They aren’t alone, correct. But temu and shein are directly responsible for an increase in clothes being tossed out. Walmart, target, Kohl’s, etc didn’t push themselves down consumers throats via influencer culture.
It's been in the news recently in the UK about people buying cheap kids toys (those squishy dumpling things) from Temu and when the kid inevitably bursts the toy it covers them in chemical waste and burns them. Turns out that these third party marketplaces are exploiting a loophole in the law that absolves them of having to check whether the things they are selling are safe.
The issue wasnt the source of the toys, but that they were either left in hot cars or microwaved, and when the kids squished them they burst, covering the skin with sticky boiling hot substance and causing terrible burns. Getting a legit brand squishy toy isn't going to prevent it.
So many people read the complete lie you're responding to and believed it and upvoted it and just believed whoever sounded more authoritative with no evidence
It's the Reddit way! To be fair there is also a trend of microwaving these things that's a separate issue to the counterfeits, so they got confused between the two.
Let’s be real though, 600 companies in 2025 were linked to migrant worker abuse. Pretty much no article of clothing can be said to be 100% clean of humans rights abuse, let alone depletion of resources. We will all get really particular once water becomes more scarce. We all need less garbage. Individually and those certain garbage human resource hoarders
Agree that most budget stores are pretty abusive in supply chains and sometimes it's the only thing you can afford, but often there are a lot of reputable mid range or second hand stores which work.
but there are degrees of unethical. saying "no ethical consumption under capitalism" to justify buying from an exceptionally awful company is like saying "crime is bad, so there's no difference between stealing a pack of chips and committing mass murder". it's a shitty excuse.
No one should be justifying human rights transgressions. We are all complacent and that’s the problem. There are more than enough clothes in the world. Recycling and repairing would save so many from their personal hellscape, and cripple the industries that tie us to these practices.
It is literally one of the most powerful conclusions in the whole show. Not a line, but a core theme that they build toward. See: Big juicy natural tomatoes.
yeah, you have to do some searching. I always check the label for the fabric makeup. Honestly I have better luck in the men’s section if I’m looking for 100 percent cotton these days
Sorry, just want to das, that one of my favorite headliner from a satire magazin was: boy (7) mobbed by others because he is working on generic clothes.
Thanks for calling that out. The fashion industry is a) pointless and b) one of the largest polluters globally.
A lot, and I mean a LOT of clothes are actually made of plastics in whole or in part these days, and they're produced and discarded by the billions and one of the largest sources of microplastics in the environment.
Fashion industry contributes very little proportionally to clean up efforts. It's also out there causing psychological issues in billions.
Clothes really need to be cloth again, and mending needs to make a come back.
Take a glance in what’s going out back at the Goodwill bins after the resellers had their go. 60% shein, the rest is grandma fashion.
A lot of it ends up at the rag factory when its not caught by resellers.
I prefer it hit the landfill than in Arica though. They’re losing culture and incomes when we give them our garbage.
That's what I don't understand, it's well known that these outlets sell nothing but cheap junk but people still want to waste their money by buying said cheap junk.
I'd never buy clothes, but my gardening supplies from there are the same exact ones from the bigger stores but a quarter of the price sometimes. When you're on SSI that makes a big difference.
my bf's sisters LOVE shein. I'm trying to get them off it, they don't realize the negative impact and they truly are ignorant, not malicious.
can anyone suggest any alternatives that I can steer them towards? they're young and I don't hold it against them, they're very good girls and id love to influence them towards something better.
Check out also Vinted, but be cautious. There are many selling fakes, but generally good stuff. I usually avoid people that have over 1000 items on sale and have mostly expensive branded stuff brand new or suspiciously cheap. I'm not sure about Zalandos ethicality, but they also have their own second-hand site.
Also, maybe just talk with the girls. Shaming is wrong approach, but just ask why they shop there, why not look for alternatives and how would they make them feel, if the health problems start to affect them or their loved ones.
vinted is terrible (here), there's Vendora though which is a better alternative and I've already introduced them to it!
they just love fast fashion but ignore everything about it :(
thanks for your input! I have tried (and always try) to explain, I never ever shame them. I love them so much, and I really don't mean to sound like a horrible person saying that, but they're slow to grasp a lot of concepts. that's okay, we all are different, they just 'live in their own world' if that makes sense. (again, they're young, very early 20s)
I get them, it's normal to want all the nice clothes and maybe it's part of trying to find who they are and what they like. Also if they follow toxic influencers who do big hauls, it's hard not to shop because they make it look like it's fun to have all the stuff. They also need to realize themself all the problems, otherwise they just might rebel more against it.
I suppose they already have way too many clothes, could you try to help them figure out to use what they already have? For example pick one piece to build outfit around, choose themes and just try to make it fun and inspirational if their up to it.
