Lululemon founder Chip Wilson among richest people in the world

Chip Wilson, Lululemon
founder.
Reuters

• Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is now one of the 500 richest
  people in the world.
• His fortune hit $3.9 billion thanks to a 15% surge in shares
  of the company.
• He stepped down from the board in 2015, but still owns a 13%
  stake in the activewear brand.
• Wilson is known for his controversial comments.

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson has been named among the 500
richest people in the world.

62-year-old Wilson, who founded Lululemon Athletica Inc. in
Vancouver, Canada in 1998, has the activeware brand’s successful
second quarter and a 15% surge in company shares to thank for his
$3.9 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg.

Lululemon beat Wall Street’s net sales estimates for the eighth
quarter in a row on Thursday, making Wilson $311 richer on Friday
and adding another $41 million on Tuesday, Bloomberg reports.

He is now the 496th richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index.

Wilson stepped down from the board
in 2015, a year after resigning as chairman and three years
after stepping aside as chief innovation and branding officer of
the company, though he returned to the business in 2013 to help
deal with a crisis that saw Lululemon recall 17% of its famous
yoga pants for being too sheer.

The founder, known for making headlines throughout his tenure
with a number of controversial
comments, still owns a 13% stake in the company.

A Lululemon
store.
Reuters

In 2013, he caused outrage when he suggested to Bloomberg TV
that Lululemon pants “don’t work for some women’s bodies.”

Speaking about quality issues some customers were having with the
yoga pants, he said: “Frankly some women’s bodies just don’t
actually work for it.

“They don’t work for some women’s bodies… it’s really about the
rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there over a
period of time, how much they use it.”

He later posted a bizarre video apology
for his remarks and begged customers to give the company a second
chance.

In 2009, he claimed in a blog post that
smoking and birth control pills led to high divorce rates, and
he also once told Canada’s
National Post Business Magazine that he chose the name
Lululemon for his company because he thought it was funny that
Japanese people couldn’t pronounce the letter “L.”

Speaking on the moment he found out he was a billionaire,
in a 2016 interview he said:
“There’s not much difference between having probably $20 million
and being a billionaire quite frankly.”