Chip Wilson slams Lululemon’s diversity efforts: ‘You don’t want certain customers’

globalnews.ca:

Lululemon is (again) distancing itself from billionaire founder and former executive Chip Wilson after he made controversial comments about the brand’s inclusion efforts.

“(This) whole diversity and inclusion thing that they have become — trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody…you’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in,” Wilson, 68, told Forbes in a wide-ranging profile published this week, adding that the athletic-wear giant is using “unhealthy,” “sickly” and “not inspirational” people in their marketing and advertising.

A decade ago, in 2013, Wilson came under fire after making comments that the brand’s pants “do not work” for some women’s bodies, responding to criticism at the time that the company’s most popular product, leggings, were see-through.

“The thing is women will wear seat belts that do not work, or they will wear a purse that does not work,” said Wilson at the time. “Or quite frankly, some women’s bodies actually do not work for (the pants).”

Critics accused Wilson of shaming women’s bodies and gathered thousands of supporters through an online petition.

Two days later, Wilson apologized in a video posted online, in which he said he was “sad for the repercussions of my actions. I’m sad for the people of Lululemon who I care so much about that have really had to face the brunt of my actions. I take responsibility for all that has occurred.”

It wasn’t long, however, until he came under fire again, for anti-Asian comments that surfaced in a 2004 interview.

He told the National Post Business Magazine that while coming up with the company’s name in 1998, he specifically chose a name that has three Ls because the sound doesn’t exist in Japanese phonetics.

“It’s funny