Michael Preysman says he learned about Everlane’s sale to Shein at the same time as everyone else—and now he’s launching stillradical.com, promising a restart built on the same principles but without venture capital or private equity.
Last weekend, the sustainable fashion world reeled after Puck announced that Everlane had been acquired by Chinese ultra fast fashion retailer Shein.
Michael Preysman, who founded Everlane in 2011, says he felt that shock firsthand. In a LinkedIn post a week ago, he wrote, “I found out the same time as everyone else,” adding, “I’m not involved with the company anymore, and like many, am still digesting the news.”
By now, the digesting seems over. Preysman has announced a new venture, stillradical.com, launching with a bare-bones website and a clear message written in plain language.
“The current management team sold it to Shein. So we’re starting over. Same principles, but a new take. And this time: no venture capital, no private equity,” the site states.
The website invites visitors to learn more by signing up for a waitlist, and Preysman did not respond to a request for comment.
Everlane’s origin story dates back to when Preysman was in his mid-20s and had already started his career in finance. His plan was to sell high-quality products directly to customers online. cutting out the markup associated with middlemen such as department stores—an approach that helped spark the direct-to-consumer movement that shaped much of the 2010s.
That model also inspired a generation of brands, including Away, Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Glossier. But even as Everlane’s business leaned into transparency, its ambition extended to the environmental side of fashion. Over time. the company promised to eradicate virgin plastic from its supply chain and showed customers inside the factories it used. aiming to bring attention to the working conditions of laborers.
For a while, it translated into growth. By 2016, Everlane was valued at $250 million, though it was unclear whether it had become profitable. In recent years, that momentum slowed, and the company went through two rounds of layoffs—once during the pandemic and again in 2023.
The ownership landscape also shifted. L. Catterton, described as the venture capital wing of the luxury conglomerate LVMH, bought a majority stake in Everlane in 2020. Shortly after, Preysman left the company to launch Magna, a supplements brand, in 2024.
The sequence still lands with force: a founder’s original bet on direct-to-consumer ideals, a push toward human and environmental accountability, followed by years that included layoffs and outside capital—and then the sale to Shein that many viewed as the end of Everlane’s story.
Now the founder’s next chapter is being written with a deliberate constraint. On stillradical.com, he frames the restart as a continuation of “the same principles,” but draws a hard line around funding: “no venture capital, no private equity.”
It remains unclear what stillradical.com will build next. or how far it will go in replicating Everlane’s approach without the financial backstops that once powered its expansion. What is clear is the motivation behind the choice—one founder. shaken by the deal timing and the finality of the outcome. moving quickly to test whether a similar vision can survive without the capital structure that helped shape Everlane’s trajectory.
Everlane Shein Michael Preysman stillradical.com Shein acquisition sustainable fashion direct-to-consumer L. Catterton LVMH venture capital private equity layoffs