Lululemon (LULU) shocked the yoga world when it revealed on Monday that some of its popular black Luon pants were too sheer, leading to see-through bottoms.

But another surprise was revealed by CEO Christine Day on a Thursday conference call, when she noted that the defect with the pants weren't noticed until customers put on the pants and bent over.

Remember, these are yoga pants.

It's not clear why the company didn't ask a few employees to don a pair and try the basic butt-in-the-air downward dog pose before shipping them out to stores. That would have certainly revealed the pants' defects, rather than letting customers find out they were baring all in the middle of their Bikram classes.

"The truth of the matter is the only way that you can actually test for the issue is to put the pants on and bend over, Day said on the conference call."Just putting the pants on themselves doesnt solve the problem. So it passed all of the basic metric tests, and the hand feel is relatively the same. So it was very difficult for the factories to isolate the issue, and it wasnt until we got in a store and started putting it on people that we could actually see the issue.

Day said the company was "pursuing several hypotheses" to figure out what went wrong with the pants.

The recall affected 17% of all the women's pants sold in Lululemon's stores, as reported by my colleague Jonathan Berr. The company's shares have declined 15% this year through Thursday.

The fabric, called Luon, is made of 86% nylon and 14% Lycra andhas a reputation of wicking away moisture when you sweat,according to Business Insider.

"This is not the Luon we have come to love," Day said on the call.

While she said the company is putting in stricter quality-control measures, it's not clear whether fans will stick with the retailer. After all, competitors such as Gap's (GPS) Athleta sell a similar type of pants. Lululemon also said it will have a shortage of the impacted style.

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Lululemon yoga pants failed bend-over test

Mar 22, 2013 7:21am

The founder of Bikram yoga is in the hot seat once again.

Bikram Choudhury is the pioneer of the widely successful hot yoga. He teaches his 26-pose sequence in sweltering 105 degree temperatures. In a recent twist, however, student Sarah Baughn is suing him for sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment.

The complaint claims that Baughn was discriminated against as a woman because she did not submit to Choudhurys repeated demands for sex, and because she successfully fought him off when he sexually assaulted her.Baughn claimsthat because of her repeated refusal, she also was hindered professionally and was denied the judge-determined title of yogas International Champion in 2008.

Hes affirmatively tried to block her from progressing in her career because she stood up for herself and rebuffed him, argued Baughns lawyer, Mary Shea Hagebols.

Choudhury did not respond to ABC News request for comment. In an interview with ABC News David Wright last fall, Choudhury said, Women in the world love me, because I take care of the women. But yogi is supposed to be yogi. They cannot involve with women.

Baughn first met Choudhury in the spring of 2005 when she attended his teacher training course in Los Angeles with 300 students. She first regarded Choudhury as a hero who changed her life but claims that she then noticed he chose some women as favorites to brush his hair and massage his body.

During the course, Choudhury allegedly flirted with Baughn by telling her that they had known each other in a past life and that they had a strong, meaningful connection. The complaint claims that he asked her, What should we do about this? Should we make this a relationship? I have never, never felt this way about anyone. Only you.

During this training, while Choudhury was, according to the complaint, pretending to assist her, he pushed her down toward the floor after pulling her arm and leg apart and opening her body. Defendant Bikram Choudhury then pressed his body into hers, and began whispering sexual things to her until she collapsed into sobs.

Bikram yoga, which Choudhury started in the 1970s, is extremely popular and has more than 350 studios in the United States,plus hundreds throughout the world. Because of its popularity, Choudhury has a large fan base and frequently hosts seminars to hundreds of students.

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'Hot Yoga ' Guru Faces Sexual Harassment Charges

CHICAGO, March 22, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CorePower Yoga, a yoga brand with a commitment to making yoga accessible to all, opened its fourteenth Chicago Yoga Studio on Friday, March 22nd. Located just a block from Michigan Avenue on Ontario Street, the Streeterville yoga studio will offer a variety of yoga styles for all levels, including CorePower Yoga's dynamic heated Power Yoga in beginner to advanced formats, Yoga Sculpt and Hot Power Fusion.

