When observing discussions around fast fashion, fashion giants SHEIN and Temu are commonly identified as lead culprits behind overconsumption. Looking through their sites, one feels as though they are in on some secret. Among a collage of percentages, poppy colors and pop-up discounts that render like video game bonuses, the price of goods stands out the most. Dresses are listed at single-digit prices. Socks and watches are listed for as little as cents. Jackets promising candid street photos with the Getty Images watermark slapped over them can be bought for a Hamilton. For those remotely aware of the current economy, a headline runs across the brain: this is too good to be true. For the most part, it is.
In the years since SHEIN and Temu’s inceptions, several investigations have been conducted into their business practices, oftentimes yielding, in generous terms, concerning results.
In June of 2023, a U.S. House committee accused the websites’ practices of being likely “contaminated with forced labor.” The accusations stem from the use of Xinjiang cotton, which was revealed to be produced through forced labor and found in goods from both SHEIN and Temu. SHEIN’s and Temu’s supply chains come at the expense of the Uyghur and Muslim population in China, over a million of whom have been imprisoned in “reeducation camps” by the Chinese government, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
As SHEIN and Temu hauls populate online spaces, consumers have been doing their own investigating, this time on the quality of the websites’ goods. Results have been mixed.
“In my experience, the clothing quality at Shein is as inconsistent as the sizing,” wrote Amanda Oliver on USA TODAY Reviewed. “I’d recommend shopping Shein for flash-in-the-pan microtrends that are in one week and out the next.”
“The prices are definitely affordable, but many items were not up to the service quality or expectations,” Kara Harms, founder of Whimsy Soul — a lifestyle blog — wrote about Temu after spending $170 on the app.
Perspectives like those of Oliver and Harms highlight the double-edged sword of fast fashion platforms. Clothes are reduced purely to self-expression, waiting to be disposed of as trends ebb and flow. Landfills pile up. The ethics of abnormally low prices are pushed further to the back of the mind as the joy of buying sets in.
Beyond their appeal, SHEIN’s and Temu’s low prices offer cheap and accessible routes into fashion, yet consumers should question this accessibility when the short lifespan of goods and relentless advertising push further spending. This does not even take into account the reprehensible ethical implications of these platforms’ practices. One-dollar skirts and sunglasses may appear cheap, but the livelihoods of enslaved laborers are not. Consumers may appear innocent, but the money that funds and ultimately perpetuates unethical practices is not.
