Some claim that Shein has allegedly copied their designs and sold similar items at a lower cost. It has also been accused of copyright infringement and faces lawsuits from the likes of the maker of Dr Martens boots, although the e-retailer has previously denied any wrongdoing, external. Shein is partnering with fellow fast-fashion retailer Forever 21, furthering the retailer’s efforts to expand its product offering beyond Shein-produced items. Forever 21 items will be sold on Shein’s site and Shein is hosting pop-ups in Forever 21 stores. The survey found that Shein customers buy or resell secondhand clothing online one to four times a year on average. Despite reports that Shein’s clothing is disposable, 62% of respondents reported wearing Shein items 10 or more times and 33% said they get 30 or more wears out of Shein clothes.
Along with this, Whinston has shared that Shein plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by sending more products by ship than by air. He also said that the brand wishes to make its supply sites more energy efficient and incorporate recycled fibers into its products more often. Additionally, the company revealed it «formed a product review committee with staff from different cultures and religions» to avoid repeating past mistakes; however, they’ve continued to usgfx review 2021 user ratings bonus demo & more face accusations of insensitivity and appropriation. Apart from the Public Eye report, there is little to no information that confirms whether or not Shein is enforcing policies that protect workers on its production sites. According to a 2021 report by Reuters, Australia requires companies that make over $100 million AUD annually to submit a «modern slavery statement» to the Australian Border Force (ABF) every year. They claimed that Shein had not submitted this required statement by the time of publishing.
A 2021 investigation by the Chinese digital publication Sixth Tone uncovered a pattern of «loose oversight and poor working conditions» at some of Shein’s manufacturers. It discovered that Shein’s suppliers often subcontract orders to small workshops inside rundown buildings to cut costs. Because these businesses don’t deal directly with Shein, the company cannot verify their working conditions. According to its 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report, Shein uses The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework for its sustainability efforts and social impact. On its website, Shein says that its digital supply chain limits excess inventory and reduces waste.
As a fast-fashion company, Shein’s practices are innately bad for the environment
The Chinese apparel market is extremely competitive, and Shein’s priority from the beginning has been to export goods abroad. The retailer has also benefited from deteriorating trade relations between China and the US. China began waiving export taxes for direct-to-consumer companies in 2018 after the US imposed more tariffs, Bloomberg reported. Since Shein ships its orders directly to customers from Chinese warehouses, packages worth less than $800, or small-value shipments, generally remain duty-free. In other words, Shein has managed to circumvent paying both export and import taxes for about three years, something brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t able to avoid.
Critics question Shein’s manufacturing and supply chain practices
Meanwhile, a recent investigation by BBC News revealed that job adverts for workers at Shein factories and warehouses appeared on Chinese recruitment websites, which said that those from certain ethnic backgrounds, including Uighur people, must not apply. Shein X, the retailer’s tutorial programme, recently ran a competition for young designers with a $100,000 (£74,227) prize and fashion collection on offer in a bid to boost its credentials. A senior Shein executive told the BBC that it also has a team reviewing new designs by its suppliers before they reach the website, to try to filter out any infringement issues, which it takes seriously. Using an army of influencers, from student «campus ambassadors» to reality stars such as Made in Chelsea’s Georgia Toffolo, Shein has amassed more than 250 million followers across its social media channels. But some critics say these efforts pale in comparison to the company’s output of an estimated 314,877 new styles per year, according to a Business of Fashion article, which used data from retail analytics firm Edited.
Shein: The secretive Chinese brand dressing Gen Z
And as the fashion industry adjusts to Shein’s blinding pace, it’s safe to assume that shoppers are encouraged and expected to buy more and more. All it takes is another viral must-have product from a brand that might be the next big thing. And despite Shein’s popularity, the company remains largely unknown among Chinese consumers.
Huge choice – 600,000 products for sale
Shoppers dump piles of Shein-branded packages from large cardboard boxes onto the floors of their bedrooms, where you’ll also probably see garlands of fake ivy and string lights hanging from the walls. One woman filmed a box truck delivering a giant box to her driveway after she said she bought $2,000 worth of Shein products. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2019, closing more than 100 stores and laying off hundreds of employees in Canada and beyond.
There was, of course, almost immediate backlash on social media and, according to CBS News, users accused Shein of anti-semitism and demanded people stop supporting their brand. Shein eventually removed the necklace from its website and apologized on social media, claiming on Instagram that the pendant represented a Buddhist symbol for «spirituality and good fortune.» In 2020, a researcher interviewed 10 people who worked at companies that supply Shein’s products and reported her findings back to Public Eye. She discovered that these supply sites were riddled with fire hazards, such as blocked entrances and exits, second-story windows barred shut, and no emergency exits.
