Lululemon Fires Art Director Over ‘Bat Fried Rice’ Shirt

Lulumemon has issued an apology and fired its art director, Trevor Fleming, after he shared an Instagram link on Sunday to a shirt created by artist Jess Sluder featuring a Chinese take-out box decorated with bat wings and the words “no thank you” on the sleeves and back.

The shirt, titled “Bat Fried Rice” was listed for sale at $60 until it was taken down. Meanwhile, Fleming’s Instagram account has since been deleted, according to USA Today.

There have been 100+ daily attacks on Asian Americans since the start of #COVID19. To see people adding to the hurt & racism hurts my heart. I hope someone picks up this story and these individuals take responsibility. I am more proud than ever to be part of the AA community. ✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/nWy9WJeMVE

— Kamauri Yeh (@yehwho) April 19, 2020

The shirt was criticized as racist, as the coronavirus pandemic originated in Wuhan, China – where researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were studying coronavirus from horseshoe bat samples they had collected in caves 1,000 miles away in Yunnan, which is genetically identical to the original virus that causes COVID-19.

“At lululemon, our culture and values are core to who we are, and we take matters like this extremely seriously,” said Lululemon spokeswoman Erin Hankinson in a statement to USA Today. “We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive t-shirt… The image and the post were inappropriate and inexcusable and we do not tolerate this behaviour.”

“We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of lululemon,” the statement continues.