Now that Everlane has sold to Shein, the direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand and millennial darling is officially dead. The company, which operated on the tagline “radical transparency,” is now just another fast fashion company. While Everlane was never perfect, they did set a standard for improving supply chain ethics, reducing textile and water waste in production, and prioritizing good quality clothing.
Everlane Sold to Shein
Last night, while casually scrolling Instagram, I came across an unverified report that Everlane was being sold.
Right on the heels of Allbirds’ absurd rebranding as an AI company, I still couldn’t believe it when I read who they were selling to…Shein. Everlane, perhaps best known for coining the term, “radical transparency,” is selling to a company whose motto could very well be “radical opacity.”
Shein is practically the mascot for sweatshops, known for high levels of toxic metals in clothing, extravagant overproduction, and clothing you might call “factory to landfill.” Access to the site has been banned on UT’s campus, Parisians have been boycotting its brick and mortar store, and Yale even called it “the biggest polluter in fast fashion.”
The original reporting cited an inside source and came from Puck, a news site I had never heard of. The reporting landscape as of May 18, 2026 is more broad, though everyone is still citing Puck for breaking the story (so I guess it’s legit). Sites like Fast Company, The Cut, and Forbes are now sharing and updating their own stories.
The End of an Era
Fast Company’s article is appropriately named: “The era of millennial optimism is officially over.”
That’s exactly how I felt when I woke up this morning, still in shock. Those of us who pioneered ethical “influencing” over a decade ago were earnest in our desire for a better fashion industry and optimistic that it was possible.
We championed small fair trade co-ops and joined forces to promote the brands that were innovating in the manufacturing space. We knew that incremental change was imperfect, but it still felt like we were getting somewhere.
When Everlane came on the scene with their Made in California t-shirts and focus on “radical transparency,” we felt vindicated. It seemed like the cause of sustainable and ethical fashion was gaining real traction, such that even normies were looking for better alternatives.
And over the first several years – even after moving a lot of their production to Asia – they still seemed to be adhering to their original ethos. Their sustainable denim partnership with the Saitex factory was so buzzy in sustainable fashion circles, it was like Taylor Swift had announced a new album.
I promoted Everlane as if I was a paid employee, spurred on by a real investment in their ideals, a taste for their aesthetic, and very good promotional credits. Everlane made up at least half my wardrobe by 2019.
But then, things took a turn. Customer service employees – who largely were work-from-home contractors – tried to unionize. In response, in early 2020 Everlane “restructured” the customer service team, laying off the majority of contract workers and retraining retail staff to handle customer service calls. That same year, employees and former employees accused Everlane of racism and a toxic work culture. I wrote more about that here.
As a result of these issues, I stopped actively promoting Everlane on my blog. They had already closed my account, purportedly for misusing their referral system. But the timing suggested it was because I was publishing negative posts about them on this blog.
A lot happened after that. The founder stepped down. Apparently, after nearly a decade in business, Everlane still wasn’t profitable. New leadership steered Everlane into a new market. They had already burned bridges with almost every sustainability influencer, but they cut ties with the rest. Instead, they pursued wispy, chill artists and entrepreneurs to promote their ever-expanding SKUs to upwardly mobile, urban white women. I (mostly) didn’t care anymore.
But sometimes, I still went there and read about what they were up to. They were still promoting their cashmere as sustainable and their denim as revolutionary. And today, their sustainability page is still full of information about their care for people and planet.
How did this happen?
It would be tempting to ask what went wrong. But, honestly, even if the founder was just as earnest as the rest of us, the venture-backed company had to make money. Which means Everlane’s sustainability branding was always going to boil down to a marketing angle. It apparently isn’t a good one anymore.
Elizabeth Segran sums it up in her Fast Company article: “The brands that promised a more ethical capitalism came of age during a time when progressives were in power. They’re meeting their end during a time when the environmental regulations are being rolled back and DEI has become a slur. The political climate that nurtured these brands is gone, and the one that replaced it is openly hostile to what they stood for.”
I’ve spoken before about how sustainable and ethical brands are a tough sell in uncertain times. We naturally try to spend less money when the economy isn’t great, or when our economic futures are uncertain. This happened a bit during the pandemic, and is certainly true in the current political and economic landscape.
But what Segran captures is that there has also been an ideological shift. It’s now risky to be seen caring about worker rights and climate change. It’s uncool, overwrought, and “woke” (in the pejorative sense). I think there are still a lot of us who do care. But we’re so overwhelmed by what’s happening on the ground in our own communities, this is just not the thing we can spend our time fighting for.
So, our beloved, idealistic brands die in the worst possible way: they sell out. They become monstrous, looking like someone we loved, but hiding inner rot. Shein might own something approximating “Everlane.” But, let’s be clear, Everlane is no more.
Maybe, someday, we’ll find our optimism again. But today, we mourn.
