Lululemon

   In my last post, I had in poor judgement mentioned that Lululemon pants were made in sweatshops in China. I had read something to that effect, on another blog. I've since retracted that statement. I thought about it and realized I did not actually know how Lululemon pants were made.

I began some surveying research to find out where other yoga apparel is being manufactured.  I contacted a yoga clothing company (who I will tell you about later) and asked them where their yoga pants were manufactured. They wrote back right away and told me their pants were made in a very well respected factory in Hong Kong, who had fair labor laws, and that this was also the same factory that has produced clothing for Lululemon, DKNY, Athleta, Sundance, and others.

Then I went on to Lululemon's blog and found an article about their global factory environments. They have factories in Canada, the US, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Peru, Israel, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. I had had a conversation earlier that evening, in which I said that if I actually sold clothes, I would go to the factories from which they were ordered so I would know first hand the conditions of the people who were making them. Well, it made me very happy to see that Lululemon actually does send their employes to visit the factories producing Lululemon apparel. Lululemon has an entire page on their website describing how they select and inspect their factories, along with pictures of the factories themselves, and a picture of a girl smiling while sitting at a sewing machine. You can read about their factories here and here.

So I feel a lot better about Lululemon after reading their statements about global sourcing and manufacturing. It appears that even though they manufacture their clothes overseas, their clothes are not manufactured in sweatshops. They have made available more information on their policies then other companies I have seen. Although.. the picture of the girl smiling while at the sewing machine is somewhat suspect. 

A quote from Lululemons blog:

"...our educators in our lululemon stores were requesting more information on how and where our products are made. They wanted to provide our guests with a full understanding of our global factory environments so they could then have authentic conversations as to how our factories operate" 

So, way to go asking questions about sourcing, yoga wear shoppers! I hope we keep being inquisitive. It's a good way to keep these mega companies accountable.

How do you feel about global sourcing and buying yoga wear? any thoughts?