6 ms·

Everlane Closed on Black Friday

143 points by inmygarage 14y ago

jgrahamc 14y ago
This is cool, I suppose. But there's a big missed opportunity here: I have no idea what or who Everlane is and there's not even a link to an About page there.
- someproduct 14y ago
  HN links aside, you almost certainly wouldn't arrive at everlane.com without any context or understanding. Most first-time visitors probably come from something social, and thus have a pretty good idea that Everlane is some kind of retail. Knowing this, the folks at Everlane opted to optimize the band experience for registered users and those who haven't registered but are familiar with the company. This is a great example of leveraging a point-of-view into a statement about your brand, rather than watering-down the messaging to appeal to even the smallest subset of users.
- bonyt 14y ago
  Yeah, but now we're both /want/ to know what or who the heck Everlane is. I found their about page. https://www.everlane.com/about https://www.everlane.com/about - plus they have a Join link in the corner.
  - untog 14y ago
    Do we? I read it and immediately hit 'back'. There wasn't exactly anything too intrigue me there.
- HyprMusic 14y ago
  Looks like they sell designer items at low cost: https://www.everlane.com/about https://www.everlane.com/about
  - the_economist 14y ago
    They are able to provide cheaper pricing by avoiding the costs associated with physical retail outlets. That is their pitch, anyway. Everlane model: Cost to make shirt + profit for everlane + shipping -> total cost Conventional clothing model: Cost to make shirt + profit for manufacturer + shipping + cost of operating retail outlet + profit for retail outlet -> total cost They are still outsourcing their manufacturing so the above isn't completely accurate, but it's close. This is the future of the clothing business and I for one am very happy about it.
    - justjimmy 14y ago
      It'll be interesting to see how they will handle scaling. Selling T-Shirts is easy - what happens when other factors come in? Neck sizes, different size standardization (UK vs US), measurements, units/scales, suits, pants, female vs male. It's a whole can of worms and there are startups dedicated just to solve this measurement issue for clothing.
      - gabemart 14y ago
        >It'll be interesting to see how they will handle scaling. Selling T-Shirts is easy As someone who is a non-standard size, I hope that new business models provide a much greater range of clothing sizes. Offering three or four sizes of T-shirts is profoundly ridiculous. They will only fit a small percentage of people well. I look forward to the day when you enter your height, neck, chest and waist measurement, specify your desired style of fit (slim/casual/loose) and they find the closest out of (perhaps) 20 sizes and send it to you. As a thin, tall person, it's virtually impossible to buy clothes that fit properly (even T-shirts). If someone provided a way to buy custom fit essentials, or even just a granular range of sizes, at internet-margin prices, I would sign up tomorrow.
    - larrys 14y ago
      "cost of operating retail outlet" The cost of the retail outlet though is spread among many goods. While there are stores that are certainly devoted to one product (and run by the manufacturer or designer) there are more stores that contain many designers. So what what matters it the incremental cost of adding one extra product to the store and what their markup is on the goods. Also, you will most certainly sell more total products (and lower your costs) by having, in general, multiple channels for those products. Lastly, as the point I made in another reply here said, you can't discount the amount of what you are paying that goes to the designer for lending their name to the product or getting involved. Tiger Woods is paid to put his name on golf clubs. Ralph Lauren makes shirts and all sorts of goods. People like and buy the label. Some of it is about quality and some is about cache. By eliminating the retail outlet you only remove one part of the costs. "We eliminate the middleman" is a pitch that has been around for a long time. And yet, people still manage to do business selling through retail channels at the point of purchase. And there is certainly room for both.
- draggnar 14y ago
  they should put an email capture to remind me to come back tomorrow
  - shiftpgdn 14y ago
    Looks like it is there now.
    - matthuggins 14y ago
      The placement is awful. I didn't even see it the first time, and only after reading your comment did I reopen the page to actively search for it. It still took me several seconds to locate it, and that's when I knew what I was looking for.
      - btyrad 14y ago
        That small 'join now' in the top right corner?? Oh man horrible! I had to go back and search for it as well!
        vostrocity 14y ago
        Not everyone is trying to optimize every little action for the maximum rate of return.
        thenanyu 14y ago
