Ep 153, Hauls! Algorithms! Crazy Cheap! What Does Shein's Ultra Fast Model Mean for Sustainability?
Welcome to the first episode of Series 7!
EPISODE 153 FEATURES TECH JOURNALISTS LOUISE MATSAKIS AND MEAGHAN TOBIN
And you thought Zara was fast fashion! Buckle up because new trends are landing daily if not hourly, as a new breed of online disruptor throws out thousands of styles a week to see what sticks. Brands like Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and Fashion Nova are part of a new ultra-fast fashion era, but Shein is by far the biggest player.
Worth a reported $47 billion, the Chinese company is now the biggest selling fast fashion brand in the US. But how does it work? What's the secret to its giant reach? And just how many items does it drop in a week?
In our first episode for Series 7, host Clare Press sits down with the American journalists Meaghan Tobin and Louise Matsakis who, along with Beijing-based Wency Chen, spent six months looking into this, from every possible angle.
From speaking to garment workers and interviewing shoppers to tracking down one young TikTok user who saw her vintage vest morph into thousands of copies, taking her personal photo along for the ride - without her permission.
ABOUT THE GUESTS
MEAGHAN TOBIN (above, left) is a reporter at Rest of World focused on e-commerce and the impact of Chinese tech outside of China. Previously, she covered geopolitics, diplomacy and policy trends in Southeast Asia and the Pacific for the South China Morning Post.
LOUISE MATSAKIS (above, right) a freelance writer covering tech. She was formerly a staff writer at WIRED covering Amazon, TikTok, and digital platforms.
SPECIAL GUEST contributor MANGO is pictured above.
The vintage vest that sparked thousands of ‘dupes’
THE ARTICLE was written for Rest of World in December, and syndicated by The Guardian. “Shein isn’t chasing catwalk trends – rather, it often knocks off items seen on TikTok and Instagram, where hype cycles move significantly faster. Whereas Zara typically asks manufacturers to turn around minimum orders of 2,000 items in 30 days, Shein asks for as few as 100 products in as little as 10 days.” READ IT IN FULL here.
NOTES
HAULS A haul video is a recording of someone going over a collection of purchases. But let’s face it, hauls are about quantity - #sheinhaul is trending because the price points allow for greater excess. Buy a bagful of clothes, show them off on Youbtube, get clicks, which brings us to…
ALGORITHMS. Forget the designer in their ivory tower. Ultra-fast trends are decided by what’s popular. It’s working for Shein. “In August, its website had 150 million visitors, 40% of whom came via search, according to Similarweb, compared with 4% of Zara’s.”
MARKETPLACE MODEL An online marketplace is a website or app that facilitates shopping from many different sources.
Just how FAST is ultra-fast anyway? TRY 700 to 1,000 new items DAY according to this. But Shein argues it’s about VOLUME OF CHOICE and markets the fact that they drop small numbers each style until they see what the demand is like, as a sustainability plus.
CHEAP Not only are these ultra-fast fashion clothes cheap to start with - any excuse to make them cheaper. Behold: Shein’s Australia Day promotion “up to 70% off”…
DUPES ‘If you're not acquainted with the notion of the dupe, New York Magazine's The Strategist describes it as "not a doppelgänger or a knockoff or an impersonation—at least not explicitly so." A clothing dupe is an item that captures the spirit of an It item that's having a moment in the spotlight but that doesn't outright knock it off.’ Via Who What Wear.
EMERGING DESIGNERS In 2021, Shein launched its “fashion design incubator program” Shein X, with a competition-style reality show livestreamed on the brand’s social media channels, complete with celebrity judges including Christian Siriano, Law Roach and Khloe Kardashian - but not everyone was happy. More via Paper mag here.
SIZE-ISM One of the ways Shein got ahead was to cater to neglected plus size market.
GAMIFICATION. “Rather than mimicking Amazon directly, Shein grew by bringing traits of China’s gamified e-commerce market to the rest of the world. Online shopping in the country has evolved into a form of entertainment, featuring livestreamers, flash sales and enticing pop-ups that compel consumers to scroll through the newest products.” (quoted from How Shein Beat Amazon at its Own Game - and Reinvented Fast Fashion, by Tobin, Matasakis and Chen).
OVERTIME “Workers for some suppliers of the Chinese fashion giant Shein are doing excessive overtime, a non-governmental organisation has suggested. A number of staff across six sites in Guangzhou were found to be working 75-hour weeks in a report by Swiss advocacy group Public Eye. “ Via BBC
ADAM WHINSTON was announced as Shein’s new Global Head of ESG last year. Business of Fashion acknowledged his role might just be “one of the toughest in fashion”. Read to here.
WATCH Louise’s Wired vid here, the one where she rises to the challenge of spending an entire day living with only 1990s standard tech.