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Kate_Hudson_1136563799.jpg

Look. Kate Hudson(s) Love Leggings. Deal With it OK?

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | May 29, 2019 |

By Kate Hudson | Celebrity | May 29, 2019 |


Kate_Hudson_1136563799.jpg

First and foremost, I want to start this conversation by empathically declaring that leggings are pants. Leggings are whatever you want them to be because leggings are f*cking GREAT.

via GIPHY

Now, I don’t know if this is a Kate Hudson thing, but there’s at least two Kate Hudsons out there who have made loving leggings an intrinsic part of who they are. One of them’s me, the other probably isn’t you. Unless you’re that Kate Hudson.

You know the one I’m talking about. She of Penny Lane, fame.

via GIPHY

Anyway, we’re getting off track here because my favorite Buzzfeed writer, Anne Helen Petersen (she of those excellent “Scandals of Classic Hollywood” articles on The Hairpin. I think about her takedown of Ronald Regan a lot, 7 years on) recently wrote about how Kate Hudson, she of promising Hollywood stardom, took a side street to leggings empire maven, in an article titled: “Kate Hudson Was Destined For Hollywood Greatness. Then She Pivoted To Leggings.”

“In truth, Hudson was always selling a vision of her life — the only change is that people are now paying her for its accoutrements. It’s a triumph, in a way. But it’s also an illustration of how few options are open to stars “of a certain age” in Hollywood — and what’s lost when you transform a celebrity brand into a retail one.”

It’s a fascinating article, one that points out how a few early hits (Almost Famous and How To Lose a Guy In Ten Days) notwithstanding, Kate has always been a bankable celebrity, but has not particular success at the box office.

…So, how did she discover her own personal love of leggings?

Well, like all of us, it involves a man, a woman, a celebrity endorsement, and some questionable business practices. Enter Fabeltics:

And then there was Fabletics. Unlike its traditional retail competitors, which relied on a combination of brick-and-mortar and online sales, Fabletics’s business model relied heavily on subscriptions, which would charge a VIP member’s credit card every month unless they opted out within the first five days. Think Columbia House or BMG music club — only for leggings and matching sports bras.

Most companies strive for ways to get customers to come back month after month, but Fabletics, like the rest of the JustFab suite of companies, had a way to guarantee that they would. Yet many customers didn’t realize that they were signing up for an ongoing billing membership; others couldn’t figure out the labyrinthian process to cancel. What mattered, though, was that they signed up in the first place — and many of those who did were lured by ubiquitous Facebook ads featuring Kate Hudson, serene in Lotus Pose, with her trademark smile and flat abs, dressed in matching Fabletics gear.

It’s a fascinating look at how Hudson’s celebrity (and likeability) swaths Fabeltics own, let’s call them business practice missteps, in a shiny patina that allows them to recover more easily from things. It’s well worth your time, and I say this confidently as another Kate Hudson who was once destined for greatness, and now finds herself wearing leggings, daily. That’s a pretty strong endorsement if I do say so myself.

…and I do.


But back to the central matter at hand that I’m sure you’re wondering: Is that Kate Hudson’s legging this Kate Hudson’s favorite leggings?

Sadly, no. I prefer spanx leggings for going out leggings (my business casual leggings, if you will) and the leggings you can buy at Costco for having people over (my company leggings, if you will) and obviously pajama pants if I’m alone at home, because even though I love leggings, I love jimjams most of all.

This has been your Kate Hudson leggings related report today.



Header Image Source: Getty