Everyone is Confused about Everlane Selling to Shein

The sustainable fashion company, Everlane has been acquired by fast fashion brand Shein for 100 million dollars. Reports of the sale came through on May 17th, Lauren Sherman from Puck being the first to break the news.

Everlane was known for their standards regarding ethical production of clothing throughout the 2010s and although they haven't been at the peak of their popularity over the last few years the last thing that anyone expected was for them to sell to a fast fashion brand like Shein.

Shein is known for not having the best practices for ethical clothing production. In 2024 it was uncovered that the China based fast fashion company had two child labour cases opened against them, as well as complaints about treatment of workers and excessive overtime. Shein has also caused many growing environmental concerns due to their mass production of non-biodegradable clothes. Over 75% of Shein's clothes are made from polyester, a fabric that can take sometimes hundreds of years to break down.

There is a clear contrast between these two companies. Everlane has been known to use clean and organic materials, like supima cotton, clean silk, even regenerated Nylon. On Everlane's website, they have three environmental sustainability pillars that they claim to abide by, "Keep Earth Clean, Keep Earth Cool, and Do Right By People". They have taken initiative to treat their employees in factories with respect, saying that they are working towards better living wages and benefits. While this all sounds extremely promising, Shein's acquisition of the company, has tainted Everlane's initiatives.

What are consumer's thought's about this sale?

Many customer's are feeling betrayed by Everlane's decision to sell to Shein, especially millennial customers who make up a large portion of Everlane's customer demographic. According to the Washington Post, many customer's are not surprised about this change but most remain confused. In 2017 when they opened their first in person location, many customer's saw the quality in fabrics already declining.

Has Shein confirmed the sale yet?

On May 22nd, Shein finally confirmed the news of their 90 million dollar acquirement of Everlane.

Has Everlane made a statement on the sale?

CEO Alfred Chang finally made a statement confirming the sale to Retail Dive, stating that the company will be “staying true to our longstanding brand values, sustainability commitments, and exceptional quality,”.

Everlane plans to still run independently according to Chang. It seems that only time will tell what the final outcome of this sale will mean for the brand.