If you’ve ever bought anything from the fast-fashion company Shein, you know that its marketing can feel inescapable. Shein’s website, a digital bazaar bursting with pop-up ads and strobing discounts, lists thousands of new items every day—clothes, housewares, pet supplies, cosmetics, sex toys—at inconceivably low prices: $16.08 for a powder-blue suit, $3.80 for a three-pack of aviator sunglasses. On TikTok and YouTube, company-recruited influencers film themselves modeling their “Shein hauls.” Download Shein’s app or sign up for its emails, and a barrage of promotions will scream from your inbox. There is always a can’t-miss sale, a new deal, a reason to buy.
The company’s growth has been astonishing. Founded in China more than a decade ago, Shein was already beginning to disrupt online shopping in the United States when COVID trapped millions of people indoors with money to spend. By November 2022, the company accounted for 50 percent of U.S. fast-fashion sales, up from 12 percent in January 2020. As a private company, Shein doesn’t disclose its financials, but in March, the Financial Times reported that its annual profits had reached about $2 billion and that its valuation was more than $60 billion, making it far larger than H&M or Gap.
But the most remarkable thing about Shein might be how opaque it remains even as it dominates U.S. retail. Its origins in China—where most Shein items are made—should, in theory, subject the company to extra…
