Influencers Gas Up Shein After Sketchy Factory Tour: No Slave Labor Here!

Fast fashion giant Shein paid for influencers to take a tour of part of its Chinese manufacturing operation several weeks ago, and the lucky Instagram and TikTok stars filled social media with videos from their recent trip last Tuesday. The videos showed off clean, pleasant factories, smiling workers, and a stalwart commitment to safety. Forced labor allegations? Never heard of them! And of course the products don’t have lead in them, you silly goose. Just as quickly as the internet celebrities hopped on Instagram and TikTok to clear up all the “misinformation” and those mean “rumors” about the company, they hit blowback. Now they’re playing defense.

In one of the videos, Instagrammer Dani Carbonari, who goes by Dani DMC, said she was “excited and impressed” about Shein’s working conditions. “I think my biggest take away from this trip is to be an independent thinker,” Dani DMC said about her expensive, company-orchestrated vacation. “There’s a narrative fed to us in the US, and I’m one that always likes to be open-minded and seek the truth.” Carbonari’s video of the Shein factory tour no longer appears on her Instagram profile.

For an example of that “narrative,” you can turn to a new congressional report titled “Fast Fashion and the Uyghur Genocide,” published days after the influencer videos popped up. The report details how Shein and competing Chinese retailer Temu are complicit in ethnic cleansing, and suggests their business practices “raise serious concerns about the continued presence of products made with forced labor.”

“Shein is committed to transparency, and this trip reflects one way in which we are listening to feedback, providing an opportunity to show a group of influencers how Shein works through a visit to our innovation center and enabling them to share their own insights with their followers,” a Shein spokesperson said over email. Temu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congress and social media commenters aren’t the only ones making a stink about Shein. Numerous investigations demonstrate the company’s troubling labor practices, efforts to skirt regulations, unsustainable environmental costs, allegations of design theft from small businesses, and products that are literally dangerous to wear.

A 2021 investigation in Canada found one in five Shein products are contaminated with harmful chemicals including lead, PFAS and phthalates. A jacket for toddlers contained 20 times the amount of lead that experts say is safe for children, for example. One of the researchers involved described Shein’s clothes as “hazardous waste.”

You wouldn’t know it from the glittering videos taken on Shein’s dime, though. “Upon interviewing the workers, a lot of them were really confused and taken back with the child labor questions and the lead in the clothing questions,” influencer Destene Sudduth said in a video posted to her shared TikTok account Destene and Brandon. “They weren’t even sweating, we were the ones sweating!” The influencers mentioned in this article did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The videos all follow a similar structure. Excited influencers discuss how cool Shein’s operation is. Shein employees were incredulous about the allegations, the influencers say, and the factory tours prove it’s all just a big misunderstanding, perhaps even anti-Chinese propaganda. The influencers marvel at how vast and tidy the factories are. They even got the opportunity to work on the manufacturing lines themselves (cut a few pieces of cloth very slowly) to see what it’s like! Viewers are told about workers’ hours, salaries, and feelings about the company. Several of the influencers seemed oddly focused on the length of Shein employee’s commutes.

“Their social media videos and commentary are authentic, and we respect and stand by each influencer’s perspective and voice on their experience,” a Shein spokesperson said. “We look forward to continuing to provide more transparency around our on-demand business model and operations.”

The multi-day tour of Shein facilities included visits to a warehouse, a manufacturing site, and the “Shein Innovation Center,” which the influencers describe as “beautiful” and “developed.” Employees were there to answer every question about the “rumors” and “misinformation,” viewers are told. One video captured a sign on the wall reading “Take Care of Women” in both English and Mandarin.

There’s no mention, however, of the fact that influences visited just a few examples of Shein’s estimated 6,000-factory empire.

Vindictive social media commenters drew comparisons between the Shein stunt and state-sponsored trips to North Korea, where reporters and dignitaries are treated to obvious charades about how everything is great in North Korea, actually. In one famous example, a tour included a visit to a tech lab where people pretended to use Google and Microsoft Excel, when, in fact, they were just staring at screenshots.

Influencers find themselves on uncertain ground, somewhere between the freedom of a regular internet user and the expectations of traditional media personalities. The rules are unwritten, but the backlash is clear. Carbonari, often subject to fatphobia, faced particular vitriol. Among the gentler responses was the TikTok comment, “this is how delulu I want to be about the world.” In response, she published a new video doubling down on her claims.

Carbonari acknowledged Shein paid for the trip but said she wasn’t otherwise compensated. “I have so much more awareness about what’s going on behind the scenes than any of you ever could because you don’t see what’s going on. I’ve seen stuff with my own two eyes,” Dani DMC said. “There’s so much xenophobia and racism with everything you guys are saying and that’s what I learned in China. We are fed propaganda.”

Over the last decade, Shein rose from a curious little enterprise to an international behemoth. But as Shein’s star rises, warnings about the company grow louder. The influencer trips appear to be part of the company’s strategic response, which the New York Times recently described as a charm offensive, complete with viral hashtags, collaborations with designers, and pushing a narrative that the retail giant is just a scrappy new guy trying to figure things out.

“We’re an emerging brand, and we’ve done a lot of things well,” said Peter Day, Shein’s head of strategy and corporate affairs, in an interview with the New York Times. “There are some things that we still need to learn how to do, and the best way to do it is to talk to the community.”

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