'Chip' Wilson, founder of Lululemon Athletica, takes public aim at CEO and board decisions
Lululemon Athletica founder "Chip" Wilson has gone public with his frustration over what he sees as a fatal shift from product innovation to financial growth, claims which are polarizing leaders and current employees of the Vancouver-based athleisure giant.
In a recent broadside in the Wall Street Journal, Wilson took direct aim at Lululemon’s current CEO Calvin McDonald, writing that “finance-focused CEOs don’t know how to attract or motivate creative talent, and even worse, they think they understand great product when they don’t.”
Before coming on as Lululemon's CEO in 2018, McDonald served as Americas CEO at Sephora and before that, Sears Canada.
Wilson voiced dismay at the company’s move into broader lifestyle and non-core categories, and expressed “sadness for lululemon’s slow march to becoming The Gap with cheap acrylic sweaters etc., to chase margin.”
Lululemon Athletica’s stock took a 50-percent hit this year, as sales dropped in its biggest market, the U.S., according to the WSJ, and Wilson is the largest individual shareholder , but he has lost around US$2 billion in holdings.
Lululemon founder ‘stays in touch with employees’
According to the WSJ, the Vancouver-based Wilson, who hasn’t had controlling stake in Lululemon for over a decade, still “stays in touch with employees” – his spokesperson has said that the 70-year-old Wilson “stays attuned” to the inner workings of his former company.
Wilson’s campaign has included a full-page ad and extensive social posts criticizing the current leadership and board for eroding the brand’s original product-led identity and for mishandling strategic moves.
He has compared the company’s slide to a “plane crash,” arguing that decline comes from many small misjudgments rather than a single failure.
At the centre of Wilson’s critique is the role of a visionary founder: “A company bereft of a visionary loses its singular voice for product and long-term strategy,” he wrote.
Wilson is also pushing for changes in board composition, WSJ reported – according to his spokesperson: “He hopes for a reformed board that is infused with people who are entrepreneurial, creative, have technical apparel experience, lead with innovation, and have a founder mentality.”
Wilson angered customers in 2013 when he told a TV journalist that “some women’s bodies” “don’t work” in his company’s iconic pants, essentially placing blame for quality complaints on wearers.
He bumped heads as a designer and chairman in the later years of his involvement in company workings, eventually being given guidelines by the board on how not to micromanage.
Wilson’s last role as an active board member at Lululemon ended in 2015.
