Everlane, a History
It has the makings of a Reductress headline: Everlane sold out to Shein. It comes out of left field for a brand that made a name for itself with “radical transparency” — detailing its pricing against traditional retail markups even pre-Quince. Especially as Shein, like Temu, operates on a scale not many retailers can (and you’ve probably read something about its business practices). I can’t help wondering about something founder Michael Preysman told The New Yorker: “You do not get laid in Everlane.” What happened to that Everlane? I can’t say the Everlane of the 2020s is the same Everlane of the 2010s, when you could call it “granola” — in a good way! I don’t know if it’ll ever be that again. I’ll be hugging my Box-Cut Tees a little tighter tonight. In this spirit, it’s only fitting that we have a brief retrospective of Everlane — as we knew it.
Meet Everlane
Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer founded Everlane in 2010 in San Francisco, and shopping was by referral only. With an inventory of 1,500 T-shirts — a figure oft-mentioned in press coverage for its underdog appeal — it started a waitlist that quickly gained 60,000 sign-ups. (Doesn’t it sound like an Aaron Sorkin screenplay?) Initially, you needed an account to shop. By the time I began shopping there in the mid-2010s, that was done away with, if I remember correctly.
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According to self-described “Everlaneologist” Robin Reetz, the Box-Cut Tee is the closest approximation to those original Everlane tees. Everlane claims in its product copy to have sold a million Box-Cut Tees since that item launched ten years ago.
In 2014, you could Postmates your Everlane …for $4.95
For a brief window in time starting in 2014, Everlane teamed up with Postmates for same-day delivery to San Francisco customers before Amazon ever offered the service (the mega-retailer introduced it in 2015).
Remember those “Choose What You Pay” sales?
How it worked: You decided between different price points on a sale item. An example from The Cut from 2015: You could pay either $126, $91, or $76 for the now-sold-out Nubuck Street Shoe, which was $140 at full price. (Customers weren’t always pleased with the deals.) In an interview with BuzzFeed, Preysman said he took inspiration from Radiohead — which did the same for an album of theirs — and the Met’s admission ticket price for New Yorkers.
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Everlane Drop-Waist Minidress
Well, you can’t pay what you want for it, but it’s on sale for 40 percent off.
“The most flattering pant you’ll ever try.”
“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.
Brick-and-mortar opens at 28 Prince Street
Everlane’s first brick-and-mortar store didn’t open in its native San Francisco but on 98 Prince Street. “The original idea was that we would never do stores,” Preysman told Vogue. “But when you’re in the online-only world, you can’t bring people into your space and your brand the same way you can with a physical store, where it feels transparent, open, and honest.” Everlane went on to open storefronts in Williamsburg, Georgetown, King of Prussia, and Los Angeles (where it moved its headquarters last month).
Welcome, Day Glove
Right on the heels of the Martiniano Glove Shoe the Maryam Nassir Zadeh crowd couldn’t get enough of,Everlane launched the Day Heel that same year and the Day Glove the year after (with a 15,000-person waiting list). The Cut’s then–Instagram editor Emily Sundberg said the flats “make me feel like a ballerina, which also helps rationalize the messy bun that’s usually in my hair during the week.” And they have a loyal following years later. Just this April, content strategist Maria Del Russo described them as “the fine wine of footwear.”
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You could get Martiniano’s glove shoes for $480 … or Everlane’s for $148.
Here comes another underwear upstart
Between the founding of Arq (2016) and Parade (2019), Everlane launched its own line of underwear. “On first impression, they are light and tagless, but not to be mistaken for a basic Hanes (they’re soft Supima cotton, excuse me),” wrote our former writer Lori Keong. “They flatter your waist and hug your curves, but don’t pinch at the waistline like other elastic briefs or ride up. You’d have to be really squinting to detect any VPL, too.” They were even giving Baserange and Commando a run for their money.
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If you, like Keong, appreciate a “good high-waisted moment because it makes your butt look like it’s starring in its own ’90s Calvin Klein commercial,” consider the High-Rise Hipster.
Then came Tread by Everlane
GQ reported Everlane was launching a sneaker brand back in 2019. Under Tread by Everlane came the Trainer, which originally retailed for $98. It was as much a dad sneaker as any New Balance.
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Everlane The Court Sneaker
Our senior writer Emma Wartzman once walked from Citi Field to Williamsburg in her Court Sneaker.
Let’s get cheeky
I don’t know how many times I’ve been recommended Everlane’s Cheeky styles as our jeans correspondent. Our senior writer Liza Corsillo likens them to those on Geena Davis or Susan Sarandon in Thelma & Louise. Strangers used to ask Mia Leimkuhler, our former associate editor for audience engagement, where her pair was from.
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Everlane The ’90s Cheeky Jean
A fit right off a ’90s sitcom mom.
We didn’t understand the move either in February. Come to think of it now, it could’ve been a siren call for potential investors.
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For a layer, Wartzman mentions the turtleneck as “tight enough that it doesn’t bunch up underneath things but not, like, Uniqlo Heattech tight.”
More things we’ve liked from Everlane …
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