated “All Lives Matter.”
Backlash from employees started to roll in. They were disappointed that they even asked them to do a mockup with that phrase. One employee stated that they felt triggered and traumatized and said it was one of the most disgusting moments of their time at the company. The director who called for the mockup to be made apologized to other employees and ended up leaving Lululemon.
After the word got out, Business Insider exposed the inside conversation. Vice President and head of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action (IDEA) campaign at Lulu Stacia Jones did put out a response stating how they are making progress to become more diverse and inclusive. She also said that she recognized their not perfect history and vowed to continue to be better.
First off, I want to say how disappointed I am that they even considered making a mockup with the second saying. The phrase minimizes the importance of the meaning of BLM, and the fact that a number of employees thought that it was okay to have a campaign with that message is disturbing.
Second, I thought it was a good move to acknowledge past wrongdoings. With the history that the company has had, they can’t act like they are perfect. Jones mentioned how they are not the same company when those comments were made. But it’s also not an excuse.
It’s important to learn from your mistakes, and Lululemon has definitely evolved from that company over ten years ago. They now have more inclusive sizing, models of different body types, and even created two types of Hijabs. Their progress can’t go unmentioned. But the stance they almost took on BLM would’ve set back the years of growth.
IDEA has been allocated $5 million in budget per year and an additional $3 million will go towards their social impact program. With a budget like this, they better hold themselves accountable and actually do their part to help make change. With a platform this big, they need to stay in touch with not only what’s going on in the world, but also with their employees and consumers. All we can hope is that they learn from the past and do their part.
