Everlane

“Like many brands, we’ve faced increasing pressure in a rapidly changing retail landscape,” Chang wrote in the letter. “This partnership allows us to remain independent, and gives us the stability and resources to make a larger impact, without compromising on the quality and standards that make Everlane, Everlane.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Everlane, the retailer that bucked the fast-fashion industry by promising affordable ethically sourced and sustainable clothing, is being acquired by the king of fast-fashion Shein, founded in China.

Everlane, the retailer that bucked the fast-fashion industry by promising affordable ethically sourced and sustainable clothing, is being acquired by the king of fast-fashion, China's Shein.

Shein, which has been called the world's biggest fast fashion polluter is reportedly acquiring Everlane, a darling in sustainable circles. (Photo by Julie SEBADELHA / AFP) (Photo by JULIE SEBADELHA/AFP via Getty Images)

Chang, who became CEO in 2024, wrote that the deal will enable the business to invest more in its product, innovation and staff. He emphasized that Everlane will remain an independent brand, staying true to its “sustainability” commitments.

But now Everlane is in bad shape. It’s $90 million in debt, behind on rent, and facing eviction at its headquarters. This week, Puck reported that the company has found a buyer that seems antithetical to the values it once said it held: Shein, the online fast-fashion behemoth synonymous with overconsumption and workplace abuses such as child labor. Shein, in response to allegations of poor conditions over the years, has made efforts to address critics, such as investing in carbon-reducing initiatives and ending orders at factories that have known problems. Still, the era of sustainable fashion that Everlane represents seems to be fading—as does the concept that ethical consumerism alone can eliminate the clothing industry’s worst practices. (Everlane declined to comment on reports of the sale, and Shein did not immediately respond to an interview request.)

“Like many brands, we’ve faced increasing pressure in a rapidly changing retail landscape,” Chang wrote in the letter. “This partnership allows us to remain independent, and gives us the stability and resources to make a larger impact, without compromising on the quality and standards that make Everlane, Everlane.”

For these and other reasons, the company mystified consumers last week, when it was sold to the e-commerce giant Shein, which ranked as the biggest polluter in fast fashion last year. Shein offers clothing, jewelry, home goods and accessories, all for sometimes shockingly cheap prices — the true cost of which is its carbon-intensive supply chain. The sale was orchestrated by L Catterton, the company’s majority owner, according to fashion reporter Laura Sherman, who broke the story. (Preysman, who stepped down as CEO in 2022, wrote on LinkedIn that he “found out at the same time as everyone,” and has since announced he would launch another Everlane-esque business with no venture capital or private equity money.) Fashion magazines balked, asking if Everlane’s acquisition spells the end of the fashion industry’s sustainability aspirations writ large. But the sale of Everlane to this particular buyer should turn the inquiry around: Of what use are sustainability goals in the face of hyper-consumerism? Put another way: Was it ever the case that simply buying (more) different things would ever yield a more livable planet?

Everlane as we know it is all but cooked. The San Francisco–based clothing retailer, which once touted its commitment to “radical transparency” about its pricing and supply chain, has reportedly been acquired by the ultra-fast fashion brand Shein for $100 million, per a Puck report this week. For industry insiders and consumers alike, the news raised alarm bells. How can a sustainable darling of the 2010s sell out to one of the biggest polluters in the fashion industry?

Chang, who became CEO in 2024, wrote that the deal will enable the business to invest more in its product, innovation and staff. He emphasized that Everlane will remain an independent brand, staying true to its “sustainability” commitments.

Everlane was founded in 2011, a paragon of the direct-to-consumer startup wave that saw dozens of well-funded, instantly omnipresent retailers popping up to sell thoughtfully designed toothbrushes, kitchenware, suitcases, and any other mundane accessory that people once would have bought at a department store. The establishment of an Everlane store seemed to represent a triumphant moment for the company’s understated, aspirational vision. The brand’s logo did not appear obviously on its clothes; the designs were resolutely uninteresting, even ignorable. Yet the materials were high-quality, the prices were affordable, and labels informed customers which Chinese factories made up its supply chain. Everlane’s hallmarks were efficiency and transparency—admirable qualities, though they didn’t necessarily inspire long-term loyalty or enthusiasm. Anodyne office wear became less relevant in the era of working from home; it fell to the wayside after the pandemic, as fashion trends veered flashier and logo-heavy. Last week, Everlane was subsumed by the Death Star of online fast-fashion retailers, the Chinese company Shein, best known for its extremely low prices and its habit of duping newly popular designs. On Tuesday, the Everlane co-founder Michael Preysman announced a new project that sounds like a plea: Still Radical. “Same principles, but a new take,” the website reads. “And this time: no venture capital, no private equity.”

