Lululemon Product Chief Gets The Boot With A Swift Kick In The See-Through Pants

After a major recall of yoga pants for being too sheer, it’s not surprising that heads are rolling at Lululemon. The company announced yesterday that its top product executive is leaving, only a few weeks after Lululemon had to pull pants from the shelves as they were a bit too see-through.

Chief Product Officer Sheree Waterson will be stepping down on April 15, reports the Wall Street Journal, leaving her spot at the top supervising design, merchandise management and global production.

Meanwhile, Lululemon admits that its testing procedures perhaps weren’t up to snuff, which could’ve contributed to the sheer pants making it into stores and onto customers. The company said an evaluation showed that while the fabric might’ve met the same testing standards its had in place since 2006, it was on the low end of the scale. Sounds like the scale might need to shift, in this case.

“The resulting end product had an unacceptable level of sheerness,” the company said.

This acceptance of at least some of the blame is a bit of a change for Lululemon, which earlier pointed the finger at the pants’ manufacturers, saying the textile supplier hadn’t met its standards. But the supplier fired back, saying it had shipped the pants in adherence to Lululemon’s requirements.

Lululemon says it will implement new procedures to make sure its testing protocols are complete and outline new specifications for the stretch, weight and tolerances of its fabrics.

CEO Christine Day had claimed previously that the pants had passed all the proper tests, except for the “put the pants on and bend over” test. That didn’t happen until customers actually put on the pants and well, bent over.

Lululemon’s Product Chief to Exit [Wall Street Journal]

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