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Why so many “millennial” brands are dying

Fast-fashion giant Shein bought millennial darling Everlane. It’s not the only brand struggling.

It was the sale heard around the millennial world: Eco-conscious Everlane was being acquired by fast-fashion kingpin Shein.

After a few tumultuous years, Everlane, an apparel brand loved largely by millennials looking for sustainable basics, reportedly went for the price of $100 million. When news broke last month, segments of the internet were up in arms. How could a brand built on radical transparency and ethical manufacturing fall so hard? And was this the beginning of the end for other millennial-coded brands, too?

Lauren Sherman is a fashion editor at Puck and broke the Everlane news. She tells Today, Explained co-host Noel King about how “millennial” brands — think: Allbirds, Glossier, and Sweetgreen, as well as Everlane — have been struggling under the radar for years, what the Everlane deal means, and if these brands can ever stage a comeback.

Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.

You’ve been writing about this whole genre of brands that has unfortunately been tanking. And those are millennial brands. What makes something a millennial brand?

Millennials are specific because they’re very hard workers and they’re okay with selling out and they’re okay with commercialism. I think what a lot of big millennial brands represent is aspiration.

A lot of the brands that came up in the 2010s that were direct-to-consumer and digital-first were like, “We’re going to make it better. We’re going to make it more efficiently, we’re going to make it look cooler. We’re going to do all these things. And because we know better than our elders about how to run a business and how to make something really work.” And........

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