Ms. Spunt’s team had so much turnover that people in other departments would place bets as to who would leave next, said three current employees. But also, the Ex Wives wrote, she often rejected casting suggestions for Black models, calling them “too severe” or “too edgy” or, in a 2015 email shared with The Times, not enough of a “traditional beauty” to carry a cashmere campaign. Black models did not begin appearing regularly in Everlane marketing until 2016.

“A white man finally saying that a racist and white supremacist workplace culture starts with him is nothing to congratulate. Nor is it a radical statement.”

Former employees of Everlane are calling for a boycott of the clothing retailer after speaking out about a culture of workplace racism amid a nationwide reckoning on the treatment of Black people and communities of color.

But last month, Mr. Preysman found himself on a stage of a different sort: at an all-staff meeting, after waves of public allegations of hypocrisy, with former employees having accused the company of anti-Black behavior and union busting, of selling an image to the world that did not reflect their damaging experiences inside the company. Three current employees described a culture of favoritism, particularly toward those known as “Foreverlaners” — loyal employees defensive of Mr. Preysman and the brand that they loved. An internal investigation was promised.

Employees past and present are challenging management, saying the company’s ethical image was an illusion.

In last month’s all-hands meeting with Mr. Preysman, a Black employee spoke about feeling a “constant pressure to show up as if nothing’s happening.” An employee of color was worried about being taken seriously, despite being urged to speak up: “The line seems blurred on what we are considering as right or wrong.”

The dark side of denim manufacturing has been on Preysman’s mind over the last few months. He’s been delving into the global supply chain to find a way to make denim as sustainable as possible. It hasn’t been easy, but after visiting thousands of factories around the world–and stumbling on an enlightened factory owner–Everlane is launching its first-ever line of jeans on September 7.

Last week, Everlane’s consumer experience team was gutted by layoffs in the middle of its union drive, a huge blow to the nascent organizing effort. Now, the former employees are fighting back, accusing the CEO of retaliation and threatening a legal challenge if the employees aren’t reinstated. The team, which primarily operates remotely, announced plans to unionize in late December, as reported by Anna Merlan in Vice. They said the direct-to-consumer clothing company treated them as “disposable” and failed to adequately compensate them for the work they did. The team spent months gathering the number of signatures needed to form a strong majority — a requirement for unionizing efforts. Finally, on March 23rd, they sent Everlane CEO Michael Preysman a letter announcing they had enough support and asking for voluntary recognition. Four days later, 42 team members — including all of the vocal union supports — were laid off. Representatives from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) linked the terminations to the team’s organizing efforts. “This was not only disappointing, but also unlawful,” wrote CWA’s San Francisco chapter president Orange Richardson IV in the letter to Preysman (read the full text of the letter here). “We know that Everlane has as its mission radical transparency and ethical treatment and so in light of this we are asking you to reconsider this action, re-hire the terminated remote CX workers, make them whole, and recognize their Union.” The letter says the union stands “ready to take appropriate action to defend the rights of remote CX workers.” Former employees confirmed to The Verge that this means possibly suing for wrongful termination. In an Instagram post, Everlane said the decision to lay off the team members was not about union-busting. “The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we could have predicted, and it has left no person or business untouched,” the company’s CEO wrote. “Everlane is no exception.” He added that “firing as a form of union busting is unethical and illegal” and said the company supports workers who wish to unionize. [Image: Image from Everlane’s Instagram account https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19866689/IMG_48D4E931F5F0_1.jpeg?quality=90&strip=all] Derris, a PR firm that represents Everlane, told Vogue that Everlane’s customer experience team didn’t have enough signatures to establish a clear majority. It categorized the union as “a few employees” who had “formed a committee in November and began vocalizing their plans to form a union,” but it added that, in the four months that followed, they had failed to “bring forth the necessary signatures.” But CWA organizers dispute this claim and say Everlane never acted to confirm the majority after receiving the union’s letter asking for recognition. “I’m not sure where Everlane got its information that there was not majority support among remote CX workers for organizing with CWA since no one from management ever bothered to reach out before taking action to terminate the employment

