Last weekend, when Puck announced that the sustainable fashion startup Everlane had been acquired by the Chinese ultra fast fashion retailer Shein, it sent shockwaves throughout the fashion world. Michael Preysman, who founded Everlane in 2011, was just as shocked.
“I found out the same time as everyone else,” he said in a LinkedIn post a week ago. “I’m not involved with the company anymore, and like many, am still digesting the news.”
Well, Preysman is done digesting. And it seems that he’s ready to do something about it. Preysman just announced stillradical.com, a new venture that we know little about other than the bare bones website it launched with.
The website lays out the new vision with brevity:
“I started Everlane in 2011. Last week, the current management team sold it to Shein. So we’re starting over. Same principles, but a new take. And this time: no venture capital, no private equity.”
The site says you can learn more by signing up for a waitlist. (Preysman did not respond to a request for comment.)
Preysman launched Everlane when he was in his mid-20s, after starting his career in finance. His vision was to sell high quality products directly to customers online, without the markup of middlemen like department stores. This helped kickstart the direct-to-consumer movement that dominated the 2010s, producing brands like Away, Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Glossier. To fuel its growth, Everlane took an undisclosed amount of venture capital.
A few years in, Preysman turned his attention to the human and environmental impact of the fashion industry. Everlane promised to eradicate virgin plastic from its supply chain, and showed customers inside the factories they used, to highlight how it was paying attention to the working conditions of laborers.
All of this was good for business. By 2016, Everlane was valued at $250 million, although it was unclear whether it had ever become profitable. In recent years, its growth slowed. It went through two rounds of layoffs, once during the pandemic and then again in 2023.
L. Catterton—the venture capital wing of the luxury conglomerate LVMH—bought a majority stake in Everlane in 2020. Shortly after, Preysman left the company to launch a new supplements brand called Magna in 2024.
For many, Everlane’s acquisition by Shein was a disappointing final chapter for a company that stood for optimism and ethics. Clearly, Preysman felt the same way about it.
This new business suggests that he hasn’t given up on the idea of sustainable fashion. However, he’s realized that venture capital is not the right tool for launching an apparel business. It will be fascinating to see what lessons Preysman has taken from the rise and fall of Everlane, and how we plans to build his new company differently.