Athletic clothing and accessory brand Lululemon has seen its fair share of bad press this year from see-through pants to inadvertently insulting a local Dallas charity. Its latest PR gaffe will have you shaking your head and comes at the hands of its CEO, Chip Wilson. This is where proper media training comes in handy! During a recent interview with Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart," a reporter asked a question regarding some of the issues with the company’s yoga pants from common customer complaints. Wilson remarks that, "Frankly, some women’s bodies actually don’t work for it…" Ouch! This also comes on the heels of an earlier customer complaint that the company’s plus sizes were not easy to find in the stores, leading some to believe that the company shuns plus-sized women. Wilson’s wife, Shannon Wilson, tried to quickly follow up Chip’s comment with a more proper explanation, but the damage had already been done. As you can imagine, this comment did not sit well with many of the company’s customers, some of whom are threatening to boycott the brand altogether. After a string of PR blunders in 2013, Lululemon might want to consider hiring a great publicist to its 2014 New Year’s resolutions.
