Shein, AKA probably the most notorious fast fashion company in the world, is trying to fix its rancid reputation by inviting influencers on brand trips to one of its factories. So far, it’s giving propaganda machine, and people on TikTok are seeing right through it.
There’s actually a lot to unpack, so let’s start with some context: a bunch of fashion influencers online revealed they were invited to one of Shein’s “innovation factories” to check out the working conditions and “debunk” certain “myths, “rumours” and “misinformation” (read: actual reporting by verified journalists on conditions that have been widely criticised for years) earlier this year.
Mind you, the company is believed to have more than 6,000 factories — the influencers were only invited to one of them.
To give you a quick TL;DR, Shein is currently the subject of allegations relating to:
- Labour rights violations and the use of child labour.
- Sweatshop conditions — an undercover investigation from Channel 4 and The i newspaper in the UK reported Shein workers worked seven days a week, with some working 18-hour days and earning two cents per item of clothing produced.
- Refusing to share information about labour conditions that it legally has to in order to prove it isn’t violating modern slavery laws.
- Being complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Uyghur people (a minority group in China).
- Lead being found in its clothing.
- Stealing designs from independent artists and printing them on its own clothes.
- Polluting the environment and contributing to climate change, the waste crisis and general environmental destruction.
If Shein genuinely felt these reports were based on false claims, it could have responded to repeated requests from various journalists for paperwork and other forms of evidence to disprove the allegations. Instead, it sent statements denying everything, but didn’t answer specific requests for information.
Now that you have that context, let’s check out the videos influencers have been uploading from their Shein trip, which started to appear on social media on Tuesday. Weird how Shein chose to have influencers inspect its workplace rather than journalists… I wonder why, huh?
TikToker Destene (@itsdestene_) posted a video where she showed the lobby and manufacturing stations of a sleek Shein “innovation factory”, complete with an indoor waterfall, koi pond and garden. Another video showed a sign on the wall that said “respect women”. How feminist of this giant, multi-billion dollar, world-destroying corporation!
Destene said she asked workers about the hours they worked and their work/life balance, and said she was surprised that their work seemed to mirror the same 8 am to 6 pm structure that she was used to in the US. Which is still a 10-hour day and pretty shit by Australian standards.
She also asked about child labour, to which she said the workers responded with bemused and shocked reactions because it was so unthinkable.
“They weren’t even sweating, we were the ones sweating,” she joked in the video.
Other videos all followed a similar structure: “Look how nice this place is, no labour law infringements here! The workers are happy, they told me themselves! Shein is great! I can say this because I did my own independent investigation!”
While this might seem harmless to some people, plenty of TikTok users have seen right through the propaganda and dragged the influencers for pretending to be neutral parties investigating a serious issue, when in reality it would be more accurate to call them paid agents of Shein’s marketing team.
I mean, Dani (@itsdanidmc) literally admitted that she signed a contract with Shein, was paid for the trip, and was reading off notes provided to her. C’mon.
It’s important to understand that these influencers are only speaking to workers pre-approved by Shein, and only seeing one factory that again, was pre-approved by Shein to view. So no, it’s not investigative journalism — especially not when you’re paid by the company you’re “investigating” to come see it, and are literally being escorted around by Shein’s marketing team.
The whole brand trip is honestly unnerving. It’s giving “There is no war in Ba Sing Se”, and destroying the credibility of the influencers who agreed to go, as well as undermining real reports from real journalists about the company.
This video sums it all up quite well:
Yeah, nah, let’s not let fast fashion giants like Shein get away with their BS just because they were nice to certain content creators. It’s not feminist to employ marginalised women to rehabilitate your brand when you’re accused of sweatshop labour. The girlbrossification of Shein is not happening under my watch.