According to two recent stories by Vice‘s Anna Merlan, some of Everlane’s customer service and retail workers are frustrated with how they’re being treated and are reportedly working to form a union. In her latest piece, which came out earlier this week, Merlan spoke with 10 retail employees at Everlane’s New York location, who complained about “low pay, nonexistent benefits, [and] unpredictable scheduling.” Workers also told her that Everlane’s management team sent emails dissuading them from unionizing. Perhaps most explosively, they claimed that an Everlane manager tried to keep them from discussing their salaries with one another, which, if true, would be a violation of federal and state labor laws. (Everlane disputes this in comments to both Vice and Fast Company, saying the manager’s words were taken out of context, and she was trying to say that an all-hands meeting was not the right venue to have a discussion about salary.)

There’s a few reasons Everlane started to lose steam. A union-busting episode turned off loyal consumers when it became known that Everlane hired part time remote customer service workers who were trying to organize. Everlane laid off 42 of the 57 members after they asked for voluntary recognition. Even Bernie Sanders publically called the incident union busting.

Customer service workers with clothing brand Everlane are unionizing, organizers announced on Friday.

It sounds fantastic, but some of their employees say that transparency is only for customers and not for employees, and, as such, they are forming a union. Citing poor pay and that while Everlane wants its clothes to last forever, they treat employees as disposable. It’s not a pretty picture.

Everlane appears to have hit a roadblock in its quest to build a company grounded in “radical transparency,” as it promises in its mission statement. A decade ago, Everlane’s founder and CEO Michael Preysman coined the phrase to encompass his brand’s wide-ranging efforts to build an ethical fashion label. Now, the company is under fire for allegedly promoting poor working conditions.

The part-time employees, who work remotely and don’t get benefits, say they want “adequate compensation, protection and support.”

Everlane appears to have hit a roadblock in its quest to build a company grounded in "radical transparency," as it promises in its mission statement. A decade ago, Everlane's founder and CEO Michael Preysman coined the phrase to encompass his brand's wide-ranging efforts to build an ethical fashion label. Now, the company is under fire for allegedly promoting poor working conditions. According to two recent stories by Vice's Anna Merlan, some of Everlane's customer service and retail workers are frustrated with how they're being treated and are reportedly working to form a union. In her latest piece, which came out earlier this week, Merlan spoke with 10 retail employees at Everlane's New York location, who complained about "low pay, nonexistent benefits, [and] unpredictable scheduling." Workers also told her that Everlane's management team sent emails dissuading them from unionizing. Perhaps most explosively, they claimed that an Everlane manager tried to keep them from discussing their salaries with one another, which, if true, would be a violation of federal and state labor laws. (Everlane disputes this in comments to both Vice and Fast Company, saying the manager's words were taken out of context, and she was trying to say that an all-hands meeting was not the right venue to have a discussion about salary.) A.C. Betts, Everlane's spokesperson, provided written comments for this article. "We are continually learning and evolving as a growing company," she writes in an email. "Whether it's learning directly from customers, employees, our online experience, or our retail stores, we continue to build a culture that encourages dialogue, takes ownership over our mistakes, and works collectively to get better." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Everlane (@everlane) Merlan's story points out that employees' complaints about Everlane's workplace culture don't align with the company's professed values, which we have covered extensively at Fast Company. Since Michael Preysman founded Everlane a decade ago, he has marketed the brand as one grounded in sustainability, worker's rights, and fair pricing. Last year, I wrote about how Everlane went to great lengths to eradicate virgin plastic from its supply chain, including its garments and the bags used to transport them across the world. The company has also invested in improving the quality of life for factory workers who make Everlane garments overseas, including buying helmets for Vietnamese workers who travel by moped and building an on-site container farm to ensure Vietnamese denim workers have fresh food for lunch. Of course, retail work is notoriously grueling. Workers often work part-time and in shifts, and don't receive the same benefits as full-time employees. Even Starbucks, which is known for giving its part-time workers good benefits, has been called out frequently for its labor practices. What's more, Everlane is relatively new to the brick-and-mortar world. The company opened its first retail store in 2017 in New York and has since expanded

