SHEIN: The Fast Fashion Machine

You’ve surely heard of the fastfashion behemoth SHEIN, right? With the sheer amount of advertising they push on every social media platform, whether it be through the use of influencers, or social-media conglomerates, it seems almost impossible to not have heard of the clothing retailer. The advertising tactic of having influencers on TikTok and Instagram work with SHEIN to post “haul” videos, entailing trying on piles of clothing, inviting one’s followers to visit SHEIN’s pop-ups, and promoting their sales events, has been incredibly successful for the company, pushing SHEIN to the top of the fast fashion ladder, and, in fact, making it the most popular fashion brand overall in 2022 (Haqqi, 2022). What’s behind the company’s ability to pump out clothing at such an astounding rate? The answer to that relates back to its encroaching track record of human rights violations and an environmentally-unsustainable model of production.

The fast fashion giant SHEIN was founded in the city of Nanjing, China, in 2008 by Chris Xu, a U.S.-born entrepreneur and search engine optimization specialist. Over the years, Shein has gone from being a low-cost Chinese apparel merchant to a global, online-only fashion behemoth. SHEIN managed to climb in sales from $10 billion in 2020, which was up from $4.5 billion in 2019, to a mind-boggling $100 billion in 2022 (Bloomberg, 2021).

To understand the widespread appeal of clothing companies like SHEIN, the first, most obvious thing to point out is their incredibly low prices. Not to mention, the fact that they ship to 150 countries and regions worldwide. The business-model is akin to that of Amazon’s: a widespread online marketplace brings together about

6,000 clothing factories in China under SHEIN’s label, while internal management software collects near-instant data about which items are selling and which aren’t to visibly boost the popular items (Matsakis, 2021).

The clothing is also presented in polished and pristine advertising campaigns run by SHEIN’s head office. They have poured millions into advertisement campaigns through Google and Facebook, advertisement deals, and even a social media reality show co-hosted by Khloe Kardashian (McCann, 2021). This being said, however, the center of their marketing strategy is absolutely their use of influencers and hashtags such as #SHEINhaul. For those who do not know, a “haul,” a symptom of the gluttony of late-stage capitalism, is essentially buying bulk in clothing that you won’t even wear half of. To criticize the buying of clothing would make me a hypocrite. Still, these hauls that are widely popular on social-media platforms such as TikTok promote overconsumption. Add this to the algorithm of the app itself, which to stay relevant on, you must participate in everyday, which then combines with the tendency to overconsume regardless, and the result is mountains of wasted fabric and materials.

To touch on the issue of modern day conformity relating to TikTok’s influence, especially in the fashion world, this form of content also promotes the idea that style is the amount of clothing you have. It does away with the notion that style is meant to be the ultimate form of self-expression, and replaces it with a competition of who is most on trend, most aesthetically-abiding, or god forbid,

most “high-fashion.”

We have the ability to tell the world who we are with what we wear, but the trend of seeking validation through our clothing, which is only further propelled by means like that of social media, have seemed to trump the freeing process of true selfexpression.

When you look at trends in fashion now, they are becoming more and more micro-trends, increasingly getting shorter and lasting only about three months. Conforming to this cycle leads to buying fast fashion, as that’s the cheapest option. This cheapest option, however, leads to the huge consumption that eventually makes the consumer not care about the state or condition of the clothing they buy. Not in regards to tears or stains, but WHAT the clothing is made of and the process that goes into production.

The quality of fast fashion clothing is horrendous, which helps to explain why so much of it ends up being thrown out within a 3-month time period after purchasing. When you take the time to find pieces of clothing that you truly admire, want to wear, and know will LAST, then you have truly cracked the code on sustainable fashion.

The reason no one wants to partake in this kind of consumption, however, is because of the way in which fast fashion causes the societal devaluation of the labor that goes into making clothes. Of course, if you are constantly seeing $15 price tags and consistent 50% off sales, you’re going to be astounded when you see a sustainably made $300 dress. Yes, the material plays a role in the cost, but what really hikes the price up is the fact that it was ethically constructed (this applies to both production practices and labor practices), which leads me to my next point: SHEIN’s awful trackrecord of its impact on the environment.

To be quite frank, SHEIN’s mass production of items on a daily basis would not be possible without exploitation; not only of the labour of unpaid workers, but of the sheer amount of energy and natural resources needed in producing that much material. SHEIN gets a product from drawing board, to production, to being live-online in as little as three days (TECHFLIX, 2022). Why is this a bad thing? This model of production leads to overconsumption, which in turn leads to a highly negative impact on the environment. To put that into perspective, the average American throws away 81 pounds (Portela, 2022), yes pounds, of clothing a year; fast fashion companies know this, therein leading to the production of clothing not made to last: usually constructed of cheap synthetic fibers like polyester, which is essentially plastic. Polyester can take up to 200 years to decompose (Stanes, E. and Gibson, C., 2017), which is especially bad because the industry produces over

100 billion new garments every year (Bloomberg, 2022). We are essentially living on a gigantic pile of plastic.

SHEIN’s CEO, Molly Miao, has stated that each item is produced only in small numbers, between 50-100 pieces a day, before it becomes popular and then mass-produced. But the manufacturers’ rapid use of virigin polyester and large consumption of oil churns out the same amount of CO2 as approximately 180 coalfired power plants, according to a report published by Sysnthetics Anonymous 2.0 in 2022.

