Exclusive: Everlane's New CEO Gets Real About Its Ambitions

Business of Fashion

11 hours ago

Whoever decided to step into the top job at Everlane was always going to have their work cut out for them.
One of the stars of the 2010s direct-to-consumer boom, by 2022 the basics brand, known for its $30 organic cotton T-shirts and transparent pricing, was struggling to scrape together enough cash just to cover inventory.
Andrea O'Donnell, who succeeded founder Michael Preysman as CEO in 2021, got the 14-year-old apparel maker back to profitability in 2023. But growing sales again proved a tougher challenge. A revamp of the brand's marketing and product to emphasise style, not just its pricing, won praise with fashion insiders and some customers; sales rose 1 percent in 2023. O'Donnell departed in January 2024, and the CEO role sat empty for nine months. Last year, sales dipped, again by 1 percent, to $198 million, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
For Alfred Chang, it was just the challenge he'd been waiting for. Chang was co-chief executive at PacSun when the surf-inspired brand, which filed for bankruptcy less than a decade ago, experienced an unexpected resurgence with Gen-Z shoppers. After that, he was at the helm of Fear of God.
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'What Everlane represented in this opportunity of needing leadership talent to come in and build the next chapter of growth, and getting Everlane's strength back again, was an opportunity that I just felt I was built for,' Chang told The Business of Fashion.
By October 2024, Chang was in San Francisco at Everlane's headquarters, ready to steer the ship. His immediate assignment is to return to growth – any growth. The brand aims to hit $200 million in sales this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Even that will be a major undertaking: Chang has to convince consumers to fall back in love with Everlane while staving off competitors like Quince, another online basics label that despite being founded seven years after Everlane, does more than double its annual revenue.
Chang wants to cross $260 million in annual sales by 2027, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. And Everlane's backers believe in the company's future: LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton, which first invested in Everlane in 2020 according to PitchBook, poured in an additional $25 million last October, making it a majority shareholder, the person said. Everlane declined to comment on the company's recent funding and financial performance. L Catterton also declined to comment.
To reach that goal, Chang is plotting a big overhaul: he's already hired a new designer and merchandiser and launched the company's first brand campaign in May (previously, marketing mostly highlighted low prices and was designed to get people to click through to the brand's website). Next, Everlane is debuting a campaign for its fall collection with a recognisable face it won't yet reveal, its first time featuring a known persona in one of its ads. Also, a new logo is on the way, and the brand is exploring wholesale.
'This year is a year where we have to lay some of the groundwork. We have to have a year of corrections,' Chang said. 'L Catterton ultimately has an incredible reputation of identifying great brands and setting them up for growth.'
A Turnaround Master
When Everlane first launched in 2011, its disruptive proposition of 'radical transparency,' — providing details on how and where each product was made to explain its price — enticed Millennial shoppers. But after facing competition and internal upheaval in 2020, the brand brought in O'Donnell, who had previously led Uggs' revival, (Preysman remained involved in day-to-day operations). Designer Mathilde Mader joined in 2022 to refine Everlane's product assortment and move from frequent drops to fewer, more elegant collections.
While Everlane was evolving, Chang was at PacSun leading its turnaround by collaborating with high-profile Gen-Zs like Kylie Jenner and Emma Chamberlain. He then moved on to Fear of God in 2023, where he took Jerry Lorenzo's sharp vision of quality tailoring targeted at a young, streetwear-driven consumer and 'set up the operational pieces to be able to start to drive significant growth,' Chang said.
Alfred Chang was previously co-chief executive at PacSun and chief executive at Fear of God before taking the reins at Everlane.
(Everlane)
In joining Everlane, Chang saw an opportunity to do the same thing. One of his first moves was to improve the brand's online store, including enhancing its site navigation. Chang is also looking to enter Everlane into multi-brand retailers in the second half of 2026, including potentially selling core items like its chinos and box-cut tees on Amazon — a strategy many of its DTC peers have implemented. It's one of his bigger swings as he gets full control of the brand: Preysman has taken a step back to focus on his new venture, Magna, a magnesium-based beverage brand, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
