Lululemon Blames See-Through Yoga Pants On Testing Mistake

lululemon athletica via www.flickr.com creative commonsLast month, Lululemon recalled 17 percent of its pants for being too sheer.

The incident blew the door wide open for Lululemon's mounting competition, cost the company millions of dollars, and resulted in the resignation of its chief product officer.

In a release today, Lululemon explained why so many of its pants were recalled.

"We have found that our testing protocols were incomplete for some of the variables in fabric characteristics," the company said. "When combined with subtle style changes in pattern, the resulting end product had an unacceptable level of sheerness."

In other words, Lululemon wasn't thoroughly testing the product it was putting out.

The company initially blamed the problem on its supplier in Taiwan. The supplier fired back that it wasn't responsible.

Lululemon is implementing a new team and policies to keep the problem from happening again.

It's important that Lululemon take action: the sheer pants scandal was its fourth quality-control issue in the past year.

If consumers don't trust Lululemon, they'll likely go to competitors like Athleta for their yoga-wear.