As a result, the company leaves about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in its trail, a number that falls well below the 45% target to reduce global carbon emissions by 2030, which the U.N. has said is necessary for fashion companies to implement to help limit global warming.

The fashion industry is responsible for releasing more than 10 percent of carbon emissions (Bloomber, 2022). Many brands that are signatories of the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, which is the industry’s flagship climate initiative spearheaded by the U.N., have committed to either halving emissions by the end of the decade or to set science-based reduction targets (Kent, 2021).

Like many other corporations, however, SHEIN tends to avoid these kinds of attempts to make regulations, and instead tries to “internally-regulate” its emissions and abuses. On the heels of coming under fire for fuelling wasteful consumption, for example, SHEIN announced it would spend $7.6 million on a partnership with the nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute, which works with manufacturers to set and implement energy efficiency programs (Kent, 2022). It aims to reduce supply chain emissions by 25 percent by 2030 through energyefficient projects and a transition to renewable power for manufacturing. This being said, however, the impact of these initiatives is yet to be seen, especially considering a survey by BCG which found that just 18% of retailers who had previously set emissions targets were on track to achieving them, while another 35% were stalled in their progress (Unglesbee, 2022).

Perhaps the most upsetting aspect of SHEIN’s detriment is its disgusting violations of workers’ rights. A lengthy investigation by Wired first chronicled how both laborers and consumers suffered from the production of SHEIN’s clothing, while a documentary by the U.K.’s Channel 4 found that SHEIN employees were working 75-hour shifts with very little time off. The Swiss publication Public Eye also released a detailed report which accused SHEIN of violating Chinese labor laws. Through independent Chinese researchers tracking SHEIN’s manufacturing and packing process in China and Europe, the report found that many of these manufacturing “plants” were actually being run in informal factory spaces set up in residential buildings.

The conditions of these factories were near Victorian-era. Labor advocacy groups and journalists uncovered evidence that SHEIN’s $12 bikinis and $7 crop tops were being made by people working in unsafe workshops, lacking safety protocols like windows and emergency exits. Many were hired without contracts or minimum wage requirements, thereby allowing the company to reportedly fail to pay its employees properly (Reed, 2022). Channel 4’s documentary, Inside The Shein Machine, sent undercover cameras to film factory workers who were forced to pull 17-hour shifts to make hundreds of garments a day. In one factory, they made a daily base salary of $20, which would then be docked to $14 if any garments had mistakes.

Eventually, SHEIN made a public statement in which they admitted to the breaches: “We know we have a responsibility to safeguard the welfare of workers in our supply chain. In light of the recent report in the news, we launched an investigation into the chain that 2 of our suppliers had unacceptable working conditions at their facilities” (Reed, 2022).

Additionally, SHEIN has stated that all suppliers would be required to comply with a code of conduct based on conventions by the International Labour Organization. SHEIN has also built an in-house team that will monitor its supply-chain partners and is engaging independent agencies like Intertek Group PLC to conduct regular audits of supplier factories (Xiao, 2022).

It is still important to mention, again, that Corporations like this are NEVER willing to up the price of their production, which would inherently come along with imposed regulations. To avoid this additional cost, companies like SHEIN will conduct their own internal-regulations, often times a farce for PR, and wait until public scrutiny is directed someplace else; returning to its unethical business tactics regardless.

Now, you may be a regular consumer of fast fashion, and I have no issue with that, unless, of course, you have the means to do otherwise. The ability to consume sustainable fashion is a privilege, and this is no mistake in the system. Ethical consumption under a capitalist organization of economy is nearly impossible afterall. Those who come from lower-income families don’t have the ability to consume fast fashion alternatives for many reasons such as cost and the exclusivity surrounding sustainable fashion. Many sustainable brands do not have inclusive size ranges, and other means of sustainable clothing, such as buying second-hand through Depop, eBay, or in person at a thrift store, are not reliable for everyone either, with the piece that you may want oftentimes being far too small or wildly expensive. Nonetheless, second-hand shopping is the ideal method of consumption when it comes to fashion purely because of the waste that producing new clothing causes.

It is important to note that the ones buying fast fashion because it is all that they can afford are not the ones contributing to the dominance of fast fashion. This is because, generally, these people cherish their clothing and don’t have the disposable income to be buying new clothes every couple weeks. But the people who buy $900 SHEIN hauls, who throw out their clothes every two months, who criticize others for wearing outdated trends; how do we justify that clear example of gluttony and disregard? These people tend to add to the widespread feeling of shame or pressure felt by others to throw away clothing and abide by trends, but that model of consumption, as we have seen, is not sustainable; not only for the earth, but for one’s own self. When you break it down, style is not what is trendy or desired, and abiding by that model of consumption will hurt not only your pockets but also your morale; clothing is a creative medium that anyone, yes, even you reading this, can use to fully express yourself and uplift those around you. When fashion becomes a competition of comparison and wealth, it is no longer about the clothing but rather the approval of others; living by the word of someone else is the definition of living inhibited. Wear what you want! The important thing is just to be conscious of your consumption.

By Caro Klipp-Kaplan