Lululemon Founder Chip Wilson Resigns


Well, dang. Vancouver-based yoga giant Lululemon announced this morning that its co-founder and chairman, Chip Wilson, is stepping down from his post and will be out by next June. The announcement comes on the heels of yet another Lulu brouhaha last month, when Wilson made a now infamous gaffe, stating on Bloomberg TV that his company’s pants “don’t work for some women’s bodies” and that the sheerness of the fabric is less of a product defect and more an issue when there’s “rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a period of time, how much they use it.” And then the collective brain of the Internet exploded.

Cosmo is reporting that Wilson’s resignation has been in the works for months. Wilson will be replaced by Lululemon’s lead director Michael Casey, but Wilson will stay on as a member of the board of directors.

In related news, Lululemon is also appointing a new CEO, Laurent Potdevin, who currently helms TOMS. Potdevin will replace Christine Day, who announced in June she was stepping down after the see-through yoga pants debacle last spring. And of course, that was after the brand’s product chief resigned in the wake of the same see-through scandal.

Phew. Who else thinks we need a flowchart for all of this?

 » Related: Dhyana Yoga: “Why We’re Not Lululemon Ambassadors Anymore”