ATLANTA — Outside the Lululemon shop at Ponce City Market in Atlanta on Thursday, Donna Martin, a Black woman seeking yoga gear, learned that the company’s founder, Chip Wilson, had publicly bashed the notion of the brand embracing diversity.
“I don’t get it,” Martin, a project manager at a telecommunications company, said. “But I do get it. This is the world in which we live now, where someone who created a brand doesn’t want everyone supporting that brand. It’s so ridiculous.”
She shook her head. “I got the memo,” Martin said as she walked away from the store.
DEI experts like Tiffany Brandreth said Martin had the right idea: Black consumers concerned about Wilson’s latest dismissal of diversity, equity and inclusion should consider boycotting the retailer.
“There should be a loud call to action for a widespread boycott of corporations that overtly disparage and label DEI as practices rooted in racism and discrimination,” said Brandreth, an organizational psychologist who specializes in DEI. “It’s crucial for anyone who claims to be an ally for DEI to send a powerful message that these regressive values will not be supported that goes beyond mere rhetoric.”
Wilson founded Lululemon in 1998 and stepped down as CEO in 2013, but still owns the majority of the company’s shares, which are valued at $4 billion, according to Forbes.
During an interview with Forbes published Jan. 2, he blasted the company’s “whole diversity and inclusion thing.” He also sounded off on Lululemon’s ads because they featured people he called “unhealthy,” “sickly” and “not inspirational.”
“They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Wilson said. “And I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody. You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in.”
Wilson has made similarly controversial statements in the past, including his…
Read the full article here
