When Alex Collins, 35, heard that fast-fashion giant Shein reportedly bought sustainability darling Everlane, she thought it was a late April Fool’s joke.

Collins, a Midwest-based lawyer, has been buying Everlane — a quintessential millennial brand — for over a decade. She recently ordered a haul for a trip to Europe, and is a fan of their jackets, pants, and minimalist aesthetic. To her, Shein — which has been dinged for its working conditions and environmental impact — is a very different beast.

“I’ve never had a good impression of them,” Collins told Business Insider on Monday after Puck News first reported the sale. On Friday, the news became official. In a statement to Business Insider, Alfred Chang, Everlane’s CEO, said that the company had reached an acquisition agreement with Shein.

“Everlane will remain an independent brand, staying true to our longstanding brand values, sustainability commitments, and exceptional quality,” said Chang. “We are entering this next phase with expanded global reach, new capabilities, and greater opportunities to bring our mission and products to more customers around the world.”

Current employees told Business Insider that they learned of the initial news via social media and received no information about the sale until Friday’s confirmation. An internal memo seen by Business Insider said that Chang and the leadership team will remain intact and that “this past week has been a hard one.”

Millennial brands like Everlane, characterized by worker- and environmental-friendly practices and a direct-to-consumer model, have faced a reckoning. Lower prices and trendy values have been subsumed by brands’ long-term business needs, forcing them to raise prices when venture capital runs out or to pivot to AI when times get tough.

Silvia Bellezza, an associate professor of marketing at the Columbia Business School, teaches a course on sustainability and business that uses Everlane as the opening case.

“This was like the darling of the direct-to-consumer business model,” she said. “It’s sad because it means that it’s very difficult for brands to really try to put together fashion at reasonable price levels and sustainably.”

As of 2022, Everlane had taken on $90 million in debt — reportedly one of the reasons the brand was looking for a sale. The sale will also offer an interesting new branding opportunity for Shein.

For “Everlane, the target market perhaps is a little older than Shein, which is typically more like teenagers or consumers in their early 20s,” Bellezza said. “I don’t know. I find it puzzling a little bit. It’d be interesting to see if it is to kind of greenwash their name.”

The end of a millennial-coded sustainable fashion era

On Monday, the tranquil glass box of the Everlane store in downtown Manhattan felt far from the news of a sale. Ambiance-setting candles flickered by registers, and minimalist shelves still boasted cotton and linen apparel. A store associate said they learned about the news of the sale with the rest of the world.

Olivia Lobo, a stay-at-home mother and Gen Z/millennial cusper in Florida, is grappling with what she sees as the loss of her staple brand.

“I care a lot about ethical consumption and the environmental and social impacts of my purchases, but I’m also on a limited budget,” she said.

Lobo, who considers herself a thoughtful consumer, usually ponders most purchases for months and researches clothing companies before pulling the trigger. She loved Everlane because of its ethics and price point. Now, though, she said she won’t be purchasing from them. Instead, she’ll spend more time scouring online resale groups, rather than fast-fashion-filled thrift stores, for higher-quality pieces.

“I don’t love how much time it takes to find items that work for me this way, or the environmental impacts of the shipping involved, but it’s starting to feel like the only way I can realistically get good quality, non-toxic clothes within my budget,” Lobo said.

Darcy, a retiree who’s been shopping at Everlane for the past three or four years, had just bought a couple of tops. She learned about the store through her adult children and enjoys the quality and price of the clothing. She hadn’t heard about the sale; she said she would keep an eye on the brand and that the sale might affect her willingness to shop there. She joked that she was glad she bought her shirts that day.

“I should have bought them yesterday!” Darcy said.

Julia Kupiec, a Xillennial lawyer and artist, said she’d been shopping at the store since around the pandemic. She’s a big fan of their t-shirts and chinos, and thinks that their basics are well-priced. As an embroiderer, she’s always on the hunt for pieces she can embellish, and Everlane can be a good fit for that. Kupiec had not heard news of the sale and said it made her not want to shop the brand anymore.

“I would also be very on the alert for their quality going down,” Kupiec said. “I feel like usually when companies like this merge, their quality goes into the toilet.”

Farah Naguib, a Gen Z shopper, was admiring some of the brand’s flats and loafers in the store with her sister. She thought the quality of the shoes seemed nice and liked the shirts she saw. She also hadn’t heard news of the sale; when I informed the sister duo of the sale, they asked if the brand had been offloaded to private equity. At the news that it was reportedly Shein, they gasped.

“I work in climate sustainability,” Naguib said. “I don’t like fast fashion, which is also why I don’t buy a lot of things. Oh my gosh, that’s so sad.”