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 percentof U.S. fast-fashion sales, up from 12 …