Mega-successful Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein, long plagued by allegations of terrible conditions for workers, and most recently, forced labor allegations—appears to have rolled out a new PR strategy: sending Instagram influencers on sponsored trips to China to tour a high-end Shein supplier warehouse. The tour, followed by “an epic night cruise to admire Guangzhou’s amazing skyline,” is prompting content creators to regurgitate company lines to their hundreds of thousands of followers.
“Kicking off the trip by heading into the factory of the leading manufacturer for Shein was the perfect way to start,” beauty influencer Dani DMC says in an Instagram reel she posted documenting her Shein trip. “I was really excited and impressed to see the working conditions. I was able to interview a woman that worked in the fabric cutting department, and you guys know me, [I’m] an investigative journalist, so I asked her all of our questions, and she answered them honestly and authentically.”
“She was very surprised at all the rumors that have been spread in the U.S.,” DMC continued. “She told me about her family, her lifestyle, her commute, her hours.”
Shein workers based in Guangzhou have been found to be working 75-hour weeks at sites that included shops “with no emergency exits and with barred windows that would have fatal implications in the event of a fire,” a Switzerland-based NGO reported in 2021.
“There are so many companies not taking half the initiative Shein is,” Dani DMC added in her caption. “They are aware of every single rumor and instead of staying quiet they are fighting with all of their power to not only show us the truth but continue to improve and be the best they can possibly be.”
Shein appears to have sent 6 influencers total on the trip; The Daily Beast reached out to them for comment.
A wave of backlash against the Shein influencer campaigns hit social media this week.
“SHEIN is sending the influencer girlies to China to some (PR) ‘innovation’ factory where it looks pristine and super clean and the workers are having fun while sewing and the company saying they pay a ‘competitive’ wage lol,” @LindseyCreated tweeted.
“Influencers need to become an obsolete class yesterday,” another tweeted. “how dare [Dani DMC] utter the words ‘we’ve been fed this narrative in the US’ after being paid to run Shein propaganda.”
An investigation by Channel 4 and The i newspaper found in 2022 that Shein workers work seven days a week, with workers making only $556 per month to make 500 pieces of clothing daily.
After the Channel 4 investigation came out, Shein told Business Insider that the company was “extremely concerned” by Channel 4’s findings, which “would violate the Code of Conduct agreed to by every Shein supplier.”
“Any non-compliance with this code is dealt with swiftly, and we will terminate partnerships that do not meet our standards,” Shein added to BI at the time. “We have requested specific information from Channel 4 so that we can investigate.”
Touring the Shein Innovation Factory, “upon interviewing the workers, a lot of them were really confused and taken aback with the child labor questions and the lead in the clothing questions,” another influencer, Destene Sudduth, posted. “They basically said, ‘Our kids want to be on social media just like y’all. They’re not working in factories, and our clothing goes through rigorous testing before production.’”
“I expected this facility to be so filled with people just slaving away..but honestly everybody was just working like normal, like chilled, sitting down, they weren’t even sweating,” Sudduth added. “We were the ones sweating walking through the whole facility.”
