Everlane was acquired by Shein this week for $100 million, which is the retail equivalent of a farmers market stall being purchased by the factory it spent ten years pointing at disapprovingly.
For those who need a brief refresher: Everlane built its entire commercial identity on telling you exactly where your t-shirt was made, who made it, how long it took, what the buttons cost, and what margin they were extracting from the transaction. This was called Radical Transparency. It was, for a period, extremely effective. People paid $38 for a white t-shirt and felt, against all available evidence, that they were doing something sensible.
Shein, meanwhile, is a company whose supply chain has the legibility of a classified document and the environmental footprint of a mid-sized industrial accident (allegedly, and we say allegedly with the energy of people who would very much like to continue operating a newsletter).
And yet. Here we are.
If they haven’t already done so, the Everlane team will issue the customary statement about shared values and exciting new chapters. Shein will issue nothing, because Shein does not explain itself. The symmetry will be, in its way, perfect.
Somewhere, a brand strategist who spent 2019 writing earnest copy about Peruvian cotton is staring at the ceiling with no further questions.
Tweet of the Week
YouTube University:
The #1 Bottleneck I See in 80% of eCommerce Audits
The piece is from Matthew Gattozzi of Goodo Studios, who has placed a Raspberry Pi on a desk and given it a name, a job title, a newsletter, and what one can only assume is a modest ambition.
Sadie Dunhill is an AI creative strategist. She pulls reports, builds briefs, maintains queues, and attends to the administrative undergrowth that quietly exhausts the people you hired to think. She is not replacing anyone. She is, in theory, returning your best strategists to the part of the job they are actually good at, which is the part they currently spend the least time doing.
This is either the beginning of something genuinely useful for creative teams, or a very committed experiment in naming a computer after a person. Possibly both.
Either way, the argument is worth reading before someone turns it into a LinkedIn carousel with eleven slides and a photo of the Raspberry Pi looking aspirational.
Sponsored by Alia
If you’re treating your popup like an afterthought, you’re leaving revenue on the table.
Most brands spend heavily to drive traffic to their site, only to send visitors to the same generic popup. The result? Missed conversions, lower opt-in rates, and revenue left uncaptured.
Alia fixes that. Our AI-powered popup personalizes each experience in real time, testing and adapting to show each visitor the experience that’s most likely to convert.
Instead of relying on one generic popup, Alia continuously optimizes performance to help you turn more clicks into subscribers and revenue without spending more on traffic.
Brands using Alia have seen:
→ 2x signups in the first 30 days
→ 5x ROI in the first 90 days
→ 10%+ average submit rates
Don’t just take our word for it.
See how brands like Aviator Nation, Fishwife, and MASA Chips are using Alia to drive smarter list growth and more revenue.
Welcome Flow Revenue with Alia’s Smarter Popups How MASA Chips Achieved 127% Signup Growth & 64x ROI with Alia
Workspace6 members receive a 10% lifetime discount. Start your free trial today.
Quick Shots
@Seanfrank I will invest…
Peter Quadrel How to instantly BOOST your ROAS with one hidden Meta switch
@HireFireTeam Goodhart's law is real for ground-level metrics.
@heiotsalexP What no one is saying about Everlane's sale to Shein:
Sarah Levinger 7 creative format types I’m making all my consulting clients test:
Here for the Memes
Top Headlines this Week
Best from LinkedIn
I used to think Brand was bullsh*t, so imagine my surprise when I was asked to speak at Meta's Performance Marketing Summit about Brand to a room of performance marketers
How'd this happen?
Recommended SAAS & Services
Omnisend helps you grow your ecommerce business with high-performing email and SMS marketing. Brands earn an average of $79 for every $1 spent using Omnisend. Launch fast with ready-made automation, personalize every message, and track what drives sales. Try Omnisend and start growing faster.
Scaling paid media shouldn’t feel like gambling. Sum Digital helps 7–9-figure ecommerce brands turn ad spend into predictable, profitable growth across Meta, Google, and TikTok—without bloated teams or black-box reporting. Senior operators only, creative that actually converts, and a relentless focus on ROAS. If you’re done paying for spend instead of results, Sum Digital is your agency of record.
Stuck between an overpaid $80K/Year US hire and an inexperienced $5/Hour VA? Tidal helps you hire experienced, execution talent globally that outperforms US hires, at a fraction of the cost. Built by operators focused on hiring better talent, not just cheaper talent. Get started with a free payroll audit today --> www.hiretidal.com
Stat Attack
The Outro
There is, somewhere in Shein's newly acquired asset library, a webpage explaining the precise ethical provenance of a $38 linen shirt. Nobody has taken it down yet. This is either an oversight or the funniest brand strategy in DTC history. Either way, the shirt is now $14.
👆👆👆
They’re reaching 7, 8 and 9 figure merchants.
Talk to us about sponsoring this newsletter.
