Everlane is an American clothing retailer that sells primarily

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

. Headquartered in

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with stores in

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, Austin, and

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, the company was founded in 2011 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer with the mission of selling clothing with transparent pricing.

History

Everlane was founded in 2011 by Michael Preysman and Jesse Farmer as a

direct-to-consumer Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transa ...

online menswear retailer. Preysman and Farmer collaborated with Andy Zhang for the sourcing of ethical materials. The company enables customers to see how much each item costs to produce and how big the company's markup is. Everlane started with a referral invite list that gained 60,000 subscribers in five days, although the company only had 1,500 T-shirts in inventory. In 2014, Everlane began a partnership with delivery company Postmates to provide same-day delivery to consumers in San Francisco and New York. The company opened brick-and-mortar stores in

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in New York City in 2017 and in San Francisco in 2018.

Products and sales

On its website Everlane attempts to educate customers on its

supply chain A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers, while supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distri ...

, factories, employees, and the price breakdown of each product. In 2018, the company pledged to stop using virgin plastic by 2021, including in packaging and in clothing made of synthetic fibers. On October 24, 2018, Everlane launched ReNew, a line of outerwear crafted from materials that were created out of 3 million recycled plastic bottles. The company plans to accomplish their goal by redeveloping the fabrics, yarns, and all raw materials that contain synthetic fibres into recycled components by 2021. In May 2019, Everlane released the DayGlove ReKnit, a shoe made entirely of recycled plastic bottles. Everlane holds "Choose What You Pay" sales, which allow shoppers to select one of three prices for a piece of merchandise. The lowest price covers production and shipping cost, while the higher prices cover additional costs such as overhead. Preysman, CEO of Everlane, explained the sale as an attempt to make the brand more transparent.

Anti-union activity

In late December 2019, Everlane employees (most of them in the Customer Experience department) attempted to form a union under the auspices of the Communications Workers of America (CWA). In March 2020 union members asked to be officially recognized by the company. On March 27, 2020, the union group's

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account (@EverlaneU) tweeted, "Nearly every member of our team was just laid off. Retail workers from Everlane stores are being trained to replace us to answer your support emails. We are devastated beyond measure." Forty-two out of 57 of the remote customer experience department had been laid off in addition to 180 part-time retail employees, while 68 full-time retail employees were informed they were

furlough A furlough (; from , "leave of absence") is a temporary cessation of paid employment that is intended to address the special needs of a company or employer; these needs may be due to economic conditions that affect a specific employer, or to thos ...

ed. The layoffs were apparently surprising as employees had reportedly been reassured that business was strong. Everlane has since been receiving backlash, most notably from Senator

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

, who wrote on his Twitter account "Using this health and economic crisis to union bust is morally unacceptable."

Awards and honors

In 2015, founder Michael Preysman was included in

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

' ''30 Under 30'' for his work on the firm in "reinventing retail and E-Commerce." He has also been included in the BoF 500, an index of the people shaping the contemporary fashion industry.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
2010s fashion Social enterprises Companies based in San Francisco 2011 establishments in California Online clothing retailers of the United States American companies established in 2011