Lululemon Founder Picked Firm Title As a result of It is Tough for Japanese Individuals to Pronounce?

For years, rumors have circulated on-line that Chip Wilson, founding father of activewear firm Lululemon, named it like that to look at Japanese individuals attempt to pronounce it:

“The title has no which means,” TikTok person @maddikoch stated in a video on the subject. “It is actually simply so it is humorous to take heed to individuals say it.” The video had greater than 2.6 million views, 13,000 feedback and 164,000 shares.

Wilson based Lululemon in 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia. In accordance with Wilson, a earlier model he’d purchased, Homless Skateboards, additionally included an “L” in its title and was profitable in Japan. Wilson stated he deduced the consonant “L,” which does not exist in Japanese, made the model appear extra authentically North American and had contributed to its success. So for his new endeavor — a line of yoga garments — he brainstormed numerous names that included the letter in them. Wilson wrote in his book, which was available to read on his web site:

On additional consideration, it appeared the Japanese appreciated the title Homless as a result of it had the letter L in it, and the Japanese language would not have that sound. Model names with Ls in them sounded much more exotically North American/Western to Japanese shoppers, particularly the 20-year-olds.

This felt like a neat concept, so over the subsequent few years, I performed with alliterative names with Ls in them, la la la, jotting down variations in my pocket book. This continued till the time got here to develop a model title for my new yoga attire idea, and through this inventive experimentation, lululemon was one chance I wrote down.

It got here out of nothing. Completely nothing. And it was dangerous on the time as a result of the phrase “lemon” was connected to poor-quality ’80s Detroit vehicles. Nevertheless, the phrase lemon additionally represented fresh-ness. Both approach, I must see how the main focus teams responded to it.

Years after that occurred, nevertheless, he advised the National Post Business Magazine in Canada that, “It is humorous to look at them attempt to say it,” lending credence to the rumors.

Wilson stirred controversy a number of occasions when he was on the helm of Lululemon, in accordance with Business Insider. On Nov. 5, 2013, he told Bloomberg TV anchor Trish Regan that Lululemon’s yoga pants do not match some ladies’s our bodies (emphasis ours):

“I need to segue into one other story,” Trish stated. “You are the founder [of lululemon], you are a former designer … what is going on on with the pants?”

My preliminary response was to deal with the distinctive challenges of manufacturing a technical cloth. “Once you push know-how,” I replied, “one thing’s going to occur from time to time.”

Trish pressed slightly tougher, asking me about complaints of pilling on the material.

My reply: “There has all the time been pilling. The factor is that ladies will put on seat belts that do not work, or they will put on a handbag that does not work, or fairly frankly some ladies’s our bodies simply truly do not work for it.“

These remarks prompted a backlash. Wilson, who stepped down from the corporate’s board of administrators in 2015, has additionally been on file defending child labor in growing international locations.

Sources