China’s Fashion Takeover Is Putting Us At Risk – Here’s How!

You must’ve noticed how China’s fashion takeover has gone on full swing since the pandemic. But have you ever stopped for a minute and considered whether this might not be an altogether good thing?

While the Chinese competitors to Amazon offer anything imaginable for ridiculously low prices, they also pose a massive threat to the environment. And while most people don’t seem to care much about the part they play in the climate crisis, would it interest you more if the negative impact was actually personal?

Shopping apps like Shein and Temu have very cleverly gamified the shopping experience, which is especially appealing to the younger consumer groups. But funnily enough the demographic that spend the most money on these apps are between the ages of 30-60.

Since Shein exploded into the global markets by generating sales worth $100 billion in 2022, its negative impact to the environment has been palpable. That’s how risky the business model is. The business models of both of these apps are very similar:

• their biggest selling point is offering clothes, apparel and other products with extremely low prices
• they ship worldwide (Shein alone ships to over 150 countries around the world)
• both apps engage in extremely aggressive marketing tactics and target their marketing to young adults
• the apps can introduce as many as 10 000 new products per day, every day.

And as always, extremely cheap products actually come with a high cost. That cost is, of course, our planet’s capability to sustain us. But the cost is also our personal health, including mental health. In this article I will show you 4 simple examples of the level of damage that these ultra fast fashion apps represent.

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China’s Fashion Takeover Is Putting Us At Risk – Here’s How!

While these ultra fast fashion apps practise aggressive marketing, and there are a lot of false reports on what consumers prefer, the factual trends do give us hope. It seems that while most of us are not willing / cannot pay ethical rates for clothes, we are still unwilling to compromise on quality.

People would rather put a bit of effort into finding proper quality apparel without the biggest possible price tag. Second hand shopping is at an all-time high, clothing swaps and donations sell like hot cakes. Also sales and reward programs that can gain customers extra discounts are gaining popularity.

So, all in all it does seem like consumers are getting savvier and are very aware of what they deserve. Which is GOOD QUALITY!

But especially younger generations (teens to early twenties) are easier to lure in through influencer marketing, which is what Shein practises a lot. Those younger generations are also the ones who are at the biggest risk in China’s fashion takeover. Here’s why:

1. China’s fashion takeover poses major health risks

In Europe the European Union has clear regulations for substances that are allowed to enter the EU area, and which are banned from these shores. These regulations keep EU citizens safe from harmful toxic substances in products like food, cleaning products, and clothing.

For example most of the food items available in the United States are banned in the EU because they are so toxic. But this legislation doesn’t apply to products that are ordered online. So, if you enable China’s fashion takeover and order ultra fast fashion products, they are not tested for toxic substances.

No matter! A team of Finnish investigative journalists ordered a bunch of clothes from Shein and took them to a laboratory for testing. The results were shocking: out of 7 products 5 included harmful chemicals:

1. the lining in a pink sequin skirt contained toxic chemical called Disperse Red 60, which can cause inflammation for the skin
2. a bracelet that, according to Shein, was zink, actually included nickel, which can cause allergic reactions
3. a children’s(!!) bag and rain coat included harmful phthalates that are used to soften PVC plastic. These chemicals are banned in the EU because they cause damage to reproductive organs.

The entry of toxic chemicals into our shores, and that way into our bodies is accelerated as more and more production is moved to cheaper countries outside of Europe. This poses multiple risks to us all.

Read also: Why Cheap Clothes Are NOT Your Privilege

2. European production is driven down

As capitalism commands, instead of the customer being the king, it’s the stakeholder. The stakeholder who doesn’t even care about the brand’s products but demands that the brand’s profits increase year after year.

This has driven many known and loved European fashion brands to relocate their production elsewhere. This applies to most luxury fashion brands as well.

For example, in Italy leather production is declining fast due to production being moved over to cheaper, less ethical countries. In these countries production is often cheaper because natural materials are replaced with toxic, synthetic materials, like polyester or PVC.

Synthetic fabrics are never healthy to human beings. Especially when we could instead wear natural fabrics. But producing apparel out of natural materials at such an extent that would keep the stakeholders happy is literally impossible. It’s also very expensive.

The reason why China’s fashion takeover poses a risk to us in this regard is two-fold:

• products coming from Asia are often made unethically and by using harmful materials
• factories, even whole industries being driven down in Europe reduces jobs, countries’ tax accrual, and relevance globally.

3. The business model is completely unsustainable

Before we get to this, what does sustainability actually mean? A brand is worthy of the ‘sustainable’ label only if:

1. their products are manufactured as ecologically as possible from environmentally friendly materials
2. they pay their employees a livable wage, provide holidays, and support their mental and physical health
3. all of the brand’s operations are environmentally friendly from administration to manufacturing and delivery.

Now, it will come as no surprise that Shein and Temu do not tick any of these boxes. They don’t tick even a small part of any of these boxes! Which makes these as unsustainable as they come.

And in a world where we use the amount of resources available to us by the planet we live on by March each year, the equation isn’t working. With this rate there will be no planet to live on after a couple decades. We are literally destroying our own ability to exist by supporting China’s fashion takeover.

We can already see how severe the consequences of the changes in our climate can be. Bigger and stronger storms globally, longer Winters up North and devastating droughts down South are modern, man-made phenomenon. And the ultra fast fashion brands are making it worse!

• Shein uses virgin polyester which requires large amounts of oil
• the current amount of oil required to manufacture the daily amount of new styles creates approximately as much CO2 emissions as 180 coal-fired power plants
• this results in the company producing about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Shein is not the only one to blame here, though. The entire fast fashion industry partakes in this extremely disastrous business model. Thus, the fashion industry as a whole is responsible for over 10% of all carbon emissions globally.

4. Workers’ rights are nonexistent

In case you’ve heard of the ‘cotton gate‘, you’re aware of how China’s fashion takeover affects the local people there.

Now, I’m very aware that the average Western consumer doesn’t give a toss about someone slaving away in lethal conditions on the other side of the planet. We were raised to believe we deserve whatever we want, even if it’s at the expense of the planet we live on!

But if this business model is encouraged to continue, it’s not impossible that we see these practices lapping over to our shores as well. We’re already aware of the poor, perhaps even nonexistent labour rights in the United States.

And China is now presenting a capitalist’s wet dream by stampeding on workers’ rights even more thoroughly, giving the right wing twats a thumbs up for implementing similar practices here.

As an example, it’s known that Shein workers do 75 hours/week in dangerous conditions without contracts, have no holidays, and might be denied 80% of their $20 daily salary if a garment has faults.

So, when you think your shopping spree on one of these ultra fast fashion apps is harmless, you may in fact be nailing your own coffin shut.

China’s Fashion Takeover – Conclusion

We need to educate ourselves and the people around us to make sure that we don’t fall victim to China’s fashion takeover in the long run. There are so many risky, even straight up harmful sides to all of it. And by being aware of them we can make better, more educated decisions when shopping.

It’s not just about the planet’s health anymore, but also our personal health! It’s also about human rights in terms of us as well as the people literally slaving away to create insane amounts of collections each week. We deserve better clothes and slave labour deserves freedom, human rights and peace.

Do you shop ultra fast fashion? Have you ever considered how harmful some of the brands actually are to us all? I’d love to hear your thoughts so comment below and let’s chat shopping! ♥