Imagine building a brand dedicated entirely to sustainability, only to watch it get swallowed whole by the poster child of ultra-fast fashion. That is exactly what happened when the Chinese giant Shein bought Everlane for $100 million. The move shocked the retail industry. But for Michael Preysman, Everlane’s original founder, it was a massive wake-up call. And he certainly is not taking it lying down.
Finding Out Like the Rest of Us
Preysman stepped down as Everlane’s CEO in 2022 and eventually exited the company's board altogether. So when the massive Shein deal was being hammered out behind closed doors, he was not in the room. In fact, he found out about the acquisition a mere 20 minutes before the rest of the world did. He did not try to hide his heartbreak over the news. For a company built from the ground up on the promise of radical transparency and ethical supply chains, selling out to a fast-fashion conglomerate felt like a sharp betrayal. To Preysman, it was the exact opposite of everything he had originally envisioned for the label.
‘Still Radical’ — A Nod to the Past
So what do you do when the legacy you built takes a turn you despise? You start over from scratch. Preysman is officially launching a brand new apparel venture. He quietly dropped the news via a simple placeholder website called stillradical.com. If you know your fashion history, you will catch the reference instantly. It is a direct, unapologetic nod to Everlane’s famous old motto. Right now, the site is not much more than an email waitlist. But the buzz is real. It pulled in thousands of sign-ups within just the first few days of going live. People are clearly hungry for a do-over. Preysman wants to take things right back to Everlane’s original 2011 roots. That means real supply chain integrity, fair labor, and uncompromised sustainability. But this time, he is changing the fundamental financial plumbing of the business to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Breaking the VC Curse
Here is the real twist. This time around, the funding model is going to look completely different. Preysman has made a huge, public vow for this new project: no venture capital, and absolutely no private equity. It is a bold stance, but it makes perfect sense when you look at what actually killed the original Everlane dream. Industry analysts and Preysman himself point fingers squarely at the intense pressure that comes with taking outside institutional money. When the private equity firm L Catterton took a majority stake in Everlane in 2020, the clock started ticking loudly. Investors demand exponential growth. They want massive, quick returns. And when you force a sustainable, slow-fashion brand to scale at the breakneck speed of a tech startup, things inevitably break. The immense pressure to grow forced compromises on product quality. It diluted their original direct-to-consumer value proposition. Ultimately, the brand got pushed into a financial corner where a $100 million buyout from a company like Shein became the only viable exit strategy. Preysman’s new, still-unnamed venture is more than just another clothing line. It is a test to see if a brand can actually thrive without the toxic mandate of endless, aggressive growth. By entirely ditching the VC money, he is betting that a slower, deliberate model is the only real way to do sustainable fashion right.