        (I'm an engineer @everlane) The general concept behind this is not maximizing metrics. We didn't put social sharing buttons there, and we were not in your face about email capture because that would have distracted from the core message. This was a high risk marketing play - we wanted to see how much buzz and earned press we could get by doing this. The sort of extremeness of the design is part of the message.
        rch 14y ago
        I'm a likely customer, and I appreciate what you've done here. For what it's worth, I immediately found the about page too. Thanks.
- ANTSANTS 14y ago
  Agreed. I'd never heard of Everlane before, and now that they finally have my attention, I can't actually look at any of their products. Leaving their product pages up and simply disabling purchasing would have been a better idea.
- thenanyu 14y ago
  I added a small link to the about page - it's easy to miss but anyone who is looking for it should have no trouble.
cdcarter 14y ago
This is fantastic. I haven't picked anything up from Everlane in probably two months. Almost forgot about them. Now I'll be looking forward to when their site comes back online for me to make a choice or two tomorrow!
calinet6 14y ago
I think this is really cool from a business standpoint. It reinforces their image and generates more curiosity and long-term respect than a sale could ever do. This is slightly reminiscent of Patagonia's "Don't buy this jacket" ad that went out last year, which I also in large part respected as a marketing effort and culture statement. With this message, the "Sign up" link is the most attractive thing on the page. I'm guessing they'll get more press and more signups today than otherwise, and those organic signups will generate sales from e-mail campaigns. Really smart.
thechut 14y ago
There model sounds very familiar to the From Holden KS campaign we saw recently. Interesting marketing move though, I guess they probably aren't missing too much since there are so many retailers competing to be in the fray today.
nhebb 14y ago
Nice PR move. I have no reason to doubt their sincerity, but I had never heard of them before and this put them on my radar. As a consumer, their business model looks compelling - https://www.everlane.com/how https://www.everlane.com/how
MatiasPenas-_- 14y ago
If you want to know more about everlane check the TWiST #253. Interview with Michael Preysman of Everlane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6kvIPiez54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6kvIPiez54
sophiabatka464 14y ago
Rust and Bone 2012 is a nice movie.Put in charge of his young son, Ali leaves the north of France for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Ali’s bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d’os) is a 2012 French-Belgian film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-...
weisser 14y ago
Brilliant. This gets people talking and wondering what Everlane is. I'm not someone that cares about a brand but I am someone who cares about quality to a somewhat obsessive level. I love my Everlane shirts and the backback I got from them is rugged and comfortable with just the right amount of pockets and storage. When I return to SF in February I would really like to visit their office and learn more about the company.
- thenanyu 14y ago
  This is Nan, I'm an engineer @everlane. Stop by any time you are in town, and I would love to have coffee.
famousactress 14y ago
Whoops, blunder. The move piqued my curiosity, I signed up.. got a 'confirm email address' email, but the confirm link was redirected to the anti-black-friday page...
- nsmartt 14y ago
  The same happened to me, but the "join now" link was gone, suggesting it worked.
jkaljundi 14y ago
Great marketing tactic to get people to buy and consume more later on.
benwerd 14y ago
I agree with the sentiment on Black Friday, and I generally like Everlane (their t-shirts are genuinely fantastic, to the point that I'd be happy never buying any other t-shirt again), but there's something about the way this is presented that sticks in my mouth. Feels a bit self-righteous, I guess.
ianstallings 14y ago
PR Achievement Unlocked!
creativityland 14y ago
Have had a pleasant experience shopping there in the past. Above average quality for the price but very limited selection and styles even.
vostrocity 14y ago
Everyone is talking about PR yet no one has mentioned our problem with consumerism. See the #buynothing campaign if you haven't. It's an interesting perspective: http://www.storyofstuff.org/blackfriday/ http://www.storyofstuff.org/blackfriday/ I pledge to skip the mall and stay home with friends and family this Black Friday. Instead of spending money on things I don't need, I will spend my time with the people that I love.
dmor 14y ago
Will be a great way to explain why their graph didn't have a crazy holiday spike... but feels like a missed opportunity to me, since they aren't collecting emails or doing much to market the bigger idea behind Everlane on this page. People are fickle, at least capture enough info to get them to come back.
bradrydzewski 14y ago
I like that when you "view source" they have their logo in ascii art with the following "work at everlane - bmFuQGV2ZXJsYW5lLmNvbQ==" ... if you base64 decode the string you get someone's email address

