We all know and probably love the fashion brand Shein for its cheap prices and the vast array of fashion selections. If you’re anything like me, you always go through a moral dilemma when clicking checkout on Shein’s website. The little red devil on my shoulder whispers, “It’s just one purchase, look how cheap it is!”. Meanwhile, the angel on my other shoulder whispers, “Don’t do it, think about what you’re contributing to, the sweatshops, cheap child labor, and much more”.
Now more than ever, there’s all the more reason to scale back your Shein and other fast fashion purchases. Shein recently hosted a massive fundraising event, as if they need any more money with annual revenues coming in at $10 billion… At this event, widely known private equity investment firm, General Atlantic, along with other massive investment firms, gave Shein between $1 and $2 billion dollars. To me, this signals that investment firms think three things:
They think Shein will be the leader of the cheap fashion arena for a LONG time.
They like Shein’s low price, wholesale business model.
They didn’t stop for a second to consider Shein’s direct impact on the world’s climate issues. A company like Shein, which is now worth $100 billion dollars, simply does not need major donations.
As a business major, I can’t help but think about Shein’s current business model. Shein has established relationships with over 3000 factories in China, which enables the company to release 1000 new products on their website per day. Shein also has advanced data tools that measure the styles that perform the best on their site and churn out more of those successful products the following day. In theory, this business model is incredibly attractive from an investor standpoint. But when you consider all other aspects, like the state of these 3000 factories, the people working in these factories, the conditions and wages, and the waste that is created, Shein becomes way less attractive as a business. But if these investment firms are still donating billions of dollars to Shein, despite the company’s terrible environmental impact, it just goes to show that corporations do not care about issues like climate change and global warming.
In recent years, I thought, as a global economy, we have made some headway in corporations acting more eco-conscious. But after Shein’s donation event, I am not so sure. To put it into perspective, Shein is now worth more than Zara and H&M combined. Shein is almost as valuable as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Oh, and not to mention, Shein’s app was downloaded more times than Amazon’s shopping app. Shein is a powerhouse, for better or for worse, and with all these donations they recently acquired, I only foresee Shein continuing to dominate the fash fashion space
What does this mean for people like you and me? In simple terms, think twice before ordering from Shein. The prices are great, but the social and environmental cost is far greater than that $4 crop top sitting in your shopping cart. Please think before purchasing from Shein, they are an incredibly harmful company, and are doing nothing to change their ways. Supporting smaller businesses, and eco-friendly clothing companies is always the way to go, plus these companies tend to have better quality products that last much longer.