Popular athletic clothing brand Lululemon Athletica has built an incredible following in the past five years. “Rarer” and “classic” items can sell out from the company’s website within minutes and groups on Facebook and eBay are able to sell new and used items above retail, and easily find buyers for them.

But the Canadian brand has had its share of recent PR blunders. As the company has expanded, production has been outsourced and material quality has declined. This has led to a few missteps, including the sheer pants debacle, where Lululemon’s $100 yoga pants were deemed see-through — and some stores had ladies bend over to test the amount of “sheer” within the pants.

But Lululemon isn’t alone in the controversy. Sports companies have had some serious missteps: remember Adidas’ ‘shackle’ sneakers from 2012? Or Nike and its outsourced factory conditions and sweatshops in the poorest Asian countries? Other clothing companies, like Abercrombie & Fitch, have also recently shamed plus-sized customers.

It was absurd — and mean — when Lululemon’s co-founder Chip Wilson blamed thick-thighed women for stretching and wearing-in the brand’s yoga pants. He recently said in an interview, “Quite frankly, some women’s bodies just actually don’t work. It’s about the rubbing through the thighs and how much pressure there is.”

Many individuals who have purchased Lululemon gear more than a year ago will quickly point out the decline in quality of the pants as the actual cause. Business folk and public relations experts will probably slap their foreheads in disbelief.

But most important is the realization that Wilson — who established an incredibly popular and high-quality brand and who launched a culture of “The Sweat Life,” which documents women and men in Lululemon gear traveling, performing yoga, training at the gym, running outdoors and being nutritious — has indicated that heavier or less healthy individuals are excluded from this life.

That sentiment was echoed in August when the company, in response to questions about clothing sizes larger than its current range of sizes 2-12, said it had no plans to make larger clothing.

Wilson has since issued an apology via YouTube, ending with a plea: “For all of you that have made lululemon what it is today, I ask you to stay in a conversation that is above the fray. I ask you to prove that the culture that you have built cannot be chipped away. Thank you.”

“Chipping away” at health and wellness culture, by individuals who make a living within it, must extend outside of Lululemon’s headquarters. Places of health promotion should welcome people of all shapes and sizes. Planet Fitness noted this in its “gymtimidation” commercials. Coaches, trainers or athletes should be encouraging, not demeaning. It’s hard enough living healthily in our overstuffed, sedentary world. Maintaining motivation and positivity is demanding, and already too difficult for the undetermined.

We are responsible for our own health, yes, but support comes from all angles. And with media promoting unhealthy and unrealistic depictions of beauty and health, it is even more important for powerful health proponents to embrace all individuals.

Jillian is a magazine, newspaper and online journalism masters student. She still adores her Lululemon gear and believes the company can overcome its recent missteps. Her column appears every Wednesday in Pulp. Email her a [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @jathaw.

Published on November 13, 2013 at 12:27 am