It’s been a pretty big media week for Westbeach and Lululemon founder Chip Wilson. First, he was featured in the Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker magazine regarding the launch of his wife and son’s new clothing line (and retail stores) Kit & Ace, and then yesterday (February 2, 2015) he was profiled in The New York Times.
More than once, the way Wilson spoke reminded me of the airhead fashion model Ben Stiller plays in “Zoolander.” But for all his off-putting and impolitic utterances (in a blog post about Lululemon’s origins, he infamously linked the use of birth control to rising divorce rates, and claimed this led to his future market), he has a kind of genius for forecasting trends and assessing the human impulses — vanity, insecurity, the yearning for perfection — that make people pay more for something they could buy much cheaper elsewhere.
Yep, the same old Chip we remember from back in the snowboard days. It’s good to see someone stick to their opinions and become action sports single most successful billionaire at the same time. There are lessons to be learned here somewhere.
[Link: The New Yorker & New York Times]
