Lululemon Employee Fired for 'Bat Fried Rice' Shirt

Lululemon has cut ties with an employee who shared on social media a T-shirt design depicting a Chinese take-out box with bat wings and the words "no thank you" boldly emblazoned across the back.

The athletic wear retailer's senior global art director, Trevor Fleming, caused a stir on Sunday after posting a link to his now-deleted Stockroom account of the t-shirt design entitled "bat fried rice," which was initially shared by California artist Jess Slider, USA Today reported.

Lululemon was quick to point out that the controversial t-shirt, which has since been removed, was not one of its products.

"At Lululemon, our culture and values are core to who we are, and we take matters like this extremely seriously," Lululemon spokesperson Erin said in a statement. "We apologize that an employee was affiliated with promoting an offensive t-shirt."

Hankinson added that the image and post to social media "were inappropriate and inexcusable" and such behavior was intolerable.

"We acted immediately, and the person involved is no longer an employee of lululemon," she said.

The apology comes amid mounting backlash on social media.

"I can’t believe that you support Racism," one Instagram user replied to Lululemon's latest post.

"As a brand, you should be well aware of the people you hire because they in fact represent your organization," another wrote.

Other followers threatened to boycott Lululemon.

"I will ask all my friend stop supporting you. Never ever again," an Instagram user replied in the thread.

"Will not be purchasing or wearing anything from this brand unless proper action is taken and racism is addressed," another wrote.

One Twitter user shared a screenshot of the t-shirt and slammed the designer for supporting racism.

"There have been 100+ daily attacks on Asian Americans since the start of #COVID19," she wrote. "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."