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Trivia on lululemon via Paul Price, article found in NYTimes.
Lululemon Athletica Combines Ayn Rand and Yoga
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA — Lululemon Athletica, the retailer of yoga pants and hoodies, has long decorated shopping bags with slogans that appear to have been lifted from self-help books. But this month its bags have asked a question that some may find more provocative: “Who is John Galt?”
The question is the opening line of “Atlas Shrugged,” the novel by Ayn Rand that was published in 1957. Followers of Rand’s free market philosophy, which promotes the idea of individuals living for their self-interest and dismisses altruism, sometimes use the question to signal their allegiance.
Galt would not likely have proclaimed, as Lululemon’s bags once did, that “what we do to the earth, we do to ourselves.” Nor does the online reaction to the campaign suggest that many Lululemon shoppers are fans of Rand’s philosophy, known as Objectivism.
“I was so shocked by being handed this bag today at your Portland, Ore., store that I literally WALKED BACK to return this horrific bag,” one customer wrote on Lululemon’s blog. “In this political and economic climate, I find it baffling that your company would choose such an inflammatory and offensive statement.”
The blog also contains posts from people, many of whom indicate they are Lululemon shoppers, praising the company for promoting Rand’s ideas.
The company, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has declined all media requests for comment about the campaign. But in its blog, the company said that Dennis J. Wilson, the company’s founder and chairman, first read “Atlas Shrugged” when he was 18 years old.
