Why do people say Shein is a bad company?
Let’s start with the many Shein ethical issues behind that $10 sweater.
As the fashion leader of Tik-Tok’s “haul” of shame, Shein takes virtually zero responsibility for its social impact, since they only ever apologize upon which another journalist must cover the same story.
Despite their recent “commitments” to more sustainable practices, Shein’s recurring empty promises—only to then get caught again—makes them the Doctor Evil-style villain corporation of some deplorable B-movie.
So, how bad is Shein?
Pretty bad.
While TikTok videos of alleged “help me” messages on garment tags were debunked earlier this year, investigative reports into Shein’s factories raised concerns of the micro-trend cycle’s dangers and the deadly speed at which the industry is accelerating.
Hours way exceeded legal maximums, unfair pay punishments were regular, fire exits and windows were often nonexistent, and garment workers were in a constant state of overwhelm, often living at factories.
Shein has yet to acknowledge or meaningfully address that they purposefully exploit their workers to maximize profit. (One C-level executive tried to convince Time that their profitable rise is thanks to their “real time retail cutting inventory costs”…)
Shein’s Transparency
Shein’s business practices are rife with scandal, and yet they rapidly scale up while remaining a mystery.
Shein isn’t a publicly traded company, so the China-born and Singapore-based fashion brand doesn’t have to disclose sales, revenue, or employment details, and much about its governance, leadership, and ownership remains murky.
But behind the iron veil of the LCD screen that separates the brand online from customers, gross abuses are regularly made.
Since Shein manages to keep such a tight lid on their production, it hasn’t been proven that they use cotton sourced from Xinjiang.
The area, notorious for forced labor camps of the enslaved Uyghur population, is where almost 90% percent of China’s cotton originates. That being said, Bloomberg did a test last year indicating Shein’s cotton products do come from Xinjiang.
Shein’s response?
To neither refute nor take responsibility.
As of writing this, the brand was just asked by US lawmakers to prove its products use no slave labor. Confirmation of this would not only give legal grounds to ban Shein products from the US, but also stop it from becoming a publicly traded company.
In 2022, Shein scored eight out of 150 in Remake’s Accountability Report and in 2021, the brand scored a zero in the organization’s Sustainability Assessment.
Said one Remake representative, “Shein scored zero across all of our assessment categories for its utter lack of transparency in the areas of traceability, wages and wellbeing, commercial practices, raw materials, and environmental justice governance.”
Remake also pointed out that Shein made no supplier list disclosing its approximately 6,000 suppliers available, nor did it disclose wage data or outline a policy for working hours or worker wellbeing.
Beyond that, none of Shein’s supply chain has manufacturing certifications to ensure worker health and safety, living wages or other labor rights.
Shein’s Labor Practices
Two words: slave labor.
While the literal jury’s still out, it’s likely the case (more than 80% of all Chinese cotton sadly comes from there now) and Shein has already lied about dangerous levels of toxic clothing chemicals, systematically ripping off small businesses, and poor working conditions.
How does that all sound for ethical standards?
Between November 2021 and October 2022, three reputable journalistic exposés— here, here, and here—went undercover inside grueling and tedious factories in Guangzhou that supply clothes exclusively to Shein.
With each Shein factory visited, the story was essentially the same: migrant workers desperate for a job would toil for a base salary (often with-held the first month) of about $500USD to make 500 pieces of clothing per day, and beyond that would earn roughly four cents per item.
While overtime was voluntary, Shein workers also probably wouldn’t get paid, might face penalties, or possible termination if staggering daily quotas were unmet.
Work happened around the clock, with a morning, afternoon, and after-dinner shift, usually finishing around 3am only to start again at 8am.
Factories with one day off per month were seen as lucky: most were without a single Sunday free. In Channel 4’s documentary, one anonymous worker had one day off per year (!) to visit her home village on Chinese New Year.
Young women at the factories would wash their hair at lunch breaks and even a small sewing mistake could warrant two thirds deducted of a day’s wages. Sometimes, uneducated workers from rural regions desperate for income were under sixteen years old.
Shein factory working conditions and hours were not only undignified and soul-sucking, but they also violate even Chinese labour law.
When Shein was accused of breaking laws and failing to make the required disclosures on factory conditions, they offered a classically fake-sparkly Shein sheen, saying they “perform regular internal audits”.
“When violations are found, we take further action, which may include termination,” they said.
Meanwhile, this was after they’d already been busted in the first publicized investigation, to which they did their own internal investigation, found 80% required immediate action, and then clearly…
Not enough, Shein. Not enough.