to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn. The company may not yet be accustomed to the challenges of operating physical retail. But evidence suggests that Everlane hasn't handled its workers as well as it could have. In December, members of the customer service team announced their intention to unionize with Communications Workers of America, which represents workers in a range of industries including the education sector and media workers. When Everlane's management caught wind of these unionizing efforts, Kelly McLaughlin, the brand's head of HR, sent out several emails discouraging workers from going through with it, arguing that it would work against the company's core value of "transparency." "The Everlane way is transparency and open communications and we know that we can do a better job of bringing our culture to life for all of you," she wrote in her first email. "We also have heard that there has been talk about unions among some of you. Deciding whether or not you want a union to represent you is your right but it is a big decision." She then followed up with a second email that said, "Signing is a major step because it is a legal document that can designate the union as your exclusive representative and forfeit your right to deal directly with us to resolve issues. This will reduce transparency and we won't be able to work with each of you individually as we do now to improve your experience." (Merlan pointed out that this is not, in fact, true, since employees can create union contracts that determine exactly how much direct contact they want to have with their employers.) One tangible way that Everlane is working to improve working conditions is by making it easy for employees to contact their superiors to provide feedback (though, of course, not all employees may be comfortable voicing their complaints to their bosses or HR departments directly, for fear of reprisal). Merlan mentioned that several employees had expressed their grievances through these channels, but many others hadn't. "We have an open door policy for all our retail ambassadors, with resources posted in all back rooms with direct emails and personal phone numbers for HR, our head of retail, director of stores, and store leaders," Betts, Everlane's spokesperson said. "This open line of communication is used frequently by our team." The news about Everlane's work culture echoed another exposé that came out in The Verge about the work culture at the luggage startup Away. In that story, reporter Zoe Schiffer spoke to Away employees, many on the customer experience team, who felt burned out by long work hours. Schiffer also presented Slack messages of CEO Steph Korey who was accused of bullying employees online. (She has since stepped down from her role.) These are obviously different companies with different cultures and working conditions. But what connects the two is that both began as idealistic, purpose-driven brands, and both appear to be struggling to infuse their corporate culture with their values as they scale quickly.

But evidence suggests that Everlane hasn’t handled its workers as well as it could have. In December, members of the customer service team announced their intention to unionize with Communications Workers of America, which represents workers in a range of industries including the education sector and media workers. When Everlane’s management caught wind of these unionizing efforts, Kelly McLaughlin, the brand’s head of HR, sent out several emails discouraging workers from going through with it, arguing that it would work against the company’s core value of “transparency.” “The Everlane way is transparency and open communications and we know that we can do a better job of bringing our culture to life for all of you,” she wrote in her first email. “We also have heard that there has been talk about unions among some of you. Deciding whether or not you want a union to represent you is your right but it is a big decision.”

Three months later, 290 employees were laid off, including 42 of the remote customer-experience team’s 57 employees.

Last year, the retailer came under fire for not stocking extended sizes in its stores. A few months ago, the company laid off dozens of consumer experience employees days after workers asked Preysman to voluntarily recognize their union — a move that they said was retaliation for organizing.

8(a)(1) Coercive Rules

Everlane has been hit by controversies in recent years over its treatment of its workers.

But the company in recent years has been embroiled in controversies surrounding treatment of its workers, according to media reports.

The audience was rapt, as had been celebrities (like Meghan Markle and Angelina Jolie) and venture capitalists before them, entranced by the vision of a San Francisco start-up that wouldn’t be predatory, a direct-to-consumer fashion company that wouldn’t be gluttonous. Everlane promised to reveal its pricing markups, its clothing suppliers, its ecological footprint. This vision of “radical transparency” was so compelling that after only five years Everlane reportedly brought in $50 million in revenue and sought a valuation of more than $250 million.

“Everlane launched eight years ago with the basic principle that the fashion industry and retail in general really needed transparency and honesty to come to the forefront,” he said.

