Does Sustainable Fashion Lack Excitement?
How Shein's Success Highlights the Urgent Need for Innovative and Exciting Approaches to Sustainability
In a Medium article, Raz Godelnik, Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design and author of Rethinking Corporate Sustainability in the Era of Climate Crisis — A Strategic Design Approach, argues that Shein, the ultra-fast fashion company that is anything but sustainable, might be the best thing that happened to the sustainability movement. Despite producing thousands upon thousands of cheap garments every week, often made with low-quality materials and without ensuring adequate working conditions, Godelnik argues that Shein’s success, in terms of revenue and customer base, represents a significant setback and a “punch in the mouth” to the sustainability movement.
“As the famous boxer, Mike Tyson, once said: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” To a greater extent, Shein is that punch in the mouth. In the sustainability movement, we got used to seeing progress all around us, making the case that regulation, innovation, and a shift in values, mainly among younger people, can create the change we want to see,” wrote Godelnik. “Shein suggests this may not be the case. It suggests we may also be moving backward, not forward.”
In 2022, Shein became the most downloaded app in the US, with an increase in annual revenue from $15.7 billion in 2021 to $30 billion in 2022. Shein's success can be attributed to a combination of factors, including its competitive pricing, frequent updates to its vast selection of clothes, and innovative marketing strategies such as gamification, couponing, and live streaming and it’s early adoption of platforms like TikTok. However, to Godelnik, the most noteworthy aspect of Shein's popularity is the excitement it generates among young customers.
Godelnik argues that the sustainability movement is facing a challenge of generating excitement among consumers and that sustainable fashion needs to become more innovative and captivating than fast fashion to win over customers. “When it comes to innovation, we fail to create innovations that will show us the potential of a sustainable future and motivate us to support the journey toward this future. Sustainable innovation should not only get you excited about a sustainable future but also be more exciting than its unsustainable competition in the market.”
In the article, Godelnik gives the example of shopping secondhand, which has garnered more excitement in the past years than many of the other ways to engage in the sustainability movement. However, despite this growing trend, resale platforms have not achieved the same level of popularity as fast fashion brands like Shein.
“There are numerous resale platforms like thredUP, Depop, The RealReal, and a growing number of brands offering an increasing variety of second-hand clothes and cheaper prices (in comparison to buying new clothes), but none of these platforms is even close to generating the same level of excitement as Shein,” wrote Godelnik. “Just look at their TikTok numbers — thredUP has 21.8K followers, and Depop has 161.4K followers, while Shein has 5.2M followers. It’s also worth noting that in terms of revenues, all of these resale platforms combined are far behind Shein’s $16B annual sales (in 2021). So, while secondhand apparel sales are growing, resale is not winning the battle on the hearts and minds of young people who are much more excited about Shein and fast fashion.”
Despite the growth of resale platforms, the challenge of getting consumers to give up fast fashion habits remains. Numerous reports indicate that consumers, especially GenZ, desire environmentally sustainable and ethically made products and are willing to pay a premium for them. However, their shopping decisions often do not reflect their responsible shopping aspirations. While we may like to think that our values are the sole determinants of our purchasing decisions, research suggests that various other factors can cause an attitude-behavior gap between what we say we value and how we actually behave in the marketplace. According to Godelnik, as long as there is a significant demand for fast fashion, driven primarily by factors like trendiness and affordability, and there are no exciting sustainable alternatives to meet this demand, there will always be another Shein.
As the impacts of climate change become more evident and sustainability becomes a pressing concern for both companies and individuals, fashion brands are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact and address their role in the climate crisis. However, as brands focus on sourcing sustainable fabrics and obtaining certifications to avoid greenwashing, it's possible that brands are neglecting the importance of building an appealing brand that can engage customers.
In today's age of social media, fast fashion, and societal pressures to conform, Godelnik argues that conscious fashion brands need to focus on effective communication and leverage strategic marketing strategies in order to achieve sustainability in consumer behavior and innovation. “We need to face reality and consider that there are two key failures that should be addressed: A failure to change the mental model of many consumers (including young consumers), and a failure to create sustainable innovations that will be as affordable, trendy, social-media oriented, connected to their audience, and fun as unsustainable innovations.
While Shein's success may indicate a movement backward for sustainability, it also presents an opportunity for the industry to rethink its practices and address the concerns of consumers who are increasingly becoming aware of the negative impact of fast fashion. “We need to change companies, and we need to change regulations, but no sustainable transformation can be made without changing social norms and making people truly excited about what sustainability has to offer. Without it, there is no real progress but a continuing dance of one step forward, two steps backward.”
What if purpose-driven brands took a cue from fast fashion's marketing strategies but, instead of promoting overconsumption and mass production, used these tactics to make sustainability more appealing and exciting to consumers to encourage a shift towards more sustainable practices?
At the 2023 Sustainable Fashion Forum, we have two conversations planned that will explore this idea. In “The Psychology of Fast Fashion: What Sustainable Fashion Brands Are Getting Wrong About Building a Compelling Brand Identity that Resonates with Customers,” we'll examine the psychology behind consumer behavior and fast fashion and how sustainable fashion brands can use this understanding to build a brand identity that resonates with customers and effectively competes with fast fashion.
In “The Business of Sustainability: A Profit-Driven Approach,” Godelnik and our panel of experts will delve into the nuances and complexities of finding a balance between growth and sustainability, profit and purpose, and resilience in the face of economic uncertainty, increased competition, and changing consumer behavior.
Meet us at the SFF MainStage in Portland, Oregon, for the 2023 Sustainable Fashion Forum, where we'll explore the nuanced layers at the intersection of fashion, sustainability, and business. Prefer to tune in from the comfort of your own living room? We’ve got you covered! Attend from anywhere (with WiFi) with a digital pass and access all conference programming starting May 1st.
