Everlane’s reported sale to Shein is a sharp comedown for one of the defining DTC brands of the 2010s. According to reports from Puck and The Information on May 17, Shein is acquiring the San Francisco-based apparel brand from majority owner L Catterton in a deal valuing Everlane at about $100 million. Everlane’s board reportedly approved the transaction on Saturday, and common shareholders will not receive a payout. The deal followed efforts by L Catterton and Everlane CEO Alfred Chang to find investors to help manage about $90 million in debt, according to Reuters.
Allbirds followed a similar path from sustainability darling to distressed asset. After going public in 2021 at $15 a share and briefly reaching a roughly $4 billion valuation, the company sold its brand, footwear IP, customer relationships and inventory to American Exchange Group for $39 million in 2026. AEG can continue operating Allbirds as a footwear brand, while the listed company left behind is trying to rename itself NewBird AI and become a graphics processing unit (GPU)-as-a-service provider, essentially leasing AI computing power to companies.
Together, Everlane and Allbirds show how quickly sustainability-led DTC brands can lose momentum when product, operations and capital structure fall out of sync. Throughout the 2010s, Everlane raised about $145 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and Maveron, and Maveron was also an early backer of Allbirds. Industry insiders Glossy spoke to for this story said both had strong origin stories and early consumer heat, but not enough defensibility once acquisition costs rose and competitors caught up. Both companies were unavailable for comment in time for publication.
