Regulars at yoga classes often praise the liberating nature of the ancient Indian exercise but sometimes things can get a little bit too liberating: enter yoga clothing maker Lululemon , which has withdrawn shipments of its women’s yoga pants that fall short on the “coverage” front.
Apparently due to a problem at the factory, there is “a level of sheerness in some of our women’s black Luon bottoms that falls short of our very high standards,” the company said today.
Excessively see-through yoga pants! We have a situation on our hands here. Lululemon says the problem affects about 17% of all the ladies pants in its stores, and that’s a problem for a yoga pants company in a land where nude yoga has yet to take off: Lululemon stock fell 3.8% today and is down another 5.2% in after-hours trading.
Here’s the word from Lululemon:
“We have determined that certain shipments of product received from our factories and available in store from March 1, 2013 do not meet our technical specifications. The items affected are certain styles of women’s bottoms in our signature black Luon fabric. The ingredients, weight and longevity qualities of the pants remain the same but the coverage does not, resulting in a level of sheerness in some of our women’s black Luon bottoms that falls short of our very high standards.
Over the past weekend we pulled all of the affected black Luon women’s bottoms from our stores, showrooms and e-commerce site and are working with our supplier to replace the fabric and our other manufacturers to replace these key items as quickly as possible. We believe the affected items represented approximately 17% of all women’s bottoms in our stores and for the near term there will be a shortage of these styles available to our guests.”
The company has put online a pretty comprehensive FAQ on the situation. A few details from the company:
– Lululemon “first began to understand the extent of the issue on Monday, March 11th as part of our weekly call with store managers.”
– Anybody who purchased the since March 1 can bring them back for an exchange or full refund
– The company’s clothes are made in Vietnam and Taiwan, and the problem “not the result of changing manufacturers or quality of ingredients”
– The company’s signature luon fabric, which the pants are made of, is “a combination of nylon and Lycra spandex fibres”
– When will the pants be coming back? As soon as possible, Lululemon says, but there’s no firm timeline on the cards. They’ll be giving updates via their website and Facebook page.
It’s going to have a real impact on the company, reports the WSJ’s Kristin Jones:
Shares fell 4.8% to $62.75 after hours, as the Canadian company said that its fiscal first-quarter same-store sales and revenue would suffer as a result.
For the first quarter, Lululemon now expects revenue of $333 million to $343 million, with a same-store sales increase of 5% to 8%. The company had previously expected revenue of $350 million to $355 million with same-store sales growth of 11%.
From: WSJ