Offered at convenient times, CorePower Yoga's classes feature popular music and promote physical and mental benefits. Consistent class formats and certified instructors help students advance through different levels of classes as they progress in their yoga practice. Lifestyle programs, such as boot camps and wellness programs are offered to complement yoga and provide students with cross-training opportunities. The Streeterville studio will also offer CorePower Yoga's transformational Yoga Teacher Training Programs.

"CorePower Yoga classes offer an individualized experience for every student, regardless of their fitness level or familiarity with yoga. We are thrilled to expand our presence in the Chicago area and be a part of this electric community!" says Tanya LoPresti, Studio Manager of the new Streeterville studio.

The Streeterville yoga studio is home to two large yoga rooms and features a range of amenities including changing rooms with showers and private lockers. A full retail boutique will showcase men's and women's active wear and accessories for all of your yoga and lifestyle needs.

Streeterville, located at 227 E. Ontario, is the first of several CorePower Yoga studios to open in 2013. CorePower Yoga is opening two more studios in the Chicago neighborhoods of West Loop and Hyde Park this Spring, as well as many others in markets that include Colorado, Boston, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Seattle and Washington D.C. later this year. More information regarding studio openings located here.

Students who are new to CorePower Yoga will receive one week of unlimited free yoga classes. A variety of membership package options are also available.

About CorePower Yoga

CorePower Yoga strives to increase awareness and widespread adoption of yoga by making yoga accessible to everyone, through a variety of yoga styles for beginners and more advanced yoga students. The company's unique and physically challenging style of heated power yoga combines energy, music, breath, movement and community to create a one-of-a-kind yoga experience. CorePower Yoga classes encompass a wide variety of poses, and are taught by certified yoga instructors. In addition to yoga classes, CorePower Yoga offers transformative integrated wellness programs and Yoga Teacher Training programs to empower students to live a health-focused and extraordinary life. CorePower Yoga is committed to sustainable practices, and uses recyclable and reusable products, selects sustainable fixtures and materials for studios and maintains recycling and waste management programs. CorePower Yoga's climate-controlled environments utilize the latest technology to efficiently heat its yoga rooms. CorePower Yoga was founded in 2002 and has over 70 studios in 10 states. For more information, visit http://www.corepoweryoga.com or download a press kit here.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kristi Omdahl, Kristi.omdahl@corepoweryoga.com (303.863.9642)

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Opening 14th CorePower Yoga Studio in Chicago

Strong and stable: Yoga helps to increase strength and balance.

Who would have thought that a 5000-year-old style of movement would become more popular in this country than Australian football? According to the Bureau of Statistics, more people take part in weekly yoga classes than they do in our national sport. And for good reason.

''All forms of yoga, meditation or tai chi, any gentle movement, helps to reduce pain or your perception of pain,'' says Dr Sam McCarthy, an osteopath at Sydney's Better Health Clinics (betterhealthclinics.com.au). ''We once thought that yoga made muscles longer alone, but we've now discovered that the poses make them wider, and the act of stretching actually feeds back information to your central nervous system. This in turn stimulates your muscles to become stronger around a point of weakness.''

Twenty-five per cent of people who do yoga earn more than $100,000 a year.

So, if you have an unstable or sore ankle, a yoga pose that requires you to balance on that ankle will stimulate your brain via proprioceptive nerves to strengthen the surrounding areas to help it become stronger and more stable.

''Yoga helps to improve your overall strength and posture while calming your mind and nervous system. This is probably why so many people practise yoga long term.

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A professor of complementary medicine at RMIT in Melbourne, Marc Cohen, says: ''The majority of people we surveyed found that the reason they began doing yoga was very different to why they continued practising it.'' Cohen and PhD student Stephen Penman did a study of 4000 yoga teachers and students (it was published in the International Journal of Yoga). They found that one in five of the people surveyed began practising yoga for a specific medical issue, and continued to practise after their health improved. ''Yoga isn't just about doing postures but also about meditation and relaxation,'' he says.

