Article

Why is lululemon athletica quoting Ayn Rand?

The yoga retailer's blog and shopping bags have recently extolled the "Bible of the Tea Party."

November 16, 2011 by James Bickers

Earlier this month, cashiers at lululemon athletica started handing customers their sweat pants and yoga mats in shopping bags adorned with the phrase, "Who is John Galt?" That question appears many times throughout the novel "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, and in a blog post that appeared around the same time on the company's website, it was explained that founder Chip Wilson was impacted by the book as a young man, and today the company's vision is shaped by it.

"The character John Galt encouraged all of the world's innovators and intelligent minds to go on strike from the increasingly controlling government in order to create a vacuum of brilliance, proving that independent creativity and free-will is critical for quality of life," the blog post explains.

But the retailer might have misread its core audience — overwhelmingly college-educated and female, according to a study from Yoga Journal, a demographic that skews to the left — in publicly embracing a book that some consider "the Bible of the Tea Party."

Who is John Galt?

"Atlas Shrugged" is set in an alternate America where business has been throttled by big government, and mediocrity reigns. It is more than 1,000 pages of narrative, but it's also an explanation of the Objectivist movement, which emphasizes self-interest over self-sacrifice, the individual over society. According to the website Conservapedia, the climactic 70-page speech by John Galt is "a manifesto for individualism and capitalism," and the name is frequently seen and heard at Tea Party rallies. Republican Ron Paul pays tribute to him on his page at the House of Representatives website, beginning his bio with the phrase "Who is Ron Paul?"

If the comments on its website are any indication, then lululemon customers are divided right down the middle on the bags: roughly half of the comments thank the company for taking a philosophical stand, while the other half shriek outrage and say they will take their business elsewhere. A common theme among the latter is the fact that the Rand philosophy is so far removed from the benevolent underpinnings of yoga.

To be fair, the company has cherry-picked the novel and focuses only on the positive aspects of Galt's message:

What do we want to create for our lives right now? We can do it. It might be hard but there is nothing stopping us. Think about the reasons and excuses that come up when we envision our best lives; it is remarkable how manipulative and clever mediocrity can be, sneakily convincing us to continue existing without what we desire most.

Our bags are visual reminders for ourselves to live a life we love and conquer the epidemic of mediocrity. We all have a John Galt inside of us, cheering us on. How are we going to live lives we love?

The commenters, though, aren't buying it:

Bottom line is that this deranged writer who devoted herself to promoting a fake philosophy of self-reliance today is the heroine of those who are without empathy for the vulnerable and who would do nothing to help them. Nothing. People who believe in Rand are still pumping up her reputation and promoting the "greed is good" approach to our society, including Lululemon's CEO, no doubt. If this twisted belief system prevails, our society will be severely and permanently damaged.

That is why it is so disturbing to read this claptrap about John Galt and his preaching against mediocrity. Those words are code for human indifference, selfishness and anti-social behavior, which fits the description of a personality disorder.

You can rest assured that I and many others who naively associated the yoga movement with progressive values and humanity will never set foot in your Lululemon stores again. After all, you don't need us – you can survive just fine on your own.

The company declined our request for an interview on the subject.

Was this a mistake?

Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, a self-made billionaire thanks to his retail endeavor, seems to court controversy. In 2005 he gave a speech about the merits of outsourcing production to Asia and using child labor. He told the National Post Business Magazine that his company's name is a marketing tool in Japan, because "it's funny to watch them try and say it." So perhaps in the grand scheme, the "Rand branding" isn't such a shock.

But retail consultant Mike Wittenstein thinks that it is a mistake.

"I think that the real estate on the bags should be governed by what's in customers' best interests. Influencing others' personal opinions isn't welcome, especially when it's not invited," he said. "Pushing your personal opinions on others using 'their' shopping bag isn't cool."

"I am a big Lululemon fan. I almost exclusively wear Lululemon clothing for all my workouts," said Lori Popkewitz Alper, yoga practitioner and editor of the website Groovy Green Livin'. "I find their new bags weird. I'm not sure why a company would take such a strong political view. I'm guessing that many who continue to carry the bags either don't have a clue what the Ayn Rand novel stands for or don't care that they are inadvertently making a political statement."