Kate Hudson In The News Again: Addresses Women Entrepreneurs, Shakes Fabletics Controversy
Actress Kate Hudson has been making headlines for months–from the controversy surrounding Fabletics, the athleisure wear company she co-founded in 2013, to her rumored romance with 23-year-old singer Nick Jonas. Now the 36-year-old mother of boys Bingham Hawn Bellamy and Ryder Robinson is championing women in business. Hudson was the keynote speaker at the International Business Woman of the Year Awards in Key Biscayne, Florida on Friday, where she spoke about her success and challenges in business infront of an eager audience of women entrepreneurs. The annual event celebrates women in international business. The talk came at the right time for Kate. Her new lifestyle book, Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body was released just days prior, and she used the event as a way to speak about her success as a first time author as well.
A photo posted by @fabletics on
Kate hasn’t stopped for a moment since Fabletics launched. In 2015 Fabletics introduced its men’s active wear collection, FL2, in partnership with Hudson’s brother and actor Oliver Hudson. She also recently played the voice of Mei Mei, a ribbon twirling panda in Kung Fu Panda 3. The actress attended the Los Angeles premiere of the film with her two sons in tow.
Kate Hudson has made it clear that parenting is her number one priority. She opened up to Matt Lauer on the Today Show:
“Parenting is where I feel my strongest.”
In an exclusive interview on Just Jenny with radio host Jennifer Hutt, Kate revealed she wants more children:
“I really want more kids… Anywhere between four and six…. I just love them… I just love every bit of it. I love the insanity. I love the chaos. I love laughing with them.”
The single mompreneur backslid in September 2015 when the media caught wind of the 1,4000 consumer grievances filed with the Better Business Bureau against Fabletics regarding alleged misleading sales and marketing tactics and claims of deceptive advertising.
Kate appears in many advertisements promoting significantly discounted active wear that competes with rivals Nike, Lululemon and Athleta with regard to quality and fashion.
A photo posted by @fabletics on
Buzzfeed released an in-depth investigative article that exposed Fabletics for allegedly ensnaring consumers into what the company calls “VIP Memberships,” promising budget-friendly prices for stylish athletic clothing with an opt-out recurring membership loophole.
Consumers took to Twitter, complaining that Fabletics wasn’t clear enough in its marketing language and terms and conditions regarding the monthly membership fee priced at between $39.95 and $49.95, with some attesting that the only way to cancel was to phone in to the company, which proved a painstaking process. Parent company JustFab, valued at $1 billion, has run a lucrative business on a similar subscription model seemingly without the volume of complaints from customers and outcry on social media that Kate Hudson faced last fall.
Fabletics has not yet announced any major changes to their subscription structure. All the while Kate Hudson has stood her ground and remained unscathed, defending her company against naysayers. Her response came in the form of body-baring selfies modeling Fabletics apparel.
Inspo straight from @katehudson’s #PrettyHappy. Available now????????
A photo posted by @fabletics on
By now Hudson seems to have shaken the whole thing off, more interested in moving forward with her next venture–a new brick and mortar Fabletics store situated in Minnesota at the Mall of America, with between 75 and 100 more storefronts slated to open over the next several years. For now, Kate Hudson seems, well, pretty happy.
[Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images]
