After facing an embarrassing PR crisis in recent weeks, Lululemon Athletica is now taking clearly defined steps to put “behind” it the issues surrounding the company’s too-sheer yoga pants.
Lululemon announced today that its Chief Product Officer Sheree Waterson will be exiting the company. This strong course of action from Lululemon seems to demonstrate that the organization is accepting responsibility for the problems with its product (or attributing them fairly or unfairly to a senior executive), and making personnel changes intended to show its seriousness in addressing the situation.
Lululemon’s damage control efforts were initially hindered by a reported miscommunication with retail stores, who were allegedly asking customers to bend over to prove that the pants they wanted to return were indeed see-through enough to warrant a full refund. While clearly a “pain in the rear,” it remains to be seen what the ultimate impact of “pantsgate” will be on Lululemon’s bottom line and overall brand.