The Mission of a Clothing Company

    Think about Nike, Adidas, and some other traditional retailers of clothing for a second. Exactly how transparent do you think this industry can be?

    Everlane's answer is "radical transparency." And this is how they achieve the mission when selling a pair of straight jeans:

 

    The infographic at the bottom of each Everlane product's page tells customers the true cost of their cloth. For example, this pair of jeans costs $25.43 to make, including $9.62 for materials, $2.60 for hardware, $9 for labor,  duties for $3.52, and transportation cost is $0.69. As shown in the chart, a traditional retailer may sell these jeans at $155 a pair, and Everlane's price is $78.

    

    That's some serious transparency, right?

    

    Everlane is a young and fast-growing online clothing retailer for simple, well-made clothes. Founded in 2010, the brand has successfully reached a revenue of 40 million dollars  in 2017, and generated a large group of cult fans for not only the signature everyday style but the company's "transparency play." Honesty and transparency are what have been driving shoppers to buy their clothes from Everlane. Over 10 years ago, the strategy of offering a full breakdown of the product was never heard of for most shoppers. But according to Michael Preysman, founder of the company, he believes this is how Everlane can differ from other brands and attract millennial shoppers who care about ethical labor and environmentally friendly products.

    Before opening off-line stores in SOHO New York and San Francisco, Everlane was a 100% online retailer for nearly ten years. My interest in the brand is to find out what did it do right with social media marketing that helps to build Everlane into a strong company. After all, like the radical transparency philosophy, social media strategy is one of the company's cornerstones, and "it's a way for us to get insight into the brand, and social has really guided our company," said Michael Preysman to Digiday.com.

    Sally Espinosa, a PR professional, believes that brands have two options when it comes to social media marketing: content creation and content curation. Content creation is straightforward, creating your own content and publish on the brands' social media platforms. Content curation, on the other hand, can require more strategies when aiming at brand image building.

    Everlane has a very consistent style when it comes to content creation. Minimalism picture plus a short text for new product announcements or restock notice. For people who have more or less heard about the brand, they can identify Everlane's photo style right away. The models wear very little makeup or even no makeup at all. They are in all sizes with tons of imperfections just like you and me. It's the Everlane style that total customers love.

    The pictures below show the kind of content curation that the brand does typically on Twitter. These are great examples showing that the brand cares about their customers by acknowledging the love and support and retweet directly from them.

    A brand that lives solely online may not seem that crazy nowadays, especially with the threat of a global pandemic. But Everlane is no doubt a pioneer of such brands. Inevitably, it is facing challenges from the public, and it's going to be harder for the company to stick with radical transparency in the coming future.

    So, now you know how much your T-shirt really cost, will you buy it from Everlane, the honest company?