Shein backlash fails to deter shoppers: ‘I spend £20 a month’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5k3v6x6vxo
Posted by Marzto
Shein backlash fails to deter shoppers: ‘I spend £20 a month’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5k3v6x6vxo
Posted by Marzto
40 Comments
The venn diagram of people who shop at Shein and people who care about the downsides of fast fashion does not overlap.
Aka morally bankrupt, planet destroying consumerism continues as normal
Sadly, I don’t think that without any knowledge of the environmental consequences of these shopping decisions, we’ll always have airheads like this just buying the cheapest shit for one evening before finding its way into landfill for another 100+ years. And even with that knowledge, you’re still going to have apathetic customers, still happy to buy cheap just for the savings alone.
How do good quality outlets win over these people in the current economy? I feel like fashion as a “hobby” needs to die, to be honest. Thrifting and second hand clothes are genuinely fantastic these days — but more often than not, you are paying for the shop’s overheads more than the used clothes.
Everything’s just upside down at the moment. How the hell is a used shirt, that has already been manufactured and accounted for in environmental data, more expensive than a brand new, plastic-wrapped sports bra from Shein?
The issue with people saying “I’ll spend more and not use a company that exploits workers” is that ALL clothing companies exploit their workers, unless you’re buying bespoke tailor made suits or something which is a cottage industry here in the UK.
You can spend £3 on a Shein t-shirt, or £300 on some stupid designer label one, and it’s likely been made in the same factory by the same low-paid workers.
Shein are only cheap because they cut out the middle man and because people will willingly spend stupid money on a product just because it has a label saying “ARMANI” on it. It’s also a total myth on the quality being poor unless you get really unlucky. I’ve got a pair of £15 Shein trainers that are as comfortable as a pair of slippers, look fine (they say something daft like “Fashion Sport” instead of Nike or Adidas), and have outlasted both a pair of New Balance and Nike trainers that I wore less often, each of which cost £150, and were made by the same labour.
> Emily has considered stopping buying from Shein due to its labour practices, but says everywhere else “is way too expensive”.
> “I’m happy to talk about the fact I shop at Shein because I know I’m not the only one,” she adds.
I don’t have to care about the children stitching my clothes together because no one else does.
Not sure why she would put her face to this article
I have seen a correlation between people who complain that other shops being too expensive and those who care about quantity over quality. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that if they spend £20 on 1 better quality item they have still spent the same as if they buy 5 poor quality items for £4 each.
As much as it’s great touting personal responsibility, in reality, it shouldn’t be up to everyday shoppers to understand or care about the plights of employees on the other side of the world. There is plenty the government can do to incentivise ethical fashion but instead they outsource the problem and the cost of solving it to us.
“It’s okay, the suffering is out of sight and I get a cheap top!”
People choose cheap products over moral issues wow who knew
Unfortunately, many people are stretched to the limits atm so being ethical consumers is not going to be top of their priorities if they can get clothes way cheaper than on the high street
**Customers:** We want clothes! New styles as fast as possible, fuck quality, just get them here now!
**Retailers:** We’ll have to poision the planet with emissions from production and waste materials as styles change rapidly and using cheap materials that degrade quicker mean more production cycles, thats cool right? You are happy with throwaway culture?
**UK Customers:** But its cheap right?
**Retailers:** We’ll also have to kill people through unsafe workplaces and people in developing nations will have to sort through all the shit we’re throwing away and outsourcing by wandering barefoot through toxic waste dumps, your fine with that right?
**UK Customers:** But its cheap right?
**Retailers:** If you’re wanting it at a budget we’ll need to use slave labour to create the clothes, and they’ll fall apart after a short time because we can’t use decent materials, and that’ll add to throaway culture and more emissions.
**UK Customers:** I won’t ask if you won’t tell.
Anyone buying fast fashion gives off Cruella De Vil vibes.
>I Don’t Care How You Kill The Little Beasts, But Do It, And Do It Now!
Fuck the consequences, just get me my sassy clothes damnit!
I’ve bought from SHEIN in the past and some of their clothes are actually decent quality. The fact of the matter is that many other more expensive brands also use this type of labour but charge £100 plus. People also can’t afford the more expensive stuff and need clothes. I don’t agree with the hoarding of clothes, literally just buying more and more to keep up with current trends and then throwing the old stuff out. However, places like SHEIN are a godsend for people who want variety and don’t have a lot of money.
Personally, I use Vinted for most of my stuff now. If I can’t find what I want on Vinted then I’ll look elsewhere like ASOS or Uniqlo. They probably use child labour too, I’d imagine. If I could afford to get my clothes tailored, I would.
but why would you need that many clothes? I wear pretty much the same 3 or 4 outfits that I’ve had for years.
everyone is hating on Shein, but their biggest market BY FAR is plus size fashion for sizes 18-28. If UK retailers made more clothing here in larger sizes you would see Shein drop off. If you wear a size 12 you can shop where you please but if you are a size 24 Primark, Matalan, Asda George, Tu and even M and S are very limited. I have shopped at Shein (for swim leggings and a wetsuit top in a size 24) because no other retailer thinks that fat people also might want to swim.