Everlane is expanding their 100% Human Collection in honor of June Pride month! Following the success of their original 100% Human and International Women’s Day collections (which has raised over $170,000 for the ACLU and Equality Now), Everlane is aiming to raise an additional $100,000 for their largest collection yet, benefiting the Human Rights Campaign.

But the company in recent years has been embroiled in controversies surrounding treatment of its workers, according to media reports.

As eco-friendly fashion started to boom, other brands sought to cash in, and so-called greenwashing became a problem in the fashion industry at large. Fast-fashion companies and luxury brands alike have been accused of misleading consumers. In 2022, H&M faced litigation for using dubious sustainability data. Last summer, Armani was fined $4 million for claiming to be sustainable while outsourcing some of its leather-goods production to sweatshops near Milan. Even Everlane, which watchdog groups consider to have good production practices, had blind spots. During the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, former and current employees criticized the company of anti-Black racism and union busting. Reformation’s founder was ousted following similar accusations at around the same time.

Everlane represents the other side of the sustainability spectrum. As of 2024, nearly every Tier one factory producing apparel for Everlane, holds multiple sustainability certificates, including those for various recycled and organic materials and for the Better Cotton Initiative as well as social compliance audits. Several factories even reported their progress toward achieving a living wage.

By 2023, the company is committing to ensure all of its cotton comes from certified organic sources, and to eliminate virgin plastic in its supply chain by 2021. Both have required heavy investment and are targets that Everlane says it is on track to meet.

Indeed, over time, the company’s aesthetic and business model shifted as it grew in popularity and reach, and its price point changed with it. In 2017, Everlane announced that its first brick-and-mortar store would open in New York City, where shoppers can still browse $148 jeans and $268 cashmere sweaters today. Its mission also became more ambitious: Everlane announced plans in 2021 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The company sought to “empower people to live their best lives with the least impact on the planet — and leave the apparel industry cleaner than we found it.” In its latest sustainability report, Everlane stated the company has reduced Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 60 per cent since 2019, and reduced per-product carbon emissions by 42 per cent.

Yet despite regularly auditing suppliers and using some eco-friendly materials, last year Everlane received a “not good enough” overall rating from the brand ratings platform Good on You. Everlane was marked down for failing to track greenhouse gases across its entire line, and for an absence of initiatives to guarantee living wages or reduce water use. Since then, the company has publicly said that it’s working toward third-party certifications, which could improve its future ratings.

But Everlane wasn’t the most sustainable—already an elusive term—brand to begin with. In its early days, the company urged consumers to “know your factories, know your costs, always ask why.” The cracks in its production promise began to show as far back as 2020, when, per a New York Times report, a dubious workplace culture contradicted its fair-labor claims and the company received a “not good enough” rating from sustainable fashion site Good On You. (At the time of writing, this rating has since been upgraded to “good.”)

In 2017, Everlane went public with its commitment to sustainability, trademarking the phrase “radical transparency. ” By then, its meaning had evolved from being about pricing and production to ethical labor and sustainability, too. Everlane’s major period of growth came as many brands realized consumers were saying they cared about the conditions in which their clothing was made.

Shein released a sustainability report and is talking about making its supply chain more circular, but that seems unlikely.

They were both, at one point, online-only stores offering clothes people wanted at seemingly unbeatable prices. And Shein has also apparently taken pages out of Everlane’s marketing playbook, by offering limited glimpses into its factories — albeit, heavily filtered through its influencer-fueled PR machine. In 2023, the platform invited a group of content creators on an all-expenses-paid trip to tour its facilities in Guangzhou, China. One influencer documented the visit in a video, noting that at least one worker was “surprised” by the rumors about Shein factories’ poor working conditions. (The video has since been deleted.) The publicity move was immediately met with criticism for attempting to sanitize Shein’s reputation.

“Unflattering” was the name of the game in 2017: The “It” pant was “tight-hipped, wide-legged, cropped, quasi-sailor” — and very obviously inspired by Rachel Comey’s Legion Pant. Everlane billed its version, the Wide Leg Crop, as “the most flattering pant you’ll ever try.” (Silvia Killingsworth at the Hairpin didn’t think so, saying the brand was “just straight-up lying in its ad campaigns and saying that these pants look good on everyone.”). At least they were cheaper than Jesse Kamm’s.