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Lululemon and the seaweed controversy

Posted on Nov 17th 2007 8:21AM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Alternative & Green Health

I'm not sure what it's like where you live but here in Canada, Lululemon is huge -- crowded places are overrun with people sporting the famous swirly logo. Even I've bought into the hype -- I'm wrapped snugly in my Lulu scuba hoodie as I write this.

Lululemon has a good business reputation, but that all could change due to a recent controversy concerning one of their fabrics. The Vitasea line is said to be made of 70% cotton, 6% spandex and 24% natural seaweed fibre. I know what you're thinking: Seaweed in clothing? Lululemon claims it "releases marine amino acids, minerals and vitamins into the skin upon contact with moisture."

And it just might, but recent studies have shown that Vitasea fabric has no more seaweed than you're average cotton t-shirt does, according to the New York Times. No doubt the fabric is more comfortable than wearing a cotton garment -- all of Lulu's stuff seems to be really wearable -- but that's not the point. They lied.

What do you think? Will you continue to buy their clothes? Are we making a big deal out of something that really isn't?

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1 Comment

Tags: business, fabric, Lululemon, seaweed, Vitasea

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ava 11-17-2007 @ 12:17PM

This post seems a little behind the times - there have been other press releases and articles that are updated on the sitch:

1. An investor who was trying to short-sell lululemon stock (i.e. questionable motives) submitted test results to the NYTimes that claimed that the shirts do not have more minerals than a normal cotton shirt. NYTimes did their own test and couldn't confirm or deny the presence of seaweed, they just didn't find traces of minerals that they thought a fabric with seaweed would have.

lululemon athletica immediately ran another independent test (they do not have an in-house testing deptartment yet) on the vitasea fabric and those results validated that the shirts do indeed have the fiber content listed on lululemon's tags, 23% SeaCell which is the name of the seaweed fabric.

What is now in question is whether the seaweed fabric, made by german company SmartFiber, performs as per the manufacturer's claims, which lululemon perhaps trusted too well and included these claims on their lululemon clothing tags. Things like "releases minerals into the skin", etc.

In my view lululemon was a little naive in trusting the fabric manufacturer but responded responsibly by immediately having the fabric tested again, confirming the seaweed fiber content, before making a public press release.

They have also removed Vitasea literature from the website, and removed tags from the clothing and covered up the properties in question that are printed on the tags with a blank sticker until such claims can be proven.
lululemon is a small company that is growing rapidly and is going to have a few mistakes to learn from, and they also are on the cutting edge, trying out new fabrics and technologies, so there are always going to be risks - but from how they've responded so far: responsibly and with integrity, I am confident that they will continue to be a great company.

No one can deny that everyone who works there seems to live the active yoga lifestyle who are looking to make product that functions (which happens to be fashionable) and aren't just another company or just another designer hopping on the yoga/active bandwagon.

I live in NYC and enjoy going into the store - the staff are authentic and friendly and really build a sense of community. I will continue to buy the clothes.