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

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. According to the UN, the fashion industry accounts for 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, a scale of impact that in some assessments exceeds the combined emissions of international aviation and maritime shipping. Producing one cotton shirt requires 2,700 litres of water. Global textile production consumes around 79 trillion litres annually. Synthetic fibres add another layer of environmental cost; the European Environment Agency notes that up to 500,000 tonnes of microplastics enter marine ecosystems each year from textiles alone. The industry generates roughly 92 million tonnes of textile waste annually, says The Global Fashion Agenda, an NGO that monitors the industry. Meanwhile, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the industry’s value chain employs hundreds of millions of workers worldwide, many in low-wage and low-protection conditions repeatedly flagged by the International Labour Organization. These costs are absorbed across supply chains, often in manufacturing regions throughout Asia, where regulatory capacity, waste management infrastructure and worker protections vary widely. Profitability is not simply a measure of operational excellence but a reflection of how well costs are externalised. This helps explain why mid-market fashion brands struggled in 2025. They were not necessarily inefficient businesses; they were simply operating in a market that rewards immediacy and low prices above all else. While some shoppers traded down aggressively, prioritising affordability, others likely bought less, focusing on fewer items. Brands that offered neither speed nor significance were easily replaced. Shein’s profits do not signal that consumers don’t care about corporate responsibility. They suggest that such values are harder to act on. When fashion fails to provide moving narratives, craftsmanship or values, convenience fills the gap. Speed becomes a substitute for identity. A system optimised for constant novelty encourages detachment. Garments are consumed quickly, worn briefly and discarded easily. While this model can generate impressive short-term returns, it weakens fashion’s role as a cultural and creative force. For Asia, the implications are significant. The region sits at the centre of global fashion production and increasingly at the centre of consumption as well. Decisions about how success is defined reverberate through manufacturing communities, urban waste systems and labour markets. A fashion economy that rewards speed without accountability places long-term strain on the regions that make global fashion possible. This does not mean that profitability is inherently problematic. However, profitability alone is an incomplete measure of resilience. If environmental regulations tighten, resource constraints intensify and consumer scrutiny grows, business models that depend on deferring their true costs may face increasing pressure. Fashion is approaching a moment of reckoning. The collapse of established brands alongside the success of ultra-fast platforms is not evidence that speed defines the future, but that the industry’s metrics of success have not caught up with reality. Shein’s profits are a mirror that reflects an industry that has learned how to grow quickly, but has yet to decide what it wants that growth to mean. If fashion is to remain economical and culturally relevant, it must broaden its definition of success to include durability, trust and alignment with social and environmental limits. Brands that can reconnect clothing with identity, longevity and responsibility may not move the fastest, but they may prove the most resilient.

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

.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