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Shein: Exploiting cultural acceleration
“The more effectively a fashion producer functions the more destructive it is. That is the nature of the beast.” – Kate Fletcher
A brand that has appeared seemingly out of nowhere now currently sitting lonely at the top among our favorite fast-fashion conglomerates including H&M and Inditex, both of whom have faced onslaughts of accusations concerning waste and ethics over the past years, resides Shein with a valuation of $100 billion dollars, a number higher than both of the Swedish and Spanish giants combined. Questions relating to “how did they get there so fast?” occupy fashion media in an attempt to make sense of its success and appeal among the younger demographics.
It is a business model made possible by the latest AI-driven tech and a never-ending desire for cheap newness so fundamental to the profitability of the industry. One of its advantages is its headquarter’s close proximity to major Chinese production plants, enabling narrow lead times. The company also employs its own AI software with the ability to quickly scrape social media for all the latest trends from major ones to the must-haves in smaller niches. The information is sequentially sent back to design tables and factory floors to commence production. In 2021, it fought for the top spot in the list of most-downloaded shopping apps on the app store. Much of its appeal may lie in a reward system based on points users can collect by creating accounts, leaving reviews, and sharing outfits, which can be redeemed for new clothes. This creates an incentive for users to return and purchase over and over again.
In a sense, the output of Shein’s production, and arguably the whole company at large, represents a direct reflection of the speed and transient nature of TikTok’s daily output of content where each new day erases yesterday. It demonstrates both the increasing ephemerality of digital culture and how fast fashion can thrive more than ever by exploiting it using AI algorithms. For young teenagers, immersed in the world of TikTok, the access to the latest aesthetics worn by their favorite influencers for a penny on the dollar, bundled with a daily inflow of new coupons, has proven itself to be irresistible (Lieber, 2021). Most of their free time is spent here, in a highly visual digital culture characterized by continuous streams of new outfits, and Shein found a way to capitalize on it, enabling the young teen to consume in sync with the ever-fleeting aesthetics of the digital sphere with little economic risk. BoF highlights the hypocrisy among Gen Z known for their zealous eco-consciousnesses and perspectives on social justice yet nonetheless being the primary driver behind the astounding growth of a sector we are trying to thwart. “Value trumps morality every time” (Lieber & Chen, 2022).
The success of Shein in its ability to “compute” TikTok (and digital culture in general) and react to it with such agility using the latest tech also points at a phenomenon coined by Sociologist Hartmund Rosa called “acceleration”, arguing that both the pace of technology and – as a result – life itself is increasing. He states that technical and cultural acceleration trigger each other in a closed circuit, where the former – for example – enables higher rates of consumption, which – in turn – leads to a consumption culture used to a new pace, resulting in higher demands on technological development (Rosa, 2013). This phenomenon can be well observed in the fashion industry which is characterized by a never-ending battle between conglomerates in an attempt to establish the most seamless experience possible.
The current-day success of fast fashion may well be attributed to advancements in digital technology. For one, it has provided ever more entertaining apps rendering the smartphone increasingly hard to put down. Companies such as TikTok, Meta, and Shein, have found ways to short-circuit our attention spans with mechanics such as infinite scrolls, never-ending video carousels, and a bombardment of coupons occupying the screen in bright colors. Digitalization finds itself at the center of the fashion discourse, promising – in essence – an eventual end to all the waste that the industry is notorious for having left behind, with a combination of AI, blockchain, automation, and more. Yet at the same time, as proven with cases such as Shein, we can observe how digital tech can function just as effectively to hook consumers to their platforms with methods such as gamification and incentive systems, prompting increased rates of consumption. This begs the question to what extent humanity actually benefits from this set of new technologies, both from a social and environmental perspective. It nevertheless points at a cognitive dissonance prevailing the fashion industry and a lack of a unifying strategy forward despite the appearance of good intentions shown to us on billboards and annual reports. Shein is the ultimate example to how the ever-increasing potency of technology can be used to exploit consumers and trigger consumption rates we know are unsustainable. The holy grail of the fashion industry is an infrastructure that decouples growth from environmental impact, and digital tech promises to facilitate that. Yet so far, AI has primarily served as an upgrade rather than a “reliable alternative” for the destructive and exploitative machine that is fast fashion. It highlights the incompatibility between the infinite potential of AI and the finite nature of the planet’s resources, and how the former ought to be contained such that it serves rather than exploits both the environment and our mental well-being.
Lieber, C. (2021, June 23). How Brands Get Customers Addicted to Shopping. Business of Fashion.
Lieber, C., & Chen, C. (2022, April 8). The $100 Billion Shein Phenomenon, Explained . Business of Fashion.
Rosa, H. (2013). Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity (1st ed.). Colombia University Press.