SHEIN is one of the biggest shopping apps on the Apple App Store right now (only behind Temu, which is a whole different can of worms). It’s understandable why; their prices are some of the cheapest on the market for some of the best designs. But where do these designs come from? In fact, how do they keep this constantly rotating selection of different styles for these low prices? Common sense says that there’s no possible way the company is making all of these designs themselves, and being a company based in China certainly doesn’t hurt their production speeds. Still, the rate at which these designs are drawn up and produced seems physically impossible to do. As it turns out, it is physically impossible to do, ethically at least.
The quality control at SHEIN is practically nonexistent. Once they find a design, they make a batch and sell it with very little review of what the item actually is. This has led to several instances of downright offensive items being sold by the company, including but not limited to a swastika necklace, a phone case (with stolen artwork) of a black person handcuffed and outlined in chalk, and a Muslim prayer mat (described on-site as a “Frilled Greek Carpet” it looks as if they were unaware of the significance of the mat). Not only are some of the items in poor taste, but a lot of the time the products are of terrible quality, which makes sense due to the time constraints the workers are put under.
On the topic of SHEIN employees, the very little information we have about their conditions is less than ideal. According to anonymous sources in China, who were interviewed by a worker’s rights advocate in China, the workers get paid per article of clothing, the ages of the workers are undisclosed to the public and workers sometimes labor for more than 75 hours a week. Even more egregious, many of the smaller factories SHEIN contracts have no fire exits, or barred windows and all pay less than minimum wage. When compared to normal job hours, many of the workers essentially work two jobs and only get paid for one.
Aside from human rights violations, SHEIN has been accused of stealing art and other designs for their products. As mentioned earlier, phone case art was stolen along with countless other clothing designs and art pieces. SHEIN gives these artists no credit or compensation for using these designs but has yet to get in much trouble for this due to legal loopholes.
With all this in mind, it’s nearly impossible to order from SHEIN with a clean conscience.
