ThredUp declares war on Shein! The battle between second-hand clothing and fast fashion begins

It is learned that on June 27, ThredUp sent a push notification to its customers, asking them to boycott Shein's pop-up store in San Francisco this weekend because Shein's fast fashion model causes long-term wasteful overconsumption.

It’s rare for a company in the fashion industry to take such a direct swipe at another company, and it’s definitely a first for ThredUp.

Shein, which was first launched in 2008, has grown at an astonishing rate since entering the US market in the past five years. Its revenue has soared from $2 billion in 2018 to $15.7 billion in 2021, and it is now worth $100 billion, more than fast fashion pioneers H&M and Zara combined. In May, Shein surpassed Amazon to become the top shopping app in the US App Store.

Shein is also more productive than its fast-fashion rivals: between January and April this year, it sold 314,877 new styles, far more than H&M's 4,414 and Zara's 6,849, according to fashion analytics firm Edited.

Shein has also found great success in social media marketing, capturing the Gen Z market. Influencers try on dozens of Shein outfits at a time on TikTok and Instagram.

Erin Wallace, a ThredU spokeswoman, noted that it takes enormous resources to manufacture and transport so much clothing around the world, and that by selling most items for $15 or less, consumers are encouraged to view them as disposable.

Erin Wallace said that ThredUp's goal is to create an environment where we reuse more clothes than we produce, and the emergence of Shein hinders this goal.

Shein has been opening pop-up stores across the U.S. for the past few years, and when Shein announced its pop-up store at the Embarcadero Center, ThredUp decided to take action. "This is our home turf, and we decided it was time to do something," Wallace said.

ThredUp, which positions itself as a more sustainable alternative to fast fashion, receives millions of used clothes from consumers every day and has built massive processing facilities to sort the goods before putting them online for resale.

ThredUp's products are affordable and have less impact on the environment than fast fashion because reusing clothes avoids the use of water, natural resources and carbon emissions required to produce new clothes.

In theory, ThredUp could benefit from Shein's continued sales of clothes because consumers could resell them on the site, generating more revenue. In fact, ThredUp does sell Shein clothing on its site.

Still, ThredUp thinks it's worth it for Shein to take another stand. In addition to urging customers to boycott Shein, ThredUp is offering new customers a 40 percent discount and free shipping on their first purchase.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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