LuLaRich has done the impossible: make the leggings uncomfortable, at least on screen. The fascinating documentary series juxtaposes snapshots of colorful pants and other colorful pieces with the dark story of the increasingly malicious actions of DeAnne and Mark Stidham, co-founders of the clothing company LuLaRoe. Their products are popular for vivid patterns without apologies, but the most sought after are leggings with colorful prints and an “soft buttery fabric” initially. The clothes may be shiny and tight, but LuLaRoe’s success story is tainted with lawsuits, sadness and fallen levels of jaw-dropping emotional manipulation. LuLaRich shows the company’s annoying practices that caused disruption to the lives of its middle-class retailers. In trying to match the issue, docuseries are sometimes more flashy than necessary, but they are effective in capturing Stidhams ’horrible leadership and the financial ruin it caused its employees.
Founded in 2012, LuLaRoe cannot simply be classified as a women’s clothing company. It has thrived with multilevel marketing (or MLM), but former employees don’t hesitate to define it as a proper pyramid scheme. Roberta Blevins, a former LuLaRoe distributor, directly calls it a cult LuLaRich. The introductory episode sets out LuLaRoe’s story and the operation of the pyramid schemes, which ultimately combine the concept with the company’s business methods. The company the target was mainly low-income women and struggling mothers, hired as saleswomen or “fashion consultants” who had to pay between $ 5,000 and $ 10,000 to join and buy inventory and then sell it for profit. The more people sign up as retailers to advance, the more money they would earn on bonus checks. In 2016, the company reported more than $ 1 billion in sales.
The idea was called American Dream: a lucrative home business; affordable and attractive clothing; and be part of a national community. For many, it was too good to pass up. In five years, LuLaRoe had 80,000 independent distributors and consultants in the United States, but over time, the Stidhams they have allegedly swindled billions of dollars to employees and partners, including the manufacturing company Providence Industries, and have faced multiple lawsuits. LuLaRich explores these allegations through increasingly disturbing interviews with people who worked or still work for the company, as well as the Stidhams, some of their 14 children, and other relatives.
Even if you’ve never heard of LuLaRoe, this four-year-old episode docuseries is a worthwhile fact. It’s wild and amazing, but also insightful about how this business works. The Stidhams still claim that they are not at the head of a pyramid scheme, but of the interviewees of LuLaRich say the opposite. Co-directors Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason cautiously include footage of DeAnne and Mark’s 2019 lawsuit filings along with their documentary interviews, which make it clear that the couple knew exactly what they were doing, even if they don’t admit it. As they talk to the cameras, Mark and DeAnne present a cheerful, confident forehead. The claim is broken in clips that officially question them, or even during Zoom group calls with employees. His biggest egos in life shine when former employees remember how Mark compared himself to Mormon leader Joseph Smith.
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The Stidhams formed a team of thousands of retailers on behalf of the community, but fostered a culture of false deference, firing anyone who questioned their tactics or presented defective products: clothes left in the sun and growing mold, which most retailers describe. as a stench worse than dead rats. Mark is heard sternly lecturing them in a call: “Do you think our inventory is obsolete? No, you’re stale. ” They instructed the women (who made up most of their employee base) to do whatever it took to pay for the inventory, including selling breast milk at the hospital’s NICU or opening more and more credit cards. LuLaRich exposes what is essentially a toxic and abusive relationship.
The ingenious and hardworking women who appear in it LuLaRich describe in a vulnerable way that they have lost the effect of abandoning savings for a company they believe betrayed them in return. Most spent all their money or took out loans to invest in inventory, while bestsellers received rewards with benefits such as luxury cruises and Katy Perry concerts to attract more retailers. But they all remember the work environment under pressure and resembling a LuLaRoe clique.
Courtney Harwood of North Carolina, who has three children, joined the company in 2015. She talks about getting along with DeAnne and feeling like part of a tribe. But after a few years he began to feel the pressure. In episode three, “Blow Up”, she reveals that her breaking point was DeAnne who encouraged her to drive to Tijuana. for weight loss surgery. Her refusal led her to be separated from co-workers. Women were advised to maintain a certain figure and lifestyle and to accredit everything to the company, positioning LuLaRoe as a kind of miracle to save lives. Even his hashtag on social media was #BecauseOfLuLaRoe.
Furst and Nason, who also directed Hulu’s Guys cheat, fill up LuLaRich with the same visual brilliance as LuLaRoe’s clothing. They provide a safe space for women like Blevins and Harwood to talk about their losses, process internal trauma, and publicly share their grievances. LuLaRich it’s an open look at how the Stidhams took advantage of susceptible people. There is a clear discriminatory pattern, which includes hiring women of a certain size and then keeping them under the thumb. LaShae Kimbrough, a former LuLaRoe employee, is one of the few black employees. She talks about skipping luxury cruises because she didn’t want to get caught up with rich white women on a boat.
The abundance of docuseries, including shows of real crimes, such as Tiger king and research papers such as Framing Britney SpearsIt allows only a few days in digital light before the public moves on to the next offer. The new Furst and Nason series will surely be a starting point for memes, but at the same time LuLaRich it is entertaining and incisive, we hope it will encourage conversation about improving the economic and legal system to give better support to middle class workers in cases like this. The women here had to come together through an online group to discuss and expose the faults, unlike the Showtime themes. Love of fraud. They were made to believe that they could choose not to participate when they wanted to and return the inventory they had raised thousands of dollars to insure. But the company was more concerned with booking Kelly Clarkson for a conference than reimbursing hundreds of thousands of dollars to retailers who wanted to cut ties after realizing how toxic the corporate environment was.
Despite the lawsuits (many of which have been resolved), today for LuLaRoe it is normal. DeAnne and Mark even celebrated their birthdays with private jets and organized masquerade parties. The Stidhams still refuse to acknowledge any serious error. “I wish there hadn’t been negativity,” DeAnne says toward the end of the docuseria. But this is just one element of this fascinating documentary; LuLaRich it begins with a focus on the sense of hope that LuLaRoe sold to its retailers, which now lies in discomfort.