How ethical is Everlane?
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Everlane claims “radical transparency”, but does it live up to this promise? Let’s dive into the brand’s middling “It’s a Start” score.
This article is based on the Everlane rating published in August 2026 and may not reflect claims the brand has made since then. Our ratings analysts are constantly rerating the thousands of brands you can check on our directory.
Everlane capitalises on transparency, but what does the rating say?
Californian retailer Everlane has sold itself on the premise of good disclosure, timeless design, and relatively affordable price points compared to its competitors. It was founded in 2010 as an online retailer, eventually branching out into womenswear and opening stores across the US.
Everlane has long used the tagline “radical transparency” and positioned itself as a leader in ethical practice, but as Good On You co-founder Gordon Renouf explains, this wasn’t necessarily about its practices for people, the planet, and animals: “When Everlane was first established, it touted its ‘radical transparency’, but this was not the transparency that activists like Fashion Revolution were calling for in the wake of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh; it was transparency about its cost structure and thus its relatively lower price,” Renouf says. “Only later—and under some external pressure—did Everlane address some of the sustainability- and ethics-related issues that Good On You looks for.”
Since then, its Good On You rating has fluctuated, but it did achieve “Good” at one point. Unfortunately, this has slumped back down to “It’s a Start” in our most recent review, showing that more sustained efforts are needed.
In May 2026, Everlane was acquired by unsustainable ultra fast fashion retailer SHEIN (“We Avoid”) which came as a shock to the industry, with Vogue Business noting, “if ever there was a metaphor for the state of sustainable fashion in 2026, this is it.” Sustainable fashion fans were not pleased, with one Reddit user stating: “I hate this. Everlane wasn’t perfect but what a way to completely annihilate the brand. Hard to think of worse mismatch.”
Even Everlane’s co-founder, Michael Preysman (who stepped down from the company in 2022), was taken by surprise. In response to the acquisition, Preysman announced he was launching a new brand called Still Radical, which would focus once more on the values Everlane was founded with.
At the time of our most recent rating review, Everlane hadn’t been included in SHEIN’s most recently available company reports, so this review considers information that precedes the acquisition by SHEIN.
Let’s take a look at what the public evidence tells us about Everlane’s performance on key sustainability issues across three areas: people, the planet, and animals.
Environmental impact
Everlane rates “Good” for its environmental impact. This is the area it performs best in. Its timeless designs that eschew fleeting trends are a positive move for circularity, helping to ensure the clothes can be worn for a long time.
The brand has set a science-based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both its direct operations and supply chain, and it claims it’s on track. On top of that, it engages with suppliers to manage water use, which isn’t something we always see from brands of a similar size and popularity. It uses recycled packaging, and it uses some lower impact materials, including organic cotton.
Everlane has eliminated some hazardous chemicals from its supply chain but doesn’t have a time-bound target to reduce or eliminate all of them.
Labour conditions
One of the biggest issues with Everlane’s sustainability right now? It does not appear to be paying a living wage to anyone in its supply chain, nor has it disclosed that it has adopted a credible living wage methodology. For a brand founded on “radical transparency” over pricing and numbers, Everlane is missing a key part of the puzzle by not ensuring those costs cover the ability to pay its workers properly.
Elsewhere, we couldn’t find evidence to show Everlane is supporting diversity and inclusion in its supply chain, and it does not publish an aggregate breakdown of suppliers, so while we see that some of its final production stage takes place in countries with a lower risk of labour abuse or certified facilities, we couldn’t ascertain where and how much.
The brand does have a Code of Conduct covering ILO principles, and it works to tackle the gender pay gap by ensuring equal pay for equal work in its supply chain, which is why the brand scores “It’s a Start” for labour conditions overall.
Animal welfare
Everlane’s animal score is also “It’s a Start”.
The brand has a formal policy aligned with the Five Freedoms of animal welfare, and it doesn’t use fur, exotic animal skin, mohair, or angora in any of its products.
While it does use leather, wool, cashmere, and down in its products, a high proportion of these are either recycled or certified alternatives to conventional animal-derived materials, which is a step in the right direction. Importantly for a brand that sells lots of knitwear, Everlane only sources non-mulesed wool and has signed the Four Paws Letter of Intent not to use wool from mulesed sheep.
Overall rating: ‘It’s a Start’
Overall, Everlane received our middling rating “It’s a Start” in our most recent review. It focuses on timeless designs over short-lived trends and emphasises the high quality and craftsmanship of its products, and acknowledges that brands ought to be transparent. But there are essential ways in which Everlane fails to live up to its own hype, and further improvements are still needed across the board—especially when it comes to workers’ rights—for the brand to see a higher score on our directory.
We’ll also be keeping a close eye on both Everlane and SHEIN’s sustainability reporting and business decisions to see how the acquisition affects the American brand’s practices.
Note that Good On You ratings consider hundreds of issues, and it is not possible to list every relevant issue in a summary of the brand’s performance. For more information, see our How We Rate page and our FAQs.
Good swaps
Check out these brands we’ve rated “Good” or “Great” that you could consider if Everlane’s middling “It’s a Start” rating puts you off.
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