Opinion | Why Shein doesn’t have to be the model for the fashion industry

Although the fast fashion label had a bumper 2025 while familiar brands faced collapse, the industry should not conclude that speed and scale are everything

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Police secure the area as people queue to enter a department store, during the opening of Shein’s first physical outlet in Paris, France, on November 5, 2025. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30pm, 7 Jan 2026

In 2025, familiar fashion brands around the world shut stores, restructured operations or disappeared. Meanwhile, Shein, the fast-fashion platform long criticised for its environmental and labour footprint, remained highly profitable.

Last year, Shein told investors it was expecting a US$2 billion profit in 2025. At first glance, the conclusion appears straightforward: speed and scale are winning, while slower traditional fashion models are losing. However, this reading is dangerously incomplete.

Shein’s profitability reveals a growing disconnect between metrics of success and the social and environmental realities on which the industry depends.

Fashion is no longer a marginal cultural industry. It is a deeply integrated global system linking Asian manufacturing hubs, Western consumption patterns and increasingly fragile ecological boundaries. In such a system, it is worth asking what kind of success is being rewarded and at what cost.

Shein’s model works because it aligns perfectly with digital behaviour. Data-driven trend detection, rapid sampling and small-batch scaling allow the company to move designs from concept to consumer in days rather than months. For shoppers accustomed to social media feeds that refresh by the minute, this immediacy feels intuitive. Fashion becomes less about seasonal anticipation and more about instant availability.

However, this efficiency relies on a system in which many costs remain invisible. Environmental pressures, waste accumulation and labour precarity are rarely reflected in the price of a garment.

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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Although the fast fashion label had a bumper 2025 while familiar brands faced collapse, the industry should not conclude that speed and scale are everything

Although the fast fashion label had a bumper 2025 while familiar brands faced collapse, the industry should not conclude that speed and scale are everything