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'I was clear with the board when I came into this job that one of the first priorities was to go through extensive brand positioning and vision work with the leadership team,' Chang said. 'Ultimately, my strong belief is that this vision, this positioning and strategy, needs to have full alignment and needs to be ours.'
Refining the Vision
Everlane's customer base is currently split between price and environmentally-conscious Gen-Zers and fashion-minded Millennials looking for less expensive alternatives to minimalist labels like The Row and Toteme. To address its target audience while widening its appeal, Everlane debuted its first brand campaign in May called 'Clean Luxury. Better for You,' featuring aloof models standing near a hill, meant to represent Everlane's sustainability promises and its efforts to be known as a fashion-first label.
While that storytelling didn't emphasise the clothes themselves, Chang understands that for the message to land, it has to be reflected in the designs. The current assortment is filled with Mader's — who left Everlane for Calvin Klein last September — concept of a modern, fashionable wardrobe: barrel leg jeans, Mary Jane flats and funnel neck tanks. But after pooling customer feedback from surveys and input from Everlane sales associates, Chang found that consumers felt the brand's organic materials didn't retain their luxurious feel over time.
So this year, Chang hired Gap and J.Crew alum Cynthia Ng — who he felt knew how to make desirable clothes at a reasonable price — as head of design. He also brought in Bobby Goodwin, a former PacSun colleague, as senior vice president of merchandising. For the fall collection, the team is introducing new fabrications like silks and viscose sourced from sustainable suppliers, Chang said.
Chang also sees the product as an avenue for brand awareness. Everlane recently enlisted the help of a creative agency to create a new brand logo that it will slowly and subtly start to incorporate on its clothes later this year, he said. It's a move toward making Everlane a legacy brand with recognisable insignia that its consumers want to telegraph.
'As we continue to create more relevance and awareness within the brand … one of the things that people do love to do is to also get a bit of that brand recognition saying 'I have an Everlane piece,'' Chang said. 'There's a comfort level; a trust level within that product.'
A Continued Transformation
Everlane's attempts to reshape its image isn't yet resonating with consumers: its engagement across various social media platforms dropped 10 percent year over year from June 2024 to May 2025, according to influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ.
But Chang says the 'Clean Luxury' campaign in May has led to a 10 percent increase in Everlane's average order value, most of which is coming from new shoppers. Still, he acknowledges that there's more work to be done to broaden Everlane's reach. This year, the brand is building out its influencer ambassador program and hired a new staffer to take the lead on developing longer-standing partnerships with talent, including the yet-to-be-named face of its forthcoming fall campaign.
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'It's important that we have more authentic storytelling and representation,' Chang said.
Everlane is also addressing its largest threat: Quince. The six-year-old startup, which sells everything from Bottega Veneta-inspired woven leather bags to Away-esque luggage, takes an approach similar to the one Everlane did in its early days, running ads that break down its pricing, even comparing itself to Everlane.
Instead of lowering prices or going on an ad-buying spree, Everlane is focusing on emphasising its materials and sustainability in its messaging, highlighting that nearly all of its cotton-based products are organic; and since 2019, the brand reduced its carbon emissions to 52 percent in 2024 against an initial goal of 55 percent by 2030.
'It is our responsibility to have a stronger, more compelling brand narrative beyond price,' Chang said. 'That's how we're going to compete with them.'
Consumers may be increasingly wary of green marketing, but when a company is repositioning itself, it shouldn't abandon its foundation as consumers today latch onto brands with consistent messages, said Nora Kleinewillinghoefer, the head of fashion and luxury North America at Kearney.
'It's about growth of the brand; it's about expansion of the brand. It's not about diluting what the past is,' Kleinewillinghoefer said. 'There's a celebration of history without preventing yourself from moving forward.'
As Everlane continues to assert itself as a fashion authority with sustainability at its core, Chang is simultaneously bringing the company's growth goals down to earth. For starters, the brand is no longer chasing $1 billion in annual sales — a feat that most prominent DTC brands from the 2010s have yet to achieve.
'We want to build a stronger Everlane; a brand that has purpose, relevance, and strength … It could be a very valuable brand at $200 million; it could be a very valuable brand at $500 million,' Chang said. 'The outcome of the revenue will be what it is.'