Lululemon Athletica plans to recall a large portion of its yoga pants because they were unintentionally see-through. The recall of the black yoga pants amounts to 17 percent of all women’s pants sold in its stores.

“The ingredients, weight and longevity qualities of the pants remain the same, but the coverage does not, resulting in a level of sheerness in some of our women’s black Luon bottoms that falls short of our very high standards,” the company said in a statement late Monday.

Investors bid down LULU shares 3 percent by 3 pm Tuesday after analysts noted that the recall marked the fourth quality control problem at the company in the last year. Several questioned whether the rapidly growing company has outgrown its capacity to monitor its offshore factories.

Lululemon attributed the latest problem to Eclat Textile Co., the exclusive supplier of its luon fabric. When contacted Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal, however, the CFO for the Taiwanese company insisted it had followed Lululemon’s specifcations and certifcation process prior to shipping the fabric.

Lululemon’s full statement follows:

BLACK LUON PANTS SHORTAGE EXPECTED – FAQ


What is the issue?

  • Some of our bottoms were made with a batch of black luon that doesnt meet our standards so weve pulled them from our floors and our website.
  • We have determined that certain shipments of product received from our factories and available in store on March 1, 2013, do not meet our technical specifications.
  • On the weekend of March 16, 2013, we pulled all of the affected black luon womens bottoms from our stores, showrooms and e-commerce site and are working with our supplier to replace the fabric and our other manufacturers to replace these key items as quickly as possible.

What items are affected?

  • Its certain styles concentrated in our tighter fitting silhouettes in womens black luon bottoms.

How are the items affected?

  • The ingredients, weight and longevity qualities of the womens black luon bottoms remain the same but the coverage does not, resulting in a level of sheerness in some of our womens black luon bottoms that fall short of our very high standards.

What percentage of product does this represent?

  • This represents approximately 17% of all womens bottoms in our stores.

What materials are used to make luon?

  • Luon is made from a combination of nylon and Lycra spandex fibres.

When did you know?

  • We first began to understand the extent of the issue on Monday, March 11th as part of our weekly call with store managers. Some of our store managers expressed concern over the sheerness of some of our womens black luon bottoms.

What did you do first?

  • Over the past weekend we pulled all of the affected black luon womens bottoms from our stores, showrooms and e-commerce site and are working with our supplier to replace the fabric and our other manufacturers to replace these key items as quickly as possible.
  • The quality of our products are paramount so we gathered our internal experts and leaders immediately to get an understanding of the issue

Have you determined the cause of the problem?

  • We are working closely with our manufacturing partner to understand what happened during the period this specific fabric was made.

Where is it manufactured?

  • Luon is manufactured in Vietnam and Taiwan.

How do guests return product they have purchased?

  • Guests who purchased black luon womens bottoms since March 1st, either online or in stores, and think they have affected product are welcome to return them for a full refund or exchange. Please contact our Guest Education Center at 1-877-263-9300 or gec@lululemon.com with questions as to how to return items purchased made through our e-commerce site.

What is the company doing to help resolve the issue?

  • Our guest is our number one priority and we will take all necessary steps to ensure that we are only making available product that meets our highest standard.
  • Since we have been made aware of the issue, we have moved swiftly across all channels to ensure that the affected product does not end up in the hands of our guests.
  • We are also exploring all opportunities to increase inventory levels as quickly as possible, so long as our standards are met.

What impact will this have on your ability to meet guest needs?

  • For the near term, there will be a shortage of some styles available to our guests.
  • We are also exploring all opportunities to increase inventory levels as quickly as possible, so long as our standards are met.

What impact will this have on current orders?

  • We will only ship our guests products that we are confident meet our standards.
  • In the event that a guest receives black bottoms and has concerns, they can the contact our Guest Education Center at 1-877-263-9300 or gec@lululemon.com with questions as to how to return items purchased made through our e-commerce site.

When will you have good product back in your stores?

  • We are doing everything we can to increase our inventory levels of black luon womens bottoms in our stores as soon as possible.
  • We will be sharing more information as it becomes available. Stay tuned to store facebook pages, product notifications and lululemon.com for new product drops and updates.

How could this have happened?

  • This event is not the result of changing manufacturers or quality of ingredients. We are working closely with them to understand what happened during the period this fabric was made.

What are you doing to insure that this doesnt happen again?

  • We are committed to providing the highest quality products to our guests.
  • We are in the process of identifying the production issue, and will resume production and shipment of the product when the issue has been addressed and corrected.

Will you be able to recycle the unusable pants or do you have to destroy them?

  • We have a process to take care of product that doesnt meet our quality standards and will be working to ensure that these products are recycled and managed accordingly as well. Once we have received all the affected luon, we will be able to make an informed decision on the best way to reduce the impact of this batch.
  • For further information on our sustainability commitments visit http://www.lululemon.com/community/legacies/environment#waste

Does this affect the product made by Ivivva?

  • We are not experiencing this issue in our Ivivva product.