Lululemon’s founders, Chip and Shannon Wilson (a former designer at the company) made an appearance on Bloomberg TV. Street Smart‘s host Trish Regan interviews the duo and by the end of the segment Chip managed to alienate his core audience at lululemon… women.
The segment starts off talking about Whil, some one minute meditation technique, and moves into discussing Lululemon’s pants and their hunt for a CEO. I’ve watched the segment multiple times and I still don’t follow what “Whil” does. I’m fairly certain Chip will need to find more than a minute to meditate after this appearance.
Chip starts off trying to be funny when talking about “maximizing peeing time” and how it relates to his busy life. Something none of us need to know about. After a few more awkward moments, Regan asks, “What’s going on with the pants?”
Chip’s body language shows he’s instantly uncomfortable. He stutters a bit and says, “I think everything is possibly blown out.There’s no doubt about it we made a mistake.” That’s where he should have stopped. Instead he babbles on trying to claim that Lululemon is a “technology company” and says, “when you push technology something’s going to happen now and again.”
Listening to this, I mentally hashtag #facePalm. Seriously dude, that’s your response? Not the best answer but I continue to listen thinking he’ll redeem himself. After all he did create a multi-million dollar company by selling expensive yoga pants to mostly women.
Trish mentions there’s been complaints about the fabric pilling and Chip’s response is, “ya but there’s always been pilling.” As if Chip’s response wasn’t lame enough he says, “the thing is that women will wear seat belts that don’t work.”
Say what? Really? Then he digs a deeper hole and says, “quite frankly some women’s bodies just actually don’t work for it.”
Ah so that must be why there was an issue with the pants being see-through, right? In March, the company recalled nearly 17% of their yoga pants after they were found to bee too sheer.
The stunned host quickly asks, “They don’t work for the pants?”
Chip responds with, “they don’t work for certain some women’s bodies.”
He continues down the path of self-destruction by saying it’s “really about the rubbing through the thighs” and “how much pressure is there.”
DUDE! SHUT UP ALREADY!!
Moving along he’s asked how Lululemon will take on competition such as Under Armour and Nike. Chip goes to the well of stupidity once again. “We may not be so much of an athletic apparel company as we are a leadership company. So we’re in the leadership development.”
Huh?
He put the final nail in his coffin when he’s asked if he would take the CEO position that’s been vacant since June. “I mean quite frankly we’re maybe too wealthy now.”
Yes, great response dude.
Trish tries to bring the interview full-circle and give him a chance to save face on “whil”. She asks, “So, it’s (whil) not going to be a business opportunity, money-making opportunity? What’s the thought process on that… how do you turn it into something more?” Good old Chip stays consistently clueless by answering with… “Well, we’re brand builders for sure and we’re building a brand but right now we have a brand that sells nothing. Because our meditation is really all about nothing. So that’s as far as we’ve gone.”
Sounds like a Seinfeld episode gone terribly bad.
One look at the Lululemon’s Facebook page and you’ll see women are outraged at his comments. There’s no telling what will come of the shitstorm Chip created but one thing is for certain, he should never do another tv interview. Especially if he wants to keep selling $70+ yoga pants to women.
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Whil co-founder Shannon Wilson and Lululemon founder Chip Wilson discuss their new form of meditation and Lululemon’s sheer pants problem. They speak with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.”
(Source: Bloomberg)
