Sydney Sweeney’s lingerie brand is facing questions over its long-term prospects after a sharp fall in website traffic, despite a surge in attention generated by the actress’s high-profile advertising campaigns.
SYRN launched in January with claims from the company that it had generated more than $2 million (£1.6 million) in sales and sold out its collection within a day. However, data from analytics firm Winning Hunter indicates that monthly visits to the brand’s website fell from a peak of 789,000 to 140,000 over the summer.
The figures have prompted criticism from an unnamed source close to the business, who claimed: “The brand is tanking even though they are trying to pretend that it isn’t.”
The source also criticised the quality and positioning of the products, saying the lingerie was “cheap and ugly” and “tacky”, while claiming that Sweeney was marketing primarily to men rather than women, who traditionally make most lingerie purchases.
SYRN’s projected annual revenue has been estimated at between $4 million and $7 million, although the figures are described as a broad prediction rather than confirmed earnings.
Sydney Sweeney’s lingerie brand relies on controversy
The brand’s marketing is built heavily around Sweeney’s image. Its website uses the phrase “From the heart, brain and boobs of Sydney Sweeney”, alongside playful references to her body written in her own voice.
The actress has personally driven the creative direction of campaigns for both SYRN and Novig, a sports betting company in which she is described as a strategic partner and equity holder.
Novig advertisements showing Sweeney appearing naked apart from strategically placed sports equipment prompted a global backlash last month. Several leading female Olympic athletes condemned what they viewed as the sexualisation of women’s sport.
Despite the criticism, the adverts attracted about 100 million views on Instagram. Novig subsequently raised funding at a reported valuation of $2 billion, up from $500 million, according to figures cited in the material.
The controversy also appears to have benefited SYRN in the short term. Traffic to the lingerie website more than doubled last month, with an insider claiming that third-quarter sales were more than twice those of the second quarter and more than three times the sales recorded in June.
However, the same source predicted that the rise could prove temporary, pointing to the performance of Sweeney’s previous commercial partnership with American Eagle.
The clothing company said its sales rose by 1 per cent in the quarter following her first campaign. When Sweeney returned for a second campaign several months later, sales fell by 2 per cent.
“It’s that one single idea over and over and over,” the SYRN source said. “Women don’t like it, and it’s women who buy lingerie, so she is in trouble here.”
The source claimed that a rebrand had been discussed because women did not consider Sweeney “cool”. The comments have not been accompanied by a response from the actress or her company in the material provided.
Backlash over recent campaigns
Sweeney also attracted criticism this week after SYRN advertisements showed her dressed as Cindy Lou Who, the child character from Dr Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Some social media users questioned why a child character had been used to promote lingerie, while others accused the campaign of fetishising children. The reaction added to a series of disputes around the actress’s commercial image.
She faced a separate backlash over the American Eagle campaign, which used the slogan “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”. Critics interpreted the wording as a reference to her blonde hair and blue eyes, while the company maintained that it was simply a play on the word “jeans”.
Sweeney is a registered Republican and was praised by President Trump after the campaign. Some critics have also described her as a Zionist because her partner, music manager Scooter Braun, supports the state of Israel.
The actress’s association with Braun has created another potential complication for her public image. Braun, 45, is widely disliked by Taylor Swift’s fans following his purchase of the master recordings of the singer’s early albums.
Swift said she had not been given a fair opportunity to buy the recordings herself and responded by rerecording the albums. Braun, who has three children from his first marriage, is now reported to be living with Sweeney at his Los Angeles home.
The pair are said to have met at Jeff Bezos’s wedding in Venice in the summer of 2025. Reports have suggested that they could marry, while one source claimed they may already be engaged or could become engaged soon.
Sweeney has reportedly attended synagogue with Braun and is said to be preparing to embrace his faith before a wedding. These claims have not been confirmed by either of them.
Questions over Sweeney’s career strategy
The commercial scrutiny comes as Sweeney, 29, works on The Housemaid’s Secret, the sequel to the successful psychological thriller The Housemaid.
She is returning as Millie Calloway, the ex-convict she played opposite Amanda Seyfried in the first film. The original made about £300 million worldwide, despite receiving mixed critical reviews.
Sweeney is understood to have secured a 100 per cent pay rise for the sequel, with a basic salary of £10.7 million and additional bonuses if the film is successful. It is expected to be the largest payday of her career.
Her other forthcoming projects include Scandalous, in which she will play actress Kim Novak opposite David Jonsson as Sammy Davis Jr. A proposed reboot of the Jane Fonda science-fiction film Barbarella is also moving forwards at Sony.
However, people quoted in the material have questioned whether her current approach could damage her standing with younger audiences. One film producer described her as “poison” to young people, while another source claimed that women did not view her as fashionable or aspirational.
Sweeney is also said to have fallen out with Ari Emanuel, the head of talent agency WME, after meeting him while she was between agents. Emanuel reportedly advised her that she would be taken more seriously if she separated from Braun.
She subsequently signed with WME rival CAA in September and changed her long-standing public relations firm. An associate claimed Braun had influence over her agent, film choices and commercial decisions, saying he had been “involved in everything”.
Another source described Braun as “obsessed” with Sweeney and claimed the couple’s age difference could create difficulties. Those comments remain unverified.
Sweeney has previously said that financial pressure influenced her willingness to accept commercial work. In a 2022 interview, she said she had no one to turn to for help with her bills and that actors no longer received the same level of residual payments.
She said she had to cover commissions for her lawyer, agents and business manager, as well as a monthly publicist’s fee that was higher than her mortgage. “I take deals because I have to,” she said.
The actress was raised in a religious, working-class Republican family in Spokane, Washington. At 12, she presented her parents with a PowerPoint presentation to persuade them to support her acting ambitions, and the family moved to Los Angeles the following year, sharing a motel room.
Her parents later separated and her father filed for bankruptcy. Sweeney found wider recognition in 2018 through roles in Everything Sucks, The Handmaid’s Tale and Sharp Objects, before appearing in Euphoria, The White Lotus and the film Anyone But You.
For now, the attention surrounding SYRN appears capable of producing substantial short-term interest. The concern for the company is whether that attention can be converted into lasting loyalty among women and younger audiences, rather than another temporary sales spike driven by controversy.
