

This overconsumption isn’t just leading to overflowing landfills and dumping used clothes in Africa, it’s also wasting enormous amounts of water, energy, and CO2 emissions to make new clothes that will only be discarded soon after. As an ultra fast fashion brand dropping thousands of styles per day, SHEIN is responsible for accelerating this trend. Over half of fast fashion like SHEIN is thrown away in less than one year, according to McKinsey. While SHEIN denies forced labor and labor abuses in their supply chain, they’ve also offered no rebuttal of the lab findings, or other findings of sweatshop conditions in their supply chain. However, through loopholes in US customs SHEIN is able to bypass import regulations and get clothes with said cotton into the US market. Two lab tests conducted for Bloomberg News tied cotton from SHEIN clothes to the Xinjiang region in China, where Uyghur forced labor happens, with a high degree of certainty.Ĭotton from the Xinjiang region is currently banned in the US because of forced Uyghur labor. Yes, SHEIN clothes are made with cotton likely sourced from forced Uyghur labor. Not only does SHEIN lack supporting evidence of fair working conditions, but recent research proves that it is a lie, with SHEIN factory workers clocking in up to 75 hours per week! Does SHEIN Use Forced Labor? From offering above-average salaries and benefits to building state-of-the-art factories and offices, we make sure everyone can work in a safe, clean, happy and productive environment.” SHEIN likes to say it treats “employees like family by providing industry-leading working conditions. SHEIN’s own claims prove this as they offer fluffy statements and empty promises, without evidence or accountability.

This is a key factor in traceability and transparency, two values SHEIN does not have. SHEIN’s Impact on Clothing Makers and the Planetįirst and foremost, SHEIN doesn’t make it easy to find out who their suppliers are. Is SHEIN Bad for the Environment? Another Ratingĭon’t just take our word for it though! Remake evaluated SHEIN in their 2021 Accountability Report, and SHEIN scored 5 points out of a possible 150 points. This time they earned 4 points-small progress but hardly on pace for a brand that claims they care about people and the planet. We took another look at SHEIN in 10/2022 to see if they’ve made any major changes. So how did SHEIN score? Our original evaluation in 2021 yielded 0 points out of a possible 100 points-yikes! Is SHEIN Improving its Sustainability Practices?
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Brands earn points in this criteria for things like sharing their factory list, paying living wages, using sustainable fabrics, sustainable packaging, circularity, water savings, CO2 savings, and tracing their full supply chain. Our criteria is based on three key areas: transparency, fair labor, and environmental sustainability. Our findings prove SHEIN is not better quality, not better for the environment, not better for the makers-simply not better for anyone. Source How Ethical and Sustainable is SHEIN?Įco-Stylist looked further into SHEIN’s practices and policies, including their greenwashed claims. SHEIN may be an easy option to look stylish, but their company is the epitome of the phrase ‘ cheaper is not better.’ After getting hit with claims of unethical production practices, they have hid behind greenwashed claims. Meanwhile, they continue to grow with the help of influencers and Generation Z ‘zoomers’, unboxing $1,000 SHEIN hauls on TikTok–string bikini sets for just a few dollars, knockoffs of the trendiest handbags, shoes, and jackets for $20 or less, and cheap crop top options for nights out on the town. Millennials mock the brand on Twitter for culturally appropriating styles, including a Swastika necklace, Islamic prayer mats as Greek rugs, and traditional South Asian clothing as pant sets. Let’s be clear about one thing: this level of hyper consumption can never be sustainable. In fact, they add 6,000 styles to their site every single day. What SHEIN doesn’t tell you is that despite their massive profits, they steal styles from designers, pay their clothing makers below a living wage to work in sweatshop conditions, and produce huge amounts of waste while creating their excessive variety of styles. As an entirely digital e-commerce company, SHEIN generates about $10 billion in annual revenue. SHEIN is praised for its trendy styles, cheap prices, and huge product selection.
