Shein offered me $7000, but how exploitative are they, really?
Short answer: very. Fast fashion brand Shein recently popped into my inbox and offered to pay me an obscene amount of money in order to promote their autumn/winter sale that starts tomorrow. Obviously I declined, as I would any advert that doesn’t align with my morals, but let’s take a quick look at HOW they exploit people and the planet.
Just a quick disclaimer: I am by no means a sustainability expert, and I am not perfect. I try my best to educate myself and share that knowledge with you. This post isn’t written to incite judgement, and I appreciate that there are certain people who have no choice but to buy from brands such as Shein, Primark, etc. Sustainability needs to get better at being more inclusive for sure. With that said, let’s dive right in 👉🏾
Environmental Impact 🌎
Waste Generation: Fast fashion companies produce massive amounts of clothing, much of which is of low quality and designed to be disposable - they might say that it isn’t, but research suggests that FF retailers create their garments to have a lifespan of just under a season; this, in combination with forced trends leads you to consume more. A well-known consequence: significant amounts of textile waste, which ends up in landfill.
Resource Depletion: The production of fast fashion relies heavily on the extraction of non-renewable resources, such as oil (for synthetic fabrics) and water (for cotton farming). This contributes to resource depletion and environmental degradation.
Chemical Pollution: The use of toxic chemicals in the dyeing and finishing processes of textiles can lead to water pollution and harm to ecosystems. These chemicals can also be harmful to the health of workers in the textile industry.
Labour Exploitation 🤑
Low Wages: Fast fashion companies often outsource production to countries with lax labour regulations, where workers are paid very little (if any) wages, and work in unsafe, often times deathly conditions.
Long Hours: Factory workers in the fast fashion industry frequently work long hours, including overtime, without adequate compensation.
Lack of Workers' Rights: Many garment workers in fast fashion supply chains do not have access to basic workers' rights, such as collective bargaining, safe working conditions, or healthcare benefits. They often do the bare minimum to meet modern slavery regulations.
Ethical Concerns 🙏
Lack of Transparency: Fast fashion brands like Shein are often criticized for their lack of transparency regarding their supply chain practices. This means that it is unclear where their materials are sourced from and also how they are sourced. It can be difficult for consumers to know where and how their clothes are made, which makes the garments highly untraceable and unethical.
Copying Designs: Shein (and other fast fashion companies such as Pretty Little Thing and Boohoo) have been accused of copying the designs of independent designers without proper attribution or compensation. This means that artists and creatives are exploited. The bigger picture here is that money ends up in the hands of billionaire corporate giants without repercussions of theft, and independent brands struggle to thrive and keep money local.
Overconsumption and Disposability 🛍️
Impulse Buying: The fast fashion business model encourages impulse buying and a constant cycle of purchasing new clothing. This leads to overconsumption and a throwaway mentality, where clothes are discarded after only a few wears. Even donated clothes often go to landfill as they are too poor quality to sell on. This constant drip feeding of micro trends keeps the consumer out of pocket and creating copious amounts of garment waste.
Transportation Impact ✈️
The global nature of fast fashion supply chains results in significant transportation-related emissions, as clothing and materials are shipped around the world, often via aeroplane. There is no evidence to suggest Shein offsets their carbon or are making efforts to freight via shipping instead. Supply and demand for add ons such as next day delivery or speedy delivery also creates an astonishing carbon footprint.
Social and Cultural Impacts 😬
Homogenization of Fashion: Fast fashion can lead to the homogenization of fashion, where unique cultural styles are commodified and diluted for mass consumption. Not only is this extremely offensive, but it leads to the attempted dilution of culture and sometimes religious items.
Negative Body Image: The industry's emphasis on cheap, disposable clothing and constantly changing trends can contribute to body image issues and unrealistic beauty standards. Clothes are catered to, and promote the ever-changing societal beauty standard. Not only is this Eurocentric and therefore, in my opinion, racist, but it’s also extremely damaging to women globally. Either way you look at the fast fashion model, women are being exploited and damaged.
I tried to keep this one punchy yet informative, and I definitely could expand each of these points into a full blog post, so let me know if you’d like a summary of thoughts on anything. Perhaps a timeline of my journey with fast fashion? Or a detailed look into what my spending habits look like for garments and beauty products?
My whole mission here is to open eyes to the issues surrounding fast fashion overconsumption, and if that means you buy a handful of items a month instead of ordering a haul of garments every week, I’ll count that as a success. We can all do better, and we can all be more mindful of where we place our hard earned money. If anything, the thing that sparked by sustainability journey was spite and stubbornness - if I can reduce a billionaire’s salary by 0.00000001%, then you know I absolutely will. Except Rihanna… that Fenty Beauty has me in a chokehold; remember the part where I said we’re not all perfect…?