JackThreads Looks For A Buyer, Lays Off Staff

JackThreads, the online menswear retailer that was once a part of the Thrillist Media empire, announced last week that it has laid off most of its staff and is now up for sale, according to Fortune.

The startup was purchased by Thrillist Media in 2010 in an attempt to have its eCommerce and lifestyle media business under the same umbrella. But when that turned out to not be feasible, the two split into separate companies in 2015 after they raised a combined $54 million in new funding.

Now, the staff has been whittled down to a skeleton crew, with most of its employees laid off over the past two weeks. Many of those who lost their jobs are from the customer service department, which has led to complaints from customers who have had their orders abruptly canceled and are still waiting to hear about unprocessed refunds.

One of the reasons the site has struggled might be due to its overly generous customer perks, such as its TryOuts policy that let customers order clothes without paying for them, try them on and then only pay for the items they didn’t return.

But there might be some light at the end of the tunnel: A company spokesperson says that there are discussions about JackThreads being sold to a third party.

“Over the last few months JackThreads has been in M&A conversations with multiple potential acquirers,” the company’s spokesperson said. “Last Wednesday we made changes to meaningfully reduce the burn and to enable these various conversations to reach their conclusions. We’re confident this effort will help us to finalize one of several deals on the table and to maximize the opportunity for both our employees and investors.”