The brand that promised to save fashion is reportedly handing the keys to the industry’s biggest villain. So much for radical transparency.
Everlane, the brand that spent a decade lecturing us about ethical factories and transparent pricing, is reportedly being sold to Shein for $100 million. Let that sink in for a moment.
Shein, the fast-fashion giant credibly accused of forced labor and named by Yale researchers as the single biggest polluter in the entire fashion industry.
From “Radical Transparency” to Radio Silence
The deal, first reported by Puck, caps a humiliating fall for a brand that once genuinely seemed to mean it. Everlane’s founder, Michael Preysman, built the company on a simple but radical idea: show customers exactly what their clothes cost to make, and charge a fair markup.
In its heyday, Everlane bought motorcycle helmets for Vietnamese factory workers and planted community gardens near supplier facilities. Reporters who visited its San Francisco headquarters found an office stocked with food in minimal packaging and staff obsessing over removing plastic from shipping bags.
But idealism, it turns out, does not survive private equity.
The Cracks Were Always There
Here is something the brand’s loyal fan base conveniently forgot: Everlane had already been caught with its principles down once before.
In March 2020, just four days after its customer service team formally asked management to recognise their union, the company laid off 290 employees, including 42 of the 57-person customer experience team. The timing was suspicious enough to attract the attention of then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who tweeted that using “this health and economic crisis to union bust is morally unacceptable.”
Everlane denied any connection and blamed the pandemic. But an internal email alleged to have circulated around the same time reportedly praised online sales as being up 32%. The Communications Workers of America filed an unfair labour practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The union effort never recovered.
Radical transparency, apparently, had its limits.
The $100 Million Question
Majority owner L Catterton began shopping Everlane around in March after years of financial instability, and the highest bidder turned out to be Shein. A company whose own 2023 sustainability report quietly admitted to finding child labour in its supply chain, and whose carbon emissions nearly doubled in a single year, going from 9.17 million metric tons of CO2 in 2022 to 16.88 million in 2023.
A bipartisan US congressional committee found that Shein and rival Temu together account for more than 30% of all daily packages shipped to the United States under the de minimis customs loophole, a provision that lets goods under $800 enter the country uninspected and duty-free.
In short: Everlane is being absorbed by a company that a UK parliamentary committee said had given them “almost zero confidence” in the integrity of its supply chain.
The Millennial Dream in the Bargain Bin
Everlane’s collapse is not an isolated tragedy. It is the third act in a broader eulogy for an entire generation of ethical consumer brands.
Last month, Allbirds, the sustainable sneaker darling, sold off its footwear assets, quietly ditched its environmental mission, and pivoted to artificial intelligence. Two years ago, Beautycounter shuttered without warning after a troubled acquisition by the Carlyle Group.
These brands grew up alongside millennials who believed that buying the right cashmere jumper was, in some small way, a political act. That bet has not paid off.
The punchline is particularly grim: the brand that promised to be the antidote to fast fashion has been swallowed by fast fashion’s worst offender.
What Now?
The deal is not final. But if it goes through, Everlane joins a growing list of ethical brands that ended not with a bang, but with a fire sale.
The real damage is the message it sends to the next generation of founders who might want to build something with values baked in: that the market will eventually force them to choose, and the market usually wins.
For now, you can still buy a $98 organic cotton t-shirt on Everlane’s website. It just might not mean what it used to.
