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Everlane claims “radical transparency”, but does it live up to its own promises? Let’s dive into the brand’s improved middling “It’s a Start” score based on the rating published in July 2023. It may not reflect claims the brand has made since then. Our ratings analysts are constantly rerating the thousands of brands you can check on our directory.
Timeless, affordable, making improvements
Californian online retailer Everlane is synonymous with timeless styles at affordable prices. Everlane has built its brand with the tagline “radical transparency” and positioned itself as a leader in ethical practice. It says it is committed to revealing the true costs behind all of its products—from materials, to labour, to transportation. But behind the sleek advertising campaigns and celebrity endorsements, how do Everlane’s claims stack up? We take a look at how this US retailer rates in terms of its environmental impact, labour rights, and animal welfare and ask: how ethical is Everlane?
Environmental impact
When it comes to the environment, we are pleased to report an increase in effort and transparency from the brand, seeing its score here raise from “Not Good Enough” to “It’s a Start” in the most recent review.
Everlane rejects passing trends, instead emphasising classic, well-made designs that are more likely to be worn for longer—a key characteristic of ethical fashion. And we were pleased to see that in September 2017, Everlane introduced a new denim line that addresses many of the environmental impacts of denim production.
The brand uses a medium proportion of lower-impact materials including organic cotton, which helps limit the chemicals, water, and wastewater in its supply chain. While Everlane has now eliminated some hazardous chemicals, it has not as yet made a commitment to eliminate all hazardous chemicals in manufacturing. And while the fact that it has now set a science based target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both its direct operations and supply chain is positive, unfortunately there’s no evidence it’s on track.
Taking this all into account, we have awarded Everlane our middling score of “It’s a Start” to reflect both its progress for the planet, and the places where it still needs to improve.
Labour conditions
When taken at face value, Everlane appears to do right by its workers. The Everlane website includes a “Factories” section that identifies many of the brand’s suppliers worldwide and provides pictures of the factories, short descriptions of how Everlane found them, the materials produced there, and information about the owners. Though publicly sharing a list of suppliers is a good step towards “radical transparency”, Everlane doesn’t state whether this is a complete list of suppliers, and the list doesn’t include any suppliers at the raw material stage.
What’s more, although the images provided depict good working conditions, it is difficult to confirm that they are truly representative of Everlane’s suppliers, as they were not provided (or audited) by an independent third party. It’s also unclear which part of the supply chain is audited and how often those audits occur. Despite these “happy” factories, there is no evidence the brand has worker empowerment initiatives such as collective bargaining or rights to make a complaint, nor does it appear to support diversity and inclusion or ensure payment of a living wage in its supply chain.
Unfortunately, the brand still scores “Not Good Enough” for workers at this stage, as it still has a long way to go.
Animal welfare
Everlane’s animal score also increased from “Not Good Enough” to “It’s a Start” for our animal friends in the most recent review.
The brand now has a formal policy aligned with the Five Freedoms of animal welfare, but unfortunately no clear implementation mechanisms in place as yet. It doesn’t use fur, exotic animal skin, or angora in any of its products. While it does use leather, wool, and down in its products, some of it is recycled, which is a good step. It also traces some animal-derived materials to the first production stage.
The brand does still use exotic animal hair and silk, and the welfare of both animals and workers cannot be guaranteed when a brand does not list the source of animal-derived materials. Everlane needs to further improve its transparency and the traceability of its materials, or even better, eliminate animal-derived materials from its products altogether.
Overall rating: ‘It’s a Start’
We’ve given Everlane an improved overall rating of “It’s a Start” in its most recent review based on our own research. To its credit, Everlane focuses on timeless designs over short-lived trends and emphasises the high quality and craftsmanship of its products, and acknowledges that brands ought to be transparent. But there are essential ways in which Everlane fails to live up to its own hype, and further improvements are still needed across the board—though especially when it comes to workers’ rights—for the brand to see a higher score on our directory.
Note that Good On You ratings consider hundreds of issues, and it is not possible to list every relevant issue in a summary of the brand’s performance. For more information, see our How We Rate page and our FAQs.
So for the conscious consumer, Everlane might be out until it further improves its practices. Luckily, many responsible brands offer timeless, well-made designs that do right by workers, animals, and the planet.
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