Should you be heating it up in Bikram or chilling out in Hatha? ''It's really about your physical and emotional needs and how yoga will fit into your lifestyle,'' says Charlotte Dodson, a yoga teacher who counts Miranda Kerr among her clients. ''There are certain styles to suit specific cycles in your life. For instance, there's prenatal yoga for those more than 12 weeks pregnant, Iyengar is great for injuries, and Asthanga is a perfect match for achieving amore physical workout.''

Regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less likely to be obese, according to a study led by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Washington. The researchers found that people who were aware of why they ate and stopped eating when full weighed less than those who ate when they were not hungry or in response to anxiety or depression. The researchers believe this link doesn't exist between other types of exercise, such as walking or running. ''When you're doing yoga you make lifestyle changes and choices for the better,'' Cohen says. ''Our participants reported changes such as giving up smoking, eating healthier and reducing the amount of alcohol they drank.'' Cohen says that as yoga is reported to help relieve stress, it's likely that people are less tempted to turn to these vices as a crutch.

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Yoga : the power of the pose

See-through yoga pants are pretty funny, so lululemon athleticas (LULU) recall of such and the resulting profit warning Monday had a whiff of whimsy to it. But considering this mistake seriously hits the one thing that keeps lululemon shares very highly valued its big sales gains it will surely bring forward the question thats been on a lot of lulu investors minds lately. That is: can lululemon continue to deliver what Wall Street expects of it?

Well get a better idea on Thursday, when lululemon reports fourth quarter results and updates first quarter forecasts. From Mondays recall announcement, we already know a few things. Pants that make up about 17% of all bottoms sold in its stores are too opaque, and lululemon is pulling them off the shelves. That will put about a 4% dent in sales in the first quarter, according to the warning, which had been expected to rise about 30%. Comparable store sales gains in the first quarter are expected to be between 5% and 8% instead of the 11% earlier predicted. The company is still working on a profit estimate for the quarter.

While most retailers would kill for a 6% comp sales gain these days, lululemon is no ordinary retail investment. Wall Street expects very big sales and profit gains from lululemon, as evidenced by its share valuations, including PE ratio. Take a look at lululemons forward price to sales ratio compared to Under Armour (UA), a competitor that is also wildly popular with investors.

Even before the exposure problem, lululemons same store sales growth was forecasted to slow from great gains that propelled the stock in past years. While the shares still have a lot of fans the companys $100-plus yoga pants are still hugely popular worriers have emerged recently. Concerted competition from Nike (NKE), Under Armour and department stores may eventually eat at lululemons great profit margins. Manufacturing problems not unlike the one that led to see-through pants have hurt sales at couple of times before. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has a sell rating on the shares.

The two stock charts below show lululemons share price since its 2007 IPO, and then a close-up of the change in price since it announced the recall Monday morning. Perhaps there are clues there about lululemon shareholder intentions. Was the level of selling these two days commensurate with the news delivered? Or does it seem this was the excuse a lot of shareholders were looking to take profits? You decide.

Dee Gill, a senior contributing editor at YCharts, is a former foreign correspondent for AP-Dow Jones News in London, where she covered the U.K. equities market and economic indicators. She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Time magazine. She can be reached at editor@ycharts.com.

Link:
The Yoga Pants May Be See-Thru, But the Growth Story Has Become Murkier

By Rebecca Macatee, E! Online

Are you one of the millions of women suffering from the Lululemon yoga pants recall?

Jimmy Kimmel feels your pain. On Tuesday, the late-night host premiered a hilarious PSA drawing attention to "the crisis sweeping the nation," aka a possible yoga pants shortage resulting from the recall of hundreds of semi-transparent bottoms.

"I know this seems like a joke, but for white people, it isn't a joke," Jimmy quipped. "This is as serious as it gets."

