Shein: the international brand redefining the world of fast fashion, disrupting the market and earning revenues of $10 billion in the process.

The online-only fashion retailer was founded in 2008 in Guangzhou, China by marketing specialist Chris Xu.

In its original incarnation, Shein was a wedding dress retailer called SheInside; capitalising on low cost labour in China to provide affordable wedding wear to the Western masses.

In 2015, a rebrand was in order and Shein became the name going forward which caused a surge in popularity among those aged between 15-30.

Low cost, high fashion products are exactly what the youth of today are after and are exactly what Shein provide. Their meteoric rise has been in part due to their loyal fan base on social media.

Despite their founder having a marketing background, Shein do little marketing of their own and rely on their followers and fans to do it for them. A recent trend has been to order thousands of pounds worth of goods from Shein and ‘unbox’ the parcels on platforms such as TikTok with great enthusiasm – further raising awareness of the brand.

The desperation of young people to be follow the trends and be seen as wearing the ‘in thing’ is something Shein perfectly fits into. They typically have a 1-week turnaround from design to production ensuring that their fans have the latest trends as soon as possible and at the lowest prices – something very powerful in the cost of living crisis.

However, this relentless pace has come under increasing scrutiny for its impact on the environment and Shein’s employees.

64% of all clothes produced ultimately end up in landfills and Shein selling t-shirts for less than £4 is quite obviously contributing to the problem as people are seeing clothes as less of an investment and more of a disposable commodity something that in the current situation is far from ideal.

Additionally, to cut costs and ramp up production, Shein pays their employees per garment they make rather than by the time they spend: this encourages long days and cut corners in order to maximise earnings.

The low cost products and relentless social media marketing encourage impressionable young people to buy considerably more than they need and only wear each item once (as it’s no longer the in thing!). This causes a lot of waste and pollution which in the midst of the climate crisis is a serious issue which has caused many people to call out SHEIN.

Shein are a company that have grown massively from humble beginnings, they have a market valuation of $100 billion and will certainly grow further but will there come a point when their ethical issues come back to bite them?

Do comment your thoughts below.