With 1.92 million tons of textiles put to waste annually, it’s undeniable that the fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters on the planet. No wonder various groups and even consumers are calling out brands who are found violating ethical concerns. One of the fashion brands that has been facing backlash from controversies is Shein.
Founded in 2008 in China, Shein is one of the biggest online shopping platforms, with a whopping $100 billion in sales in 2022. But it didn’t go without any hiccups. The brand faced and is still facing different issues and PR crises, including human rights violations to factory workers, copyright infringement, and waste.
In a rare opportunity, Shein's global PR director, Charlene Lee, talked to some Filipino journalists and addressed some of these concerns.
On inhumane working conditions
Several reports have stated that factory workers, the people behind Shein products, are dealing with an unfit working environment. Wired reported that laborers suffered from the production of clothes. At the same time, UK’s Channel 4 found out that employees are working up to 75 hours a week.
However, Charlene said that the brand doen't own any factory and is just working with third-party manufacturers. Moving forward, to make sure that laborers are working in a conducive environment, the company is partnering with these manufacturers.
“We don't actually own any factories. Everything within our supply chain is a contracted manufacturer and what this means is that whoever is producing, these are all third parties,” she said. “But the difference is that we're actually investing directly into third parties. We are co-investing in various initiatives and programs that help them to improve whether it's in terms of their efficiency, whether it's in terms of working conditions, whether it's bringing them up to the standards of various initiatives around the world.”
Charlene also said that Shein is now implementing different audits to make sure that the company is working with manufacturers that follow strict standards when it comes to employee welfare.
On copyright infringement
Regarding copyright infringement lawsuits, Shein is not running low on this. This year, reports have shown that other fashion brands, including H&M, graphic designers such as Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron are suing the online fashion retailer company.
“How IP tracking works around the world is that there are databases, if you're not registered in the database, it's very difficult because the world is huge. We have no more geographical boundaries,” she said. “There are situations where things might slip through the cracks. But what we do is the moment we're alerted to this, we take it down, even before investigating and things like that. The moment somebody actually says, 'Oh, you know, this looks like a copy of something else.' We immediately take it down. And then we do our investigation.”
On sustainability initiatives
On this aspect, Charlene shared some of the initiatives the brand is doing to practice sustainability more, such as implementing sustainable packaging and rolling out second-hand exchange programs.
“We are reducing the amount of plastics. We are increasing the number of what we call 'preferred materials.' Preferred materials could be things like recycled polyester. It could be fabrics that we sourced that are left over from other brands,” she said. “We have an exchange [program] that's currently in the US and it's being trialed for Europe as well. Bit by bit we're going to roll it out around the world. And this is the platform that allows for second-hand exchange, barter, and sale of our products.”
In the Philippines, Shein is seeing growth in the market for its affordable wardrobe offerings, viral makeup products from She Glam, and naming actress Belle Mariano as its local endorser.