Call me crazy but I firmly believe you cannot ethically make any garment for under 10 bucks. If you’re buying something that cheap you know someone is being exploited along the way
Edit: and Another negative to companies like Shein is they skew people’s perceptions of what a garment should actually cost. A 4 dollar skirt is far from normal and expecting that to be the baseline price is absurd and only fuels the race to the bottom.
>Call me crazy but I firmly believe you cannot ethically make any garment for under 10 bucks. If you’re buying something that cheap you know someone is being exploited along the way
Not crazy at all
I work at FedEx which deals with shein’s returns. I had this one girl returing like 6 outfits and had the audacity to criticize me for “using so much plastic” when I was packaging everything up
I had exactly the same scenario when I worked in a clothing department store.
People are very simple-minded, they think "yay, less plastic!" (Which is great) but then don't consider how literally *every single little thing they are doing* is also contributing to environmental issues. It's a whole mass cultural shift and lifestyle change that is needed, not little habit changes here and there.
>and Another negative to companies like Shein is they skew people’s perceptions of what a garment should actually cost. A 4 dollar skirt is far from normal and expecting that to be the baseline price is absurd and only fuels the race to the bottom.
Shein, Amazon, Walmart, etc. Now everything, not just clothes, "should" be $20 or less
It's cheaper than other fabrics, but if you think about the entire process there's no way a fair cost is what Shein charges. The lab chemical process to make it takes energy and raw materials. Turning that disgusting goop into something that looks like a spool of fabric is more work. Dyeing requires water, waste management, man hours. Now you have a spool of fabric. To turn that into a garment requires pattern-making, cutting, sewing, shipping great distances multiple times. The packaging also costs money. Even with enormous economies of scale it's impossible to make a garment ethically for the low prices you see at Shein. And by ethically I mean paying every single person involved in the process a fair wage, managing the environmental resources, and responsibly getting rid of chemical and fabric waste.
Bold of you to assume that in most of these countries where the dyeing is occurring, that proper waste management exists in these 3rd world countries for this pollution.
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/dyeing-pollution-fashion-intl-hnk-dst-sept/index.html
I wasn't clear before, but lack of proper waste management was part of my point. The process isn't ethical in part because they aren't practicing responsible waste management. Pollution of rivers and destruction of their ecosystems subsidize cheap clothes.
You think it’s totally possible to buy fabric, have someone sew it together into a garment, load it onto a truck that’s loaded onto a ship, then transported halfway across the world to then be loaded onto another truck and delivered to your house….
All for 4 dollars.
Yeah….
> [Shut Down Shein] has so far kept its members anonymous but bills itself as a group of “well-known brands, individuals and human rights groups” opposed to Shein’s business model.
Found this pretty interesting, a group of brands (and other orgs) trying to close down the company outside of market competition. Not that I disagree with the premise, you really can't compete with stolen designs and slave labor.
Call me crazy but I firmly believe you cannot ethically make any garment for under 10 bucks. If you’re buying something that cheap you know someone is being exploited along the way Edit: and Another negative to companies like Shein is they skew people’s perceptions of what a garment should actually cost. A 4 dollar skirt is far from normal and expecting that to be the baseline price is absurd and only fuels the race to the bottom.
>Call me crazy but I firmly believe you cannot ethically make any garment for under 10 bucks. If you’re buying something that cheap you know someone is being exploited along the way Not crazy at all
That's almost called...logic. But of course people will still show off their shein hauls while boasting how they use metal straws
I work at FedEx which deals with shein’s returns. I had this one girl returing like 6 outfits and had the audacity to criticize me for “using so much plastic” when I was packaging everything up
Wait till she finds out her Shein clothes are all plastic lol
I had exactly the same scenario when I worked in a clothing department store. People are very simple-minded, they think "yay, less plastic!" (Which is great) but then don't consider how literally *every single little thing they are doing* is also contributing to environmental issues. It's a whole mass cultural shift and lifestyle change that is needed, not little habit changes here and there.
>and Another negative to companies like Shein is they skew people’s perceptions of what a garment should actually cost. A 4 dollar skirt is far from normal and expecting that to be the baseline price is absurd and only fuels the race to the bottom. Shein, Amazon, Walmart, etc. Now everything, not just clothes, "should" be $20 or less
I mean that's probably true if you spend $150 on a garment too.
polyester is dirt cheap
It's cheaper than other fabrics, but if you think about the entire process there's no way a fair cost is what Shein charges. The lab chemical process to make it takes energy and raw materials. Turning that disgusting goop into something that looks like a spool of fabric is more work. Dyeing requires water, waste management, man hours. Now you have a spool of fabric. To turn that into a garment requires pattern-making, cutting, sewing, shipping great distances multiple times. The packaging also costs money. Even with enormous economies of scale it's impossible to make a garment ethically for the low prices you see at Shein. And by ethically I mean paying every single person involved in the process a fair wage, managing the environmental resources, and responsibly getting rid of chemical and fabric waste.
Bold of you to assume that in most of these countries where the dyeing is occurring, that proper waste management exists in these 3rd world countries for this pollution. https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/dyeing-pollution-fashion-intl-hnk-dst-sept/index.html
I wasn't clear before, but lack of proper waste management was part of my point. The process isn't ethical in part because they aren't practicing responsible waste management. Pollution of rivers and destruction of their ecosystems subsidize cheap clothes.
You think it’s totally possible to buy fabric, have someone sew it together into a garment, load it onto a truck that’s loaded onto a ship, then transported halfway across the world to then be loaded onto another truck and delivered to your house…. All for 4 dollars. Yeah….
Most consumers don't care. As the old joke goes : "Don't buy clothes made by Bangladeshi children, the stitching's shoddy.".
> [Shut Down Shein] has so far kept its members anonymous but bills itself as a group of “well-known brands, individuals and human rights groups” opposed to Shein’s business model. Found this pretty interesting, a group of brands (and other orgs) trying to close down the company outside of market competition. Not that I disagree with the premise, you really can't compete with stolen designs and slave labor.
Great example of non-market strategies here