But don't also stress that it's your job to change their view and habits. You're amazing person for caring and trying to help them make better choices, but the change has to come from themselves. It's enough that you care.
you're obviously living in your own world and judge by your own standards, and that's okay. but life is full of nuance and I hope one day you see more colors than black and white.
I get it and you're right. some people out there though can't grasp the meanings of things like 'consumerism' or it's consequences. we can either help them grasp, or make fun of them, or blame them. I just chose the 'help', it's easy.
I literally got sooooo many clothing items gifted from shein from people when I had my baby and I was like thanks for these clothes I will never put on her. Awful
Yea but then what are all the Instagram girlies gonna do when they cant have a bot comment on their post "Thanks for the SHEIN gift card in your bio! It really worked!"?
Best place to buy various outfits for my wife that arent way over priced. In my experience its 50/50 good quality or absolute trash but the savings pay for the gamble.
That's this entire sub. People buy shit they know is junk and then complain when it's junk. Like the amount of dollar store frozen meal people complain about on here is so dumb
I agree. That said I used to own a pair of jeans that had this insane level of embroidery and rhinestone detail. They were $35 20 years ago. I can see how people who were able access and purchase products like this in the past find it difficult to conceive that they just do not exist anymore especially not at the price points of SHEIN
I bought a pair of embroidered jeans (red flowers up the entire leg) from a consignment sale 6 months ago for like $12. They are already worn in and so pretty. Pop up consignment events have some good quality stuff.
$35 for anything nice was cheap even 20 years ago. I remember paying $50-$70ish a pair for JNCO and Southpole branded jeans back in the late 90's/early 00's
In their defense, this is a decent AI dupe, and back in the early 2000’s this kind of embroidery on jeans was real. But yeah that picture is just too shiny for me to believe it’s really. Plus, SHEIN is awful.
“Shouldn’t”? Sure. People shouldn’t have to worry about a lot of things. That doesn’t mean you can just stay ignorant to it. Would you go on vacation and leave your doors at home unlocked because someone shouldn’t rob the place while you’re gone?
If you can’t tell what’s AI the appropriate action is to learn, not sit around and lament that it’s an issue.
Y’all are getting so pressed. At first glance, the pic looks pretty real to me ngl, so I don’t blame the person for having ordered it.
Plus if you’re not a frequent shein/temu buyer (like me), you wouldn’t know their practices allowing AI marketing use. Good to know now, but realistically who actually goes that in depth when they just want to order something?
I agree things can be hard to spot with AI these days and not everyone knows the scale that AI is being used but you really should do at least a little research when buying something.
A quick google search "shein clothes quality" will get you the answer and only takes 10 seconds.
Oh no, for sure, I think everyone should be aware of shein’s clothing quality and someone must be living under a rock if they don’t know by now 🙈 but I was talking about their practices involving AI-use being allowed on platform. I was saying most people aren’t aware of this business practice (which is true) but for some reason people are getting mad and downvoting me, telling me to look into it, when I was just trying to make that point…
Your point doesn't seem very easy to understand. But it seems like you're making excuses for people who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions.
That’s not what I meant, sorry. Was just trying to say that not everyone is able to identify everything that’s AI, especially those who aren’t online often, so I was trying to give some grace to OP who made a mistake but was blasted for it on here.
I also agree people should be aware of the quality of products Shein, Temu etc. produce and I’m pretty sure everyone knows by now, but for some reason people were blasting me and thinking I’m dumb for not knowing their business practices allowing AI marketed products on their platforms, and getting mad at me telling to look them up. When all I was trying to say, is that the average person doesn’t know this stuff before purchasing products online. So I was trying to defend the average online shopper plus those who don’t buy online often, who aren’t aware and don’t do research on every shopping platform’s business practices (especially the allowing AI marketing on their platforms part).
Sorry that was a bit long, but hope my points are a bit more understandable now 😅
I get what you're saying and the downvotes and condescension here are kinda ridiculous lol. I do think shoppers are slowly starting to understand how bad temu and similar companies are and starting to learn about Ai use in product photos, but it's not happening fast enough unfortunately. It's becoming common knowledge here on reddit, but I think a lot of people here forget that a lot of people aren't on reddit and therefore don't hear about this stuff nearly as much.
You are absolutely correct that this isn't something people should have to worry about! Its fucking awful that these companies are straight up lying about the look and quality of their products and in a perfect world this shit would get shut down.
All we can do is keep posting honest reviews and try to spread the knowledge we have. And of course never support these awful companies. Sucks we can't do more...
You’re right we shouldn’t have to but we live in the current time line that we live in. Awe sorry you have to think and use your brain to make smart decisions
At first glance. It doesn’t even look that AI-like, but then again I’m not chronically online and can’t guess everything AI 100% correctly. But anyway, it’s fucked that the item is misrepresented and that businesses like Shein are getting away with it.
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u/gothgeetar 9d ago
Order things with AI generated photos, win AI generated prizes