What's So Bad About Shein?

If you’re a teenage girl or a girl in your early 20s and you’ve never heard of Shein, then unfortunately you’re living under a rock. Or maybe it’s not so unfortunate because you haven’t gotten the chance to become addicted to something so bad. By why exactly is Shein so bad? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out.

Shein is an online clothing website that everyone seems to be obsessed with recently and their popularity is something that everyone is noticing. Many of their pieces are made with synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon. Unlike their short lifespans in our closets, clothing made from these materials do not decay. This means that every piece of clothing we buy from Shein will likely spend much more time in a landfill than they will ever spend in our wardrobes. Combined with their incredibly low prices, Shein is able to influence its shoppers to buy more which makes it even worse for the environment by creating more and more textile waste. There are many allegations of Shein’s labor practices that suggest they are likely working with manufacturers that may be exploiting, overworking, and underpaying their workers. Public Eye revealed that Shein’s workers are putting in as many as 75 hours a week, receiving only one day off per month, and being paid per item of clothing which is all a huge violation of labor laws. Another finding is that Shein uses a piece-rate system of payment, meaning the workers are paid per item they make. The take-home pay for a garment worker relies upon their speed of production—the more pieces they sew, the more money they make. The opposite is also true, which means in many cases, workers are earning less than the legal minimum wage. As you can see, this trendy website that everyone seems to be ordering from, is far from sustainable and far from ethical. I understand what it’s like to be a broke college student, but I promise you there are better websites to get cheap clothes from that don’t work under these awful conditions. Check out my page titled sustainable links to see some better options of where to shop!