PARIS — Just days after the French Senate voted to crack down on ultra-fast fashion, Shein executive chair Donald Tang took the stage at the VivaTech conference to defend the Chinese e-tailer’s business model.
“We are not fast fashion,” he said. “We are a fashion-on-demand company.”
Speaking on stage, the panel opened confrontationally. Tang was told members of the French government and public consider him “the devil,” and that his presence was “not welcome” by many in the room. The executive deftly sidestepped the criticism.
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“Twenty years ago, the devil used to wear Prada, but now, they start to wear Shein,” he joked.
Rather than following the traditional route of mass-producing designer-led collections or following trend forecasts, Shein uses consumer data to make production decisions, Tang said.
Each product is launched in small quantities and only the most popular are reordered. This system, he argued, keeps unsold inventory to a minimum — claiming “nearly zero” leftover stock compared to the industry standard of 25 to 40 percent sitting unsold in warehouses.
“We micro-produce the products you want us to manufacture,” he said, insisting that the Shein data approach minimizes waste. While Tang acknowledged that low prices might fuel consumption “it’s not the norm,” he claimed, citing Shein research that 60 percent of French consumers spend only about 200 euros a person annually on clothing, making waste impossible.
“These are the people, even if they want to throw things away, they won’t be able to,” he said. Those economics mean that Shein is democratizing style. “Our mission is to make fashion accessible, available, and affordable to all,” Tang said, adding that 95 percent of Shein’s French customers live outside major cities.
Shein operates four warehouses in São Paulo, Brazil, and works with suppliers and subcontractors in Brazil and Turkey. In Europe, the company has warehouses in Poland and the U.K., and Tang indicated the company could invest in France, particularly in circular areas such as recycling infrastructure and resale.
On environmental impact, Tang conceded that the company needs to cut its carbon emissions on transport. “Are we fast enough? Are we perfect? Of course not,” he said, calling for cooperation between policymakers and industry players instead of legislation.
With both France and the U.S. moving toward stronger regulations, with the ending of the de minimis rule in the U.S and possible taxation in France, Tang said that targeting Shein would ultimately hurt consumers. “The concern of the environment, protecthing consumers and evolving the industry [in France] is a very admirable and good goal,” he said, but he added that penalizing Shein’s data-driven production could result in “lower waste” being punished while leaving consumers with fewer choices at higher prices in a tough economy.
Tang wrapped up the panel by acknowledging that his own suit was not Shein, but that his dog is always dressed fully head-to-tail in the company’s wares.
Shein’s Releases Its Sustainability Report Card
Meanwhile, the company released its annual Sustainability and Social Impact Report on June 14. While the report touts improvements in several areas, it also reveals growing carbon emissions that call into question Tang’s claims.
Shein’s transport-related emissions rose 13.7 percent year-over-year to 8.54 million metric tons of CO2, up from 7.49 million in 2023, largely due to increased reliance on air freight. This increase occurred despite Shein’s stated commitment to optimizing logistics and shifting to lower-emission transport options.
Shein made modest progress reducing its own Scope 1 and 2 emissions, such as offices and logistics centers, primarily through the adoption of solar power. But the company confirmed that Scope 3 emissions from its 7,200 contracted suppliers and manufacturers are still by far the largest share of its footprint.
“The majority of our emissions continue to occur beyond our direct operations,” the report said, adding that “nearly all” of the company’s carbon footprint is Scope 3.
Shein says it plans to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 25 percent by 2030, using 2023 as a baseline. However, the company emphasized that progress “depends entirely” on whether its independent suppliers choose to implement upgrades without direct funding from Shein. The company said it focuses on “encouraging” partners to adopt more energy-efficient methods.
Within its own Scope 1 and 2 facilities, energy use increased 47 percent in 2024, as the company expanded warehouse and logistics capacity globally. The company said it is moving to more solar power to curb emissions from energy use.
The report also showed a shift in Shein’s material sourcing. Polyester now accounts for 81.5 percent of all materials used, up from 75.7 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, cotton dropped from 9.9 to 6.7 percent, and viscose from 8 to 4.6 percent. Of the polyester used, only 6 percent is recycled.
To meet its sustainability goals, Shein is betting on growth in textile-to-textile recycling. The company said it is “working hard to ramp up textile-to-textile recycling capacities” but that the majority of its recycled polyester now comes from PET plastic bottles.
On the waste-reduction front, Shein launched a fully automated fabric calculation system, designed to minimize excess in production. The company said it repurposed 40 tons of leftover fabric into tote bags and scrunchies, or downcycled into pipe insulation.
Still, it acknowledged that recycling infrastructure remains “nascent” globally and that scaling circular fashion requires collaboration with other brands, policymakers and recyclers.
Shein emphasized the need for circular solutions, much of that focused on resale and secondhand sales of its own branded items. The company’s Shein Exchange platform, launched in the U.S. in 2022, was rolled out to France, Germany, and the U.K. last year.
The addition of European territories boosted membership to 6.78 million users, up from 4.2 million in 2023. More than 297,000 secondhand items were listed by more than 148,000 unique sellers. In the newly added markets, usage rates ranged from 25 to 33 percent, the company said.
In Paris, Tang did not address “dupe culture” but said the company uses AI tools to detect and remove counterfeit items. In its report, Shein highlighted its Shein x Creator Program, which supports independent designers. The company said it paid $2.6 million in commissions to 5,300 creators in 2024, and $12 million total since the program launched in 2021. Participating designers retain their copyrights.