143 points by inmygarage 14y ago

This is cool, I suppose. But there's a big missed opportunity here: I have no idea what or who Everlane is and there's not even a link to an About page there.

someproduct 14y ago
HN links aside, you almost certainly wouldn't arrive at everlane.com without any context or understanding. Most first-time visitors probably come from something social, and thus have a pretty good idea that Everlane is some kind of retail. Knowing this, the folks at Everlane opted to optimize the band experience for registered users and those who haven't registered but are familiar with the company. This is a great example of leveraging a point-of-view into a statement about your brand, rather than watering-down the messaging to appeal to even the smallest subset of users.
bonyt 14y ago
Yeah, but now we're both /want/ to know what or who the heck Everlane is. I found their about page. https://www.everlane.com/about https://www.everlane.com/about - plus they have a Join link in the corner.
- untog 14y ago
  Do we? I read it and immediately hit 'back'. There wasn't exactly anything too intrigue me there.
HyprMusic 14y ago
Looks like they sell designer items at low cost: https://www.everlane.com/about https://www.everlane.com/about
- the_economist 14y ago
  They are able to provide cheaper pricing by avoiding the costs associated with physical retail outlets. That is their pitch, anyway. Everlane model: Cost to make shirt + profit for everlane + shipping -> total cost Conventional clothing model: Cost to make shirt + profit for manufacturer + shipping + cost of operating retail outlet + profit for retail outlet -> total cost They are still outsourcing their manufacturing so the above isn't completely accurate, but it's close. This is the future of the clothing business and I for one am very happy about it.
  - justjimmy 14y ago
    It'll be interesting to see how they will handle scaling. Selling T-Shirts is easy - what happens when other factors come in? Neck sizes, different size standardization (UK vs US), measurements, units/scales, suits, pants, female vs male. It's a whole can of worms and there are startups dedicated just to solve this measurement issue for clothing.
    - gabemart 14y ago
      >It'll be interesting to see how they will handle scaling. Selling T-Shirts is easy As someone who is a non-standard size, I hope that new business models provide a much greater range of clothing sizes. Offering three or four sizes of T-shirts is profoundly ridiculous. They will only fit a small percentage of people well. I look forward to the day when you enter your height, neck, chest and waist measurement, specify your desired style of fit (slim/casual/loose) and they find the closest out of (perhaps) 20 sizes and send it to you. As a thin, tall person, it's virtually impossible to buy clothes that fit properly (even T-shirts). If someone provided a way to buy custom fit essentials, or even just a granular range of sizes, at internet-margin prices, I would sign up tomorrow.
  - larrys 14y ago
    "cost of operating retail outlet" The cost of the retail outlet though is spread among many goods. While there are stores that are certainly devoted to one product (and run by the manufacturer or designer) there are more stores that contain many designers. So what what matters it the incremental cost of adding one extra product to the store and what their markup is on the goods. Also, you will most certainly sell more total products (and lower your costs) by having, in general, multiple channels for those products. Lastly, as the point I made in another reply here said, you can't discount the amount of what you are paying that goes to the designer for lending their name to the product or getting involved. Tiger Woods is paid to put his name on golf clubs. Ralph Lauren makes shirts and all sorts of goods. People like and buy the label. Some of it is about quality and some is about cache. By eliminating the retail outlet you only remove one part of the costs. "We eliminate the middleman" is a pitch that has been around for a long time. And yet, people still manage to do business selling through retail channels at the point of purchase. And there is certainly room for both.
draggnar 14y ago
they should put an email capture to remind me to come back tomorrow
- shiftpgdn 14y ago
  Looks like it is there now.
  - matthuggins 14y ago
    The placement is awful. I didn't even see it the first time, and only after reading your comment did I reopen the page to actively search for it. It still took me several seconds to locate it, and that's when I knew what I was looking for.
    - btyrad 14y ago
      That small 'join now' in the top right corner?? Oh man horrible! I had to go back and search for it as well!
      - vostrocity 14y ago
        Not everyone is trying to optimize every little action for the maximum rate of return.
        thenanyu 14y ago
        (I'm an engineer @everlane) The general concept behind this is not maximizing metrics. We didn't put social sharing buttons there, and we were not in your face about email capture because that would have distracted from the core message. This was a high risk marketing play - we wanted to see how much buzz and earned press we could get by doing this. The sort of extremeness of the design is part of the message.
        rch 14y ago
        I'm a likely customer, and I appreciate what you've done here. For what it's worth, I immediately found the about page too. Thanks.
ANTSANTS 14y ago
Agreed. I'd never heard of Everlane before, and now that they finally have my attention, I can't actually look at any of their products. Leaving their product pages up and simply disabling purchasing would have been a better idea.
thenanyu 14y ago
I added a small link to the about page - it's easy to miss but anyone who is looking for it should have no trouble.

