Something Smells Sour at Lululemon

Something smells worse than sour at Lululemon. As you may recall from an earlier blog post here, I wrote that CEO Bob Meers had exaggerated on his resume. I wrote the piece after trying for more than a week to get him to comment on my findings. He ducked me at every turn.

Then, on Thursday, he was on CNBC. When he was asked by Margaret Brennan, the reporter, about my comments, he said:

Well, I have no idea what Herb was talking about. To be honest with you, I have a long history extensive business background, including 15 years at Reebok. And my resume stands as is. My bio is intact. And um, you know, everything that was in my bio, everything in the S-1, everything that I say is not an exaggeration.

Margaret then asked: “So the questions there about whether you were a division head versus a brand head. You say, unsubstantiated questions there.”

Meers responded: “It’s um. Everything that was in there, candidly, I refute.”

Candidly he refutes? Within a few minutes I shot a note off to his internal PR woman saying that if he refutes me, he should call me and tell me where I’m wrong. I then called his office and left a message with his assistant saying the same thing.

THEN I went on CNBC myself and told the story of what I believe is incorrect on his resume and how he ducked me and urged him there to call me. “If I’m wrong,” said, “I’ll stand up and say I was wrong.”

So far, I’m still waiting to hear from him. For him to do anything BUT call me, given the circumstances, is irresponsible.

Meanwhile, he told analysts on the company’s conference call that after reviewing things, the company is comfortable with the claims that its seaweed-spiked clothing has therapeutic qualities, such as soothing skin rashes. An analyst asked whether he planned to issue a press release saying so.

Meers: “No.”

Sour, it tells you, more sour than a bad lemon.

P.S.: If you haven’t guessed, this company is now firmly on my radar.