I heard a stat the other day that Between shein, temu, Alibaba and tiktok. They ship equivalent of 108 Boeing 777 flights of cargo each day. Taking up over 30% of available cargo capacity between Asia to Europe and US.
CRAZY
We need to re-wire brains away from where marketers and capitalism have left us. Fast fashion is an absolute con. Social media and especially likes of TikTok driving it on.
It’s maybe hard for clothing to be “buy it for life” but there is a self confidence and pride from wearing a good quality item that’s had its own adventures with you. Perhaps more of a thing with shirts and jeans etc. Taking a bit of extra time to research where it came from and if it’ll last any length of time.
I do find it harder and harder to buy decent quality items where it’s a race to the bottom for all. Socks a good example and need to carefully seek out a specialist type if you want them to last!
I watched a very good documentary about the fashion industry and the lengths it would go to to keep costs down and productivity up, it was eye opening.
Fortunately at the end one of the interviewees was shown to have opened a school for kids who don’t read good.
The thing is, anything made out in China or other similar country that makes clothes etc, it is likely to be made by basically slave labour. Doesn’t matter if you buy it from Flannels at £250 for one item or £50 at Shein for 20 items.
If this country was remotely bothered about where anything is made or grown, then we would boycott a lot of businesses.
Tragedy of the commons. The deal is great for all the parties involved in exploiting the resources, it’s just terrible for the common good. If some try to be ethical in their dealings, there will be others who still exploit the resources to the detriment to even those trying to deal ethically.
Is this article paid by that company? Looks like one of those fake article ads.
Wages haven’t really grown much in decades and a significant proportion of the country are on minimum wage or not much more. With bills, rent etc going up all the time people don’t have that much disposable income and clothes are not cheap to buy, especially from traditional retailers, so it’s not surprising to see Shein et al being very popular. It’s the same effect as what Primark had when they came on the scene, but accelerated by the internet and deeply sophisticated international logistics networks.
Ethics and “why not save up for better quality?” are questions that only the comfortable can afford, see [vime’s boots theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory).
I thought one of the benefits of capitalism was that it promoted innovation and development. But whenever I see some *hot new company* preparing for stock market flotation, it turns out their main *innovation* is that they found a cool trick to get around slave labour laws.
It’s exactly the same with so much *gig economy* shit too.
Ultimately this issue sums up a lot of issues of public concern. People care and say they want change, right up until the point they have to put their hands into their pockets. Then suddenly, most people realise do not care enough.
We’ll see this play out big time with Net Zero, I predict a huge backlash to that once people have to start paying more for cars, energy, holidays etc.
Double VAT on unethical clothing, assuming it can easily be defined, might make it uncompetitive.
It’s addictive.. I had to uninstall Temu..shit was getting outta hand..
But honestly.. one thing it has done is open my eyes up to how so many of the products on Amazon..are literally just bought enough bulk ahead of time from Shein and Temu..then sold for like 3-4x as much …but with better advertising!
Shein, like Temu is the lowest quality in every way.
South Korea has come up with a study where they tested shein, temu and other cheap sites items and found carcinogens and other shit materials. Not worth it shoping from them
Loads of clothing brands operate sweatshops in poorer nations, it’s nothing new. If you wear any of the major sports brands clothing or trainers, chances are it came from a place where the workers are paid peanuts and their fingers are worked to the bone. The same goes with electronic goods too. The company that makes the PCBs for iPhones has a big cage on its roof to stop workers committing suicide.
I work with someone like this. Trying to get us to sign up so they can get six quid voucher. No care to what they are signing up for or why it’s so cheap…just “I’m alright Jack”
Another thing to feel smug about when I’m lectured to by Gen Z – I’ve bought maybe 6 items of clothing in the last year and each one cost more than £20. It’s called wearing the same thing and washing more than once.
I laughed when the media stated how young consumers were all about ethics and morality… lol.
uh… why do people buy clothing every month ? whats wrong ?
The sooner “TikTok” is banned the better .. Global ban please !
Accountability is dead and this is essentially what it boils down to. Everything is always somebody else’s problem to deal with.
I absolutely refuse to buy anything from Wish, Temu, Shein.
When people buy clothes that we know are made my slaves in China…
Not sure they’re good people anymore.
No it’s not that simple. But also kind of is.
TWENTY POUNDS? TWENTY WHOLE GREAT BRITISH POUND STERLING???? WHOAH- WE HAVE A SHOPPING ADDICT ON OUR HANDS!!!!! SOMEONE CALL THE PRESS THIS IS MASSIVE WE NEED TO HAVE THE STATE BROADCASTER COVER THIS!!!!!!
You cannot keep people perpetually poor then complain when they buy cheap shit.
“You can almost always find what you’re looking for, even if the quality is bad”, she says.
JFC
I hate fast fashion and I hate the airhead idiots that don’t have a problem with it.