cdcarter 14y ago

This is fantastic. I haven't picked anything up from Everlane in probably two months. Almost forgot about them. Now I'll be looking forward to when their site comes back online for me to make a choice or two tomorrow!

calinet6 14y ago

I think this is really cool from a business standpoint. It reinforces their image and generates more curiosity and long-term respect than a sale could ever do. This is slightly reminiscent of Patagonia's "Don't buy this jacket" ad that went out last year, which I also in large part respected as a marketing effort and culture statement. With this message, the "Sign up" link is the most attractive thing on the page. I'm guessing they'll get more press and more signups today than otherwise, and those organic signups will generate sales from e-mail campaigns. Really smart.

thechut 14y ago

There model sounds very familiar to the From Holden KS campaign we saw recently. Interesting marketing move though, I guess they probably aren't missing too much since there are so many retailers competing to be in the fray today.

nhebb 14y ago

Nice PR move. I have no reason to doubt their sincerity, but I had never heard of them before and this put them on my radar. As a consumer, their business model looks compelling - https://www.everlane.com/how https://www.everlane.com/how

MatiasPenas-_- 14y ago

If you want to know more about everlane check the TWiST #253. Interview with Michael Preysman of Everlane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6kvIPiez54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6kvIPiez54

sophiabatka464 14y ago

Rust and Bone 2012 is a nice movie.Put in charge of his young son, Ali leaves the north of France for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Ali’s bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d’os) is a 2012 French-Belgian film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-... http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-downloads/ http://freemoviesite24.com/2012/11/rust-and-bone-2012-movie-...

weisser 14y ago

Brilliant. This gets people talking and wondering what Everlane is. I'm not someone that cares about a brand but I am someone who cares about quality to a somewhat obsessive level. I love my Everlane shirts and the backback I got from them is rugged and comfortable with just the right amount of pockets and storage. When I return to SF in February I would really like to visit their office and learn more about the company.

thenanyu 14y ago
This is Nan, I'm an engineer @everlane. Stop by any time you are in town, and I would love to have coffee.

famousactress 14y ago

Whoops, blunder. The move piqued my curiosity, I signed up.. got a 'confirm email address' email, but the confirm link was redirected to the anti-black-friday page...

nsmartt 14y ago
The same happened to me, but the "join now" link was gone, suggesting it worked.

jkaljundi 14y ago

Great marketing tactic to get people to buy and consume more later on.

benwerd 14y ago

I agree with the sentiment on Black Friday, and I generally like Everlane (their t-shirts are genuinely fantastic, to the point that I'd be happy never buying any other t-shirt again), but there's something about the way this is presented that sticks in my mouth. Feels a bit self-righteous, I guess.

ianstallings 14y ago

PR Achievement Unlocked!

creativityland 14y ago

Have had a pleasant experience shopping there in the past. Above average quality for the price but very limited selection and styles even.

vostrocity 14y ago

Everyone is talking about PR yet no one has mentioned our problem with consumerism. See the #buynothing campaign if you haven't. It's an interesting perspective: http://www.storyofstuff.org/blackfriday/ http://www.storyofstuff.org/blackfriday/ I pledge to skip the mall and stay home with friends and family this Black Friday. Instead of spending money on things I don't need, I will spend my time with the people that I love.

dmor 14y ago

Will be a great way to explain why their graph didn't have a crazy holiday spike... but feels like a missed opportunity to me, since they aren't collecting emails or doing much to market the bigger idea behind Everlane on this page. People are fickle, at least capture enough info to get them to come back.

bradrydzewski 14y ago

I like that when you "view source" they have their logo in ascii art with the following "work at everlane - bmFuQGV2ZXJsYW5lLmNvbQ==" ... if you base64 decode the string you get someone's email address