BASIC MATH

Walmart is reportedly launching an Everlane-like clothing brand

Walmart shoppers are said to be getting a new brand to add to their (virtual) shopping carts.
Walmart shoppers are said to be getting a new brand to add to their (virtual) shopping carts.
Image: Reuters/Paulo Whitaker
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Walmart has been making an aggressive push into the clothing business. Last year it bought brands including Bonobos and ModCloth, and earlier this year it launched four of its own private label brands.

Its next step, Business of Fashion reports (paywall), may be launching a basics brand similar to Everlane, but aimed at Gen Z shoppers and with lower prices.

Citing two people “with firsthand knowledge of the matter,” BoF says the line is a product of Walmart’s brand incubator. Andy Dunn, the founder and CEO of Bonobos, who Walmart appointed to “oversee the company’s collection of digitally-native vertical brands” when it bought Bonobos, is leading the project. The new label would sell through Walmart’s own e-commerce site.

Walmart declined to comment on the line or BoF’s report.

The basics brand seems to be an effort by Walmart—already one of the biggest clothing retailers in the US—to bolster its online apparel business and stave off fiercely growing competition from Amazon. The e-commerce giant is on track to become America’s largest clothing retailer soon, or may already be, depending on which source you ask. Much of the clothing it sells are low-cost basics.

According to a survey earlier this year by Coresight Research, Amazon has been able to lure away some of its competitors’ existing clothing shoppers. Coresight asked survey respondents who said they were now spending more of their clothing and footwear budget at Amazon to name the companies from which they’d shifted their spend. The top answers were Target and Walmart.