Sheer pants aren’t why its CEO is resigning, Lululemon insists

A week after athletic apparel maker Lululemon’s black yoga pants returned to shelves following a March recall, its chief executive has decided to make her exit. “This was a personal decision of mine,” CEO Christine Day said on a conference call, according to the Huffington Post. “Look, there’s never a perfect time to leave a company that you love. … As the company embarks on that next 10-year vision, the timing’s right to bring in the next person to lead.” On Monday evening, Lululemon posted a Q&A to its website affirming that Day’s decision was her own, not the board’s, and that it was not precipitated by the recall of pants that consumers criticized for being “see-through.” “The company has recovered from the setback around the black luon, and Christine is acting on her deep conviction that it is time to transition to a new CEO to lead the company through its next phase of growth,” the document states. In March, Day explained that employees were handling returns of the black luon pants via a bend-over test. “The truth of the matter is the only way you can actually test for the issue is to put the pants on and bend over,” she said. “Just putting the pants on themselves doesn’t solve the problem.” Day has been Lululemon’s chief executive for five-and-a-half years; before that, she was an exec at Starbucks. The Q&A also states that she’ll remain at Lululemon through 2013 or until a successor is named.