How do you spell Hypocrite? L-U-L-U-L-E-M-O-N

For the past 10 yrs Lululemon has been unfortunately making it's mark on the planet. They are corporate giants no better than an oil and gas outfit or a mink farm. 

When they first appeared, they had everyone fooled. Yoga was becoming more popular and a yoga focused company from Vancouver became the new fruit smoothy. They were Canadian, encouraged recycling, teeth flossing and making healthy lifestyle choices.

Fast Forward 10 yrs and you have a company who still focuses their marketing activities around promoting a healthy lifestyle that respects the environment and the people who live in it. What most people don't know is that they have moved their production to South East Asia sweat factories. 

Although they still encourage recycling, being good to our earth and treating others with respect they are doing just the opposite in choosing to have their labour contracted to SE Asia. They are taking advantage of inexpensive child labor, polluting the environment and making a fortune doing it. In making the decision to have production in Asia they had to develop a PR response in case someone asks them about their decisions, like I did. I got the following generic response;

"We work hard to remain true to our manifesto and beliefs in all areas of our company. We are a yoga inspired athletic clothing company, committed to manufacturing and designing garments that can be made and worn in good conscience"

I am sure the consumers would feel 'good conscience' knowing their $85 yoga shorts were made by a young girl who works long hours and lives in a shanty shack with the other girls. The factories the garments are made in have no or limited environmental regulations in turn polluting our environment.

In addition, LuLulemon became red faced after being caught in a lie regarding clothing made out of Seaweed, but that is another story for another blog entry.

It appears that what is not seen or heard in Canada is irrelevant to treating our environment and the people that live in it with respect.

I encourage you to rethink purchasing anything from Lululemon not only for the reasons mentioned above but for the simple fact that their clothes have to be one of the worst fashion fuck ups of the decade. 

The Gap and many others have their clothing made in sweat shops as well, however, their brands are not shaped around health, the environment and being a better person.

Dance, Sing, Floss and Travel but do it without Lululemon, after all we have been doing it without them for years.