Lululemon Athletica’s chief product officer Sheree Waterson will be leaving in less than two weeks after a costly mishap with a key line of product proved a large scale problem for the pricey athletic apparel retailer.
Lululemon Athletica yoga pants are incredibly popular in the realm of high-end yoga attire and a favorite of upper middle class women — but last month it was revealed that the fabric used for a lot of the retailer’s currently sold product was embarrassingly sheer.
At the time, Lululemon released a statement about the issue with yoga pant sheerness, noting that the proprietary fabric used in that batch was substandard and that 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.”
Lululemon blamed the manufacturer of the proprietary fabrics for the sheer yoga pants snafu, but Eclat responded, saying:
“All shipments to Lululemon went through a certification process which Lululemon had approved … All the pants were manufactured according to the requirements set out in the contract with Lululemon.”
Waterson will be leaving Lululemon on April 15, and the company says that her departure is part of “a reorganization of our product organization.”
In a statement, Lululemon CEO Christine Day said:
“We appreciate the many contributions that Sheree made during her time with Lululemon, particularly in the area of design.”
First quarter Lululemon Athletica sales were impacted severely by the overly sheer yoga pants.
