SSENSE Owes Millions To Indie Fashion Brands. Here’s How They’re Dealing With It.
At first, SSENSE was a boon to Who Decides War. The NYC-based luxury streetwear brand was founded in 2019 by husband-and-wife duo Ev Bravado and Téla D’Amore. SSENSE, the zeitgeisty Canadian e-tailer, placed an order right away. At the time, the online fashion retail arena was crowded and hyper-competitive, with boutiques jostling for market share. SSENSE’s edge, besides its sleek website and famous end-of-season blowout sales, was its curation: The store carried a wide selection of niche and underground labels that were difficult to find anywhere else.
SSENSE’s bet on Who Decides War appeared to have paid off for both parties. Being on SSENSE, Bravado says in a recent call, “was definitely a huge endorsement, a huge stamp of approval” for their fledgling brand. According to Bravado, the initial order sold well, and SSENSE invested further in the relationship, stocking its virtual shelves with a growing assortment of Who Decides War’s $1,000+ artisanally distressed jeans, which in turn helped the brand invest in itself. The designer says that SSENSE was “an accelerator for us.”
And then came the crash. Following two years of softening consumer spending and declining sales, SSENSE was already in a financially vulnerable position when U.S. tariff policy delivered a knockout punch. On July 30, President Trump signed an executive order suspending the “de minimis” rule, which allowed packages under $800 to be shipped to the U.S. tariff-free. SSENSE filed for bankruptcy protection in Quebec superior court one month later. (According to court documents, the average SSENSE order over the last 12 months was $534.)
All of a sudden, one of Who Decides War’s most fruitful partnerships turned into a nightmare. By the time of the filing, SSENSE hadn’t paid Bravado for over half a million dollars in orders: $574,058.70, to be exact, per a preliminary list of the company’s known creditors.
The list, published by court-appointed monitor Ernst & Young, began circling on social media this month. According to court filings, SSENSE entered bankruptcy protection with $371 million CAD of debt, with over $93 million CAD owed to vendors, at least some of which is detailed on the list, which names hundreds of brands ranging from Auralee (owed €145,618.859) to Willy Chavarria ($50,292).
After the creditors list hit Substack and TikTok, it prompted a wave of curiosity and anger. Of all the e-comm heavyweights, SSENSE was seen as a champion of emerging brands and hub of Internet-fluent taste, an image it honed with its cerebral editorial voice, meme-machine social media feeds, and archly-styled models.