More on the Lululemon yoga pants recall

Clearly. In the clip, paid for by Save Our Spandex, women resort to wearing cardboard pants, bubble wrap pants, and yogurt pants when their beloved Lululemons become unavailable.

"With your donation of just $120 a day, you can put one woman in a pair of yoga pants," one woman says.

Or you could, you know, not wear designer workout clothes.

Check out stars' hot workout gear

That said, watch the PSA above and let us know on our Facebook page what you think!

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'Jimmy Kimmel Live' pokes fun at Lululemon yoga pants shortage

After customers complained that a batch of the company's signature yoga pantswere too transparent, Lululemon tried to make a scapegoat out of the Taiwanese company that manufactures the pants. Bad idea. Said supplier now says the pants were no different than any other batch. The Eclat Textile Company, whose clients include everyone from Gap to Under Armour, said Tuesday that Lululemon had signed off on the shipment, suggesting that Lululemon made the whole thing up. "All shipments to Lululemon went through a certification process which Lululemon had approved," Eclat's chief executive Roger Lo told The Wall Street Journal. "All the pants were manufactured according to the requirements set out in the contract with Lululemon." Ladies and gentlemen, we have a yoga pants scandal on our hands.

RELATED: The Very Not Zen Battle of the Yoga Pants

So which one is it? Did Eclat make a bad batch of $100 yoga pants, or did Lululemon just design transparent $100 yoga and milk the market for as long as it could? It's really hard to say. When Lo talked to the press, he said that Lululemon hadn't contact his company about the recall which is kind of weird since Lululemon effectively blamed Eclat for screwing up the "level of sheerness" during the manufacturing process. (It's worth pointing out that Lululemon also said it was working closely with the manufacturer "to understand what happened during the period this fabric was made.")It's possible that there's a third party, some company that supplied Eclat with the fabric for the pants, clearing it somewhat from the blame. But at this point, this particular incident really is a frustrating finger-pointing match that's left Lululemon out about $20 million in lost sales and a whole lot yogis out of high-priced pants.

RELATED: Lululemon's Too-Thin Yoga Pants Fiasco Could Cost the Company Over $20 Million

Let's get real about this stretchy trousers tale, though. It's pretty obvious that the supplier gains nothing by saddling the blame, however the perhaps unexpected media circusthat gathered around this see-through yoga pants scandal highlighted a number of questionable incidents in recent Lululemon history. As a Credit Suisse analyst pointed out in a note to clients that this is Lululemon's "fourth quality control issue in the last year." Not counting this latest debacle, two out of the other three issues involved the sheerness of its fabrics. Clearly, something is up.

RELATED: Insider Attacks in Afghanistan, Yoga in Prison, and Light in Art

Along these lines, other analysts suggested that Lululemon needs to spend more time in Taiwan to make sure the manufacturers' work is up to snuff. No matter whose at fault in the growing list Lululemon's quality control issues, it can't hurt to get to the root of the problem. Then maybe next time, someone will spot the bad batch, before they ship $20 million worth of transparent yoga pants around the world.

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Lululemon's See-Through Yoga Pants Problem Takes a Turn for the Scandalous

SOS, SOS!

Yoga sportswear maker Lululemon as you may have already heard has been forced to recall hundreds of their basic black yoga pants due to a manufacturing error that made the stretchy, slimming leggings too see-through. Now, Lululemon is experiencing a shortage of the pants, the companys stock is dropping, and the world of yoga as wealthy, new age-y ladies once knew it is changing forever.

Jimmy Kimmel, patron saint of the yoga pants crisis, has taken it upon himself to create the public service announcement below, which sheds some light on the seriousness of the situation. Without the hundred dollar pants, what will yoga enthusiasts wear? Cardboard? Bubble wrap? Yo gurt pants?

Check it out, and let us know what youll be wearing without the option of designer workout pants.

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Save our spandex! Jimmy Kimmel creates PSA for yoga pants shortage