Behind the Seams: The Cruel Reality of Shein’s Fashion and Ethics
PC: Unsplash
Over the past few years, the online Chinese-based clothing brand, Shein, has become a worldwide sensation for its trendy and affordable clothing. Tops that were being sold up to $40 at stores like Zara ran for less than $10 on Shein for almost the exact same styles. People were racing to take advantage of the deals Shein had to offer. However, like most things that are too good to be true, the truth behind Shein’s products and manufacturing tells a different story. From cases exposing the company’s violations of labor laws to the heartbreaking stories of its workers, Shein’s true colors are beginning to come to light as one of the world’s most abusive fast fashion companies.
As Shein has grown in popularity and become one of the highest-profiting brands in the fast fashion industry, so has the attention towards its ethics. Investigations from October 2022 revealed that the employees working in the factories were working 18-hour shifts seven days a week, and were only allowed one day off per month. Reporters even recorded some workers confessing that they had to wash their hair during their lunch breaks because they barely had time off from work.
A 2022 documentary titled “Untold: Inside The Shein Machine” exposed the dangerous and inhumane conditions Shein workers were battling every day. Most workshops were unsanitary and extremely unventilated, workers were paid in pennies for each garment they made, and those who were able to earn up to $20 in one day were docked $14 for any mistakes found on a piece of clothing. A woman was even overheard in the film saying that “there’s no such thing as Sundays” in the workshops. To put into perspective, the average Shein employee earns a salary of 4000 Chinese Yuan a month — about $550 — with the expectation of manufacturing at least 500 pieces of clothing per day.
Most recently, a widespread alarm has spiked after a viral TikTok trend began posting messages hidden in packaging and stitched onto tags reading “Help me”, “SOS,” and “I have dental pain.” Although Shein denies the allegations of such messages being tied to their company, many speculate that the messages were, in fact, made by desperate and restless Shein workers.
Ultimately, there is a story of pain and exhaustion behind every single Shein product that is silenced in the face of capitalism. Shein, and many more companies like it, will deliberately overlook and take advantage of the rights and dignity of their workers in favor of capitalizing off their cheap labor. However, we as consumers have the power and agency to hold these companies accountable and to give voice to the workers whose voices are stripped from them. It is just as important to speak out against the injustices of fast fashion manufacturing as it is to simply not buy from the company itself.