Photo: Courtesy of The Anti-Jared.
Lululemon and plus-size consumers don't really get along, and understandably so. The brand is notorious for allegedly under-stocking and mis-merchandising its larger sizes, and Lululemon co-founder Chip Wilson has appeared on television saying that "frankly, some women's bodies just actually don't work [for yoga pants]." Which women in particular? Women who abuse the pants by "rubbing through the thighs." If this sounds a little say what? to you, you're not alone. It was enough of a head-scratcher to motivate one man to try out a pair of yoga pants for himself.
Tony Posnanski is a fit guy who has never ripped a pair of pants and wears a size medium in workout gear. Having never encountered women's plus-sizing in person before, he relied on his intuition and popular culture to determine what he thought he'd wear in yoga pants:
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"I looked at the largest size [at Target], which was a 12. I was thinking it would be more like an eight or a 10. I mean, Jessica Simpson was a size eight and people called her plus-size...I held [the size eight] up to me and did not even try. Then I went to try on the size 12. It would not even go up my whole leg...How is it that I wear size medium men's everything and I cannot even fit into a pair of yoga pants?"
Average height and weight standards for women and men aside, Posnanski brings up a good point about how athletic clothes are supposed to be made to be durable. If the frame of an average-sized, fit man is beyond the limits of what a yoga pant can contain, there's a problem with the industry at large, not the person. Says Posnanski, who wrote about his road to health, during which he lost 200 pounds, at The Anti-Jared, "If I was a woman…I would be looked upon as the problem for obesity instead of the solution that some see me as. Chip Wilson is way wrong about his pants. They are made wrong; It has nothing to do with the thighs."
Yes, Posnanski, YES. Kudos to you for feeling confident enough with yourself to eventually ask sales attendants about which women's size fits your body type, big ups for not making a huge deal about trying on ladies' clothing in public, and a huge thumbs-up for reaching a reasonable conclusion about stretchy pants and thigh prejudice (as well as double standards in regards to women's plus-sizing, obviously). We'll dedicate our next workout session to you (in our non-Lulu yoga pants, mind you)!
Read Posnanski's full article on The Huffington Post.