Lululemon lays another PR egg
NEW YORK — Lululemon Athletica Inc. has apologized to sports fans in Buffalo, N.Y., after it drew ire for the phrase “Wide Right/No Goal” spelled out in tile on a store floor, a reference to painful losses the city has suffered in football and hockey.
“We want the Buffalo community to know that we have heard them and we are sorry,” Paul Zaengle, senior vice-president of U.S. retail, said. “We get that this didn’t land well, and we want to make it right. We have covered up the mosaic and are having it removed.”
“Wide Right” alludes to kicker Scott Norwood’s missed field goal attempt that ended the Buffalo Bills’ hopes for a Super Bowl win against the New York Giants in 1991. “No Goal” evokes the Buffalo Sabres’ 1999 Stanley Cup final loss to the Dallas Stars on a questionable goal.
The incident marks the latest misstep for Lululemon, a gaffeprone maker of yoga wear and other athletic clothing. In an interview last November, Dennis Wilson, Lululemon’s founder and former chairman, said Lululemon’s pants “don’t work for some women’s bodies.” He apologized a week later and announced his resignation as chairman the next month.
The company also had to recall a line of pants that became seethrough when customers bent over. And in July, some dermatologists denounced the retailer over shopping bags that advised “sunscreen absorbed into the skin might be worse for you than sunshine.”
Though the sports reference had been displayed since the Buffalo store opened in May, controversy didn’t spread until this week when a post on social media sparked a backlash. Insulted Buffalo fans took to Twitter to call for a boycott of the store.
“I don’t care what year it is, the Lululemon ‘wide right’ statement in Buffalo was bad taste,” a Twitter user named Michelle wrote.
Lululemon said the mosaic was meant to celebrate the loyalty of Buffalo fans. “We know emotions run deep and these events are part of our history and built Buffalo’s strength and character.”
Buffalo fans take their sports seriously. Bills fans organized a boycott of rocker Jon Bon Jovi over his involvement with investors trying to buy the team, allegedly with the intention of moving it to Toronto.