Trendy, convenient, and cheap are all attributes that grab shoppers’ attention. As micro trends are exponentially growing, a significant factor in this growth is the company Shein. As fast fashion, clothing being produced cheaply and rapidly, constantly seems to be keeping up with the trends, it has caused many trends to become boring as they are overseen quickly. As a result of this, Shein has become infamous for producing thousands of new clothes a week for meager prices.
Fast fashion has always been problematic as it uses cheap labor and usually inexpensive materials to produce products, ultimately exploiting the employees and the environment. But Shein is especially troubling as investigations have shown evidence of a sweatshop environment, meaning inhumane wages as well as child labor. While the company itself claims that there is no child labor taking place, for the extremely low cost, it is apparent that employees are being exploited. For context, a shirt for Shein can be priced as low as four dollars, allowing the company to rise in popularity during the peak of 2020.
While the Chinese company was founded in 2008 and did a “rebrand” in 2015, it became popular during the pandemic. Short videos streamed on TikTok were notorious for mass clothing halls, and many of these huge clothing hauls normally were from Shein.
While it is clear that these “trendy” clothes, and affordable prices make companies like Shein especially popular, during this year’s Super Bowl there were numerous ads for the new brand Temu. Like Shein, Temu sells highly inexpensive items from toys to house items, and even clothes. Just like Shein, online, there has been a rise in haul videos from Temu, this time with a comedic sense that the item will not be good quality.
According to U.S. investigation, there is a high risk of the products using forced labor due to the extremely low cost. The U.S. government is also accusing Temu of potential data risk because its sister site, Pinduoduo, was suspended by Google.
What is problematic about Temu is the comedic aspect for many consumers, as well as the naivety of consumers. Just like the vast Shein hauls, there has been a rise in Temu hauls, with many poking fun at the poor quality of the items. Differently, many see these extremely low prices and do not consider how these products are made; similarly to Shein, Temu has also been accused of having a sweatshop environment. Not only are Temu and Shein easy to over-consume due to the inexpensive prices, this over-consumption continues to exploit the workers and the environment.