Throughout the early 2010s, Shein launched overseas sites in Spain, France, Russia, Italy, and Germany, and began selling cosmetics, shoes, bags, and jewelry, in addition to womenswear. According to a translated article from the Chinese tech site LatePost, by 2016, Xu had assembled a team of 800 designers and prototypers, dedicated to rapidly producing Shein-branded clothes. Shein also began honing its supply chain, cutting out suppliers that produced “mediocre-quality products or images,” according to a 2016 press release. Analysts have dubbed Shein’s business model «real-time retail» because new designs can take as little as three days to produce, Vox reported.
According to a 2022 Wired report, this number is a shocking 6,000, whereas other fast-fashion brands like Gap, H&M, and Zara typically offer somewhere between 30 to 100 new styles how to read a foreign exchange rates within the same time period. Clearly, this model works for Shein, because, according to Earnest Research, the retailer now tops every fast-fashion brand in market shares. “Each new design is basically a bet because Shein can estimate how well a product is going to do, but it doesn’t know for sure until it sells,” Brennan explained.
These five brands are the first to come to mind when discussing why the fast fashion industry is so controversial. Yet Shein’s emergence as a fast fashion juggernaut can’t solely be attributed to the price of its clothing or its ubiquitous internet presence. The retailer is also nowhere to be found in the physical world — at least not in brick-and-mortar stores, although it has previously hosted in-person pop-up events. Shein appeared to have sprung out of thin air into the mainstream, unlike fast fashion’s old guards, whose spacious, brightly lit stores were proof of their dominance. Yet, Shein is so far ahead of competitors like H&M, Zara, and Asos, according to an analysis by Apptopia, that it’s difficult to compare them. Although the firm has paid out more than $1m (£741,000) to independent designers to date, Twitter still sees complaints from smaller businesses.
- As of this writing, the fashion brand’s website simply states that it «[supports] the ten principles [of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals] focused on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.»
- This decision illustrates the company’s willingness to jeopardize the safety of its employees.
- It alleges that Shein violated antitrust laws by intimidating manufacturers not to work with the Boston-based company, Reuters reported.
- These five brands are the first to come to mind when discussing why the fast fashion industry is so controversial.
Since exploding in popularity in the late 2010s/early 2020s, fast fashion retailer Shein has captured the attention of millions of shoppers worldwide with its rapid trend cycle and rock-bottom prices. However, its exponential growth has raised concerns within the business community and among consumers. Shein was first launched in 2008 under the domain SheInside, as a site that sold wedding dresses and women’s fashion geared toward US and English-language shoppers. The retailer was what is a white-label broker in forex started in Nanjing, a province in China, by entrepreneur Chris Xu, who specialized in search engine optimization marketing.
Shein sits at the crest of a new wave of ‘ultra-fast fashion’ retailers that are attracting scrutiny for their environmentally damaging practices. The manufacturing of synthetic fibres like polyester and nylon – prevalent in fast fashion clothing – is highly energy intensive and produces large amounts of microplastics, while textile dyeing is one of the largest sources of water pollution. Overall, the UN Environmental Program has estimated that the fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions. Shein X has partnered with people like artist Donna Adi, Nigerian fashion designer Ngozika Okeke, and SHEIN x 100K challenge winner Sashagai (Sasha) Ruddock. In an effort to better their reputation in terms of environmental, social, and governance (ESG)issues, Shein hired a group of new executives who aim to change how the general public views the fashion retailer, Bloomberg reported in June 2022.
The court filing alleges that copyright infringement is central to Shein’s business model and that the company passes the blame onto third-party vendors. Similarly, Reuters reported that the Modern Slavery Act of 2015 requires companies who do business in the United Kingdom and bring in more than 36 million pounds of items a year to state the actions they are taking to work against forced labor. Reuters found that, in the past, Shein falsely claimed that the conditions in their factories were certified by international labor standards. As of this writing, the fashion brand’s website simply states that it «[supports] the ten principles [of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals] focused on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.» These comments usually appear on videos of Shein hauls or styling videos, in which users try to shame well-off creators for buying from a purportedly unethical company. To be clear, there is no evidence that Shein employs children or produces an unsafe labor environment, but the company has not publicly disclosed workers’ wages or hours.
In this article, we delve into the background of Shein, its remarkable growth, concerns surrounding its business model, and the implications of its expansion for British companies in China and beyond. The Chinese brand insists that its method of producing clothes in small batches is more efficient and that little goes to waste. A spokesperson said that its business model «balances consumers’ wants and needs and the inventory process». But it’s also drawn criticism over its environmental impact, a lack of transparency and allegations it copies small designers, which Shein denies and says it takes seriously. US lawmakers have lobbied to delay Shein’s public offering until they can verify that the company does not benefit from forced labor. In May 2023, the company raised $2 billion in funding and some sources say the company is eyeing an initial public offering as early as 2024, Bloomberg reported.