lululemon Faces Scrutiny Over Vile Down Jackets After Reneging on Talks With PETA

Group to Submit Shareholder Resolution Calling On Company to Stop Selling Down-Filled Jackets

For Immediate Release:
December 11, 2018

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Today, PETA will submit a shareholder resolution to lululemon’s Board of Directors calling on the athleisure company to uphold its professed commitment to compassion and environmental stewardship by ditching down and using exclusively superior, eco- and animal-friendly vegan materials. The action comes after lululemon committed to engaging in talks with PETA during last year’s annual meeting but then failed to make good on the pledge, a violation of shareholders’ trust.

“Every one of lululemon’s down jackets represents the pain and fear of gentle birds who are subjected to intensive confinement on filthy factory farms before their throats are slit and they’re dumped into scalding-hot defeathering tanks, often while fully conscious,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on lululemon to make lemonade out of a sour situation by dropping down and embracing any of the many high-quality down alternatives on the market today.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—notes that lululemon obtains some of its down from China, where there are no regulations to protect animals and no penalties for abusing them. A PETA exposé of the down industry there documented that workers left sick and injured chicks, geese, and ducks to die slowly. Dead birds were found decaying in crates and ponds, and others were tossed outside like trash.

Today’s high-tech synthetic materials—including Thinsulate, Climashield, and PrimaLoft—are warm and cozy, and unlike down, they don’t lose their insulating power when wet.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.