The online retailers Shein and Temu have gained traction in the online shopping arena, with their iOS apps downloaded more frequently than Amazon as of June 2023. Shein (pronounced She-in) was launched in 2015 but only became famous as a fast fashion company in the past few years, mainly with Millennials and Gen-Z, due to its low prices and presence on TikTok.
Many clothing items that are still perfectly good can end up in a landfill. | Photo by Drew Kerner
Shein frequently partners with social media influencers who post haul videos and share affiliate links, encouraging their followers to shop with the e-commerce company. Shein is considered a “fast fashion” brand: inexpensive clothing made rapidly in response to the latest trends. According to a blog post on Ethically Dressed, fast fashion brands use inexpensive materials and quickly create new designs to push consumers to buy more products.
Many fast fashion companies have no brick-and-mortar shopping locations and can only be purchased online. Shein designs hundreds of thousands of new styles per year, which pressures consumers to buy new clothing, either filling their wardrobes with clothes they will never wear or disposing of them to make room for new styles.
Temu is another e-commerce merchant, and while it isn’t considered fast fashion, it has a similar business model to Shein. Temu is a popular retailer that specializes in ultra-cheap merchandise ranging from shoes to watches to novelty items. Temu and Shein are both based in China, and Temu has an affiliate program similar to Shein’s, according to an editorial from ToolGuyd.
Romwe is another fast fashion website that has also been gaining recent traction. | Photo by Drew Kerner
The lure of Shein and Temu’s seemingly endless discounted shopping may be tempting, but supporting these companies could have negative effects. Clothes that go in the trash have to end up somewhere. According to science.com, many of these garments end up in places like the Atacama desert in Chile, where a pile of discarded clothing can be seen from outer space.
Earth.org reports that nearly 10% of the microplastics dispersed in the ocean yearly come from textiles, and the average U.S. consumer throws away 81.5 pounds of clothing per year. Meanwhile CBC reports, customers complain about cheap products from Temu that have to be thrown away immediately, creating more garbage and plastic waste.
Buying items from these retailers occasionally isn’t inherently harmful. It’s always nice to have an affordable shopping option when looking for last-minute holiday gifts or some new wardrobe items after starting a new job. However, giving in to the pressure of thoughtless overconsumption and the cycle of buying and discarding harms the environment and decimates resources that are already in short supply.
