Push to Ban Down Heads to lululemon’s Boardroom

PETA’s Shareholder Resolution Calls for Total Shift to Animal-Friendly, Feather-Free Insulation

For Immediate Release:
June 2, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

“It’s time for lululemon to stop hiding behind meaningless labels and instead authentically connect with the growing demographic of socially conscious consumers.” That’s the message that a representative of PETA, which owns stock in lululemon, will bring to the company’s virtual annual meeting on Wednesday, when shareholders will consider PETA’s resolution to ban down.

PETA has repeatedly shared eyewitness investigations revealing that birds used for down often spend their entire lives in crowded, filthy conditions before they’re trucked to slaughterhouses where their throats are slit.

But instead of banning down, lululemon has supported the “Responsible Down Standard,” which doesn’t stop animal suffering: It allows for birds to be denied food and water for more than eight hours and to be slaughtered in full of view of one another. It only requires one announced visit a year, making it impossible to know what the birds are truly enduring. And it even allows a 30- to 60-day window for most violations to be corrected, during which time farmers can still sell their down as “responsible”—so “certified” down may come from birds who were confined to cages and slaughtered while fully conscious and subjected to other acts of cruelty.

“lululemon must stop profiting from animal abuse, rather than hiding behind standards that have been proven time and time again to be meaningless,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on lululemon to stick to the high-tech, cruelty-free materials that today’s ethically minded consumers actually want to buy.”

Today’s synthetic insulating materials—including PrimaLoft, which lululemon already uses in some of its products—are warm and cozy, and unlike down, they don’t lose their insulating power when wet.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.