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New Lululemon gear back in stores after the see-through pants incident

Lululemon love affair

Benjamin Norman/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Black Lululemon pants are once again folded on the shelves of stores across the nation after the unfortunate see-through pants incident of 2013.

The problem, if you will recall, was with the special luon fabric used in the brand’s popular stretchy pants. The fabric turned out to be too sheer in some shipments sent out in March and it did not provide enough coverage in about 17 per cent of its women’s pants. This prompted a massive recall, drops in the company’s stock, the departure of its chief product officer, and many, many jokes.

The fabric problem has been fixed and black luon pants will be back in stores in June, the company wrote on its blog late last week.

The company has made some changes to ensure its doesn’t have another pants problem. Lead product educator Britt writes on the Lululemon blog:

First, we added tighter new standards and specifications to our testing and development. In fact, your stretchy pants go through about 15 tests to make sure you get great ass coverage (that’s the scientific term).

And speaking of science, we even got some university scientists to help us developed a “sheer-o-metre” which measures the amount of light coming through the fabric while being stretched at varying degrees.

We’ve also re-engineered our luon bottom patterns in each and every style to minimize the stretching of the fabric. Basically, that means there’s now more fabric across the bum so it’s not stretched from the get-go.

The best news for Lululemon is that it seems to have fixed the problem without long-term consequences. Stock prices have recovered since the March drop and are currently near all-time highs, reports Bloomberg.

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