The Center for Education and Research in Retail at the IU Kelley School of Business announced its partnership with Shein, a global fashion, beauty and lifestyle e-retailer, in March.
According to the Kelley School of Business’s website, the partnership will provide students with a first-hand perspective on Shein’s supply chain while also highlighting the economic growth the company brings to Indiana.
The partnership between the Kelley school and Shein began in September of 2021, when the company approached the Kelley school to learn more about the Center for Education and Research in Retail program.
“The initial outreach occurred, because Shein is in the process of building a warehouse up in Whitestone, Indiana, and it's going to be somewhere between 1000 to 1500 jobs that they're creating up in that area.” John Talbott, Director of the center, said.
The partnership includes a fellowship program and an economic impact student, which Talbot said was on how the warehouse impacts the Indiana community.
“As I've come to know, over time, when they go into a place, they're very interested in trying to have some sort of a local presence.” Talbott said.
Talbott said he’s interested in helping students find careers in retail and that students from China don’t have any outcomes because retailers and most companies that the Kelley school deals with at the undergraduate level will not support getting an H1B visa.
“It's kind of a crapshoot as to whether the government decides to approve this particular application or that one,” Talbott said.
Talbott said he’s been on the lookout for opportunities to create career paths for international students in the long run for several years. Part of that, he said, is finding an international company.
As he got to know Shein better, Talbott said he focused on developing a process that might start with internships and eventually create an internship pipeline that goes into Shein in the United States, Singapore and other countries in which they operate.
“Starting with internships, but then eventually leading to full time jobs that might end up being in Singapore to start, for example, but then they send those kids back over to U.S. operations so that our international students have a possibility of career outcomes within the United States.” Talbott said.
Talbott said when a company grows quickly, like how Shein went from almost nothing to a globally recognized entity, they will not have a perfect process.
“Sometimes there could be some negative publicity that comes out around it, but if the other side of it, the way I look at it is that, you know, we're on the ground with an early stage company, that, in my mind, from all the interactions I've had with them, is authentically attempting to get better.” Talbott said.
Reviews of the company are mixed. People online complain about customer service problems, poor quality clothes, Shein’s refund policy, shipping delays and missing orders.
Talbott said there are legitimate issues where the company has failed in some places and there is the fact that they’re in fast fashion.
Shu Mei Huang, a Master’s student at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental affairs said she wonders if the Kelley School knew that Shein is known as an ultra fast fashion company.
“And that they're underpaying their labor and also like, producing low quality stuffs in a quick way.” Huang said.
Fast Fashion, Huang said, is an industry that produces large quantities of, usually, low-quality clothing.
“It's called fast fashion because it's producing fast and customers buy it and wear it for a several, a handful of times and then trash it because they are pursuing a fashionable trends that are up to date.” Huang said.
The consumer, Huang said, is also a large part in the creation of fast-fashion.
“There is no way that Shein can be such a huge and successful company without the continuous financial support from those customers.” Huang said.
Fifty-five percent of Gen Z said price was the most important factor when shopping for fashion. Shein’s customer base is mainly Gen Z women and parents of children under the age of 15.
Shein has more than 2,000 items on its site that cost less than $5.
Mica Caine, a product manager for legal engineering at Pinterest and sustainable fashion marketplace start-up co-founder, said the business model is inherently unsustainable.
“Because they're making so many different styles so fast.” Caine said.
According to Shein CMO, Molly Miao in an interview with Forbes, Shein drops 700 to 1,000 new styles a day.
Shein works with more than 6,000 suppliers to produce Shein products and sources additional third-party items to sell on their platform according to their 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report.
The company also supports all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable development goals and is a signatory on the United Nations Global Compact and supports the 10 principles focused on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.
Additionally, Shein’s code of conduct includes compliance requirements related to health and safety, environment, labor and social welfare. Shein also requires suppliers to comply with local laws.
In 2021, Shein said they pay fair wages, overtime and legally mandated benefits in accordance with the applicable laws in the countries where they operate and expect their suppliers and vendors to do the same in a Supply Chain Transparency Statement.
“We also ensure a safe working environment for our employees,” Shein said in the statement, “During the global pandemic, we promptly implemented safety protocols and provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to our employees to ensure their personal safety.”
Shein also said they were working to improve current supplier monitoring programs, advance key initiatives like environmental and social responsibility and that they regularly donate to social and environmental causes and work with partners around the world on those efforts.
Greenwashing, Huang said, is when a company or industry claims to be doing something good with the environment or sustainability but is not.
“They're just making their reputation better by claiming to do so and like partnering with, maybe some schools or partners and like claiming to do so but they're not really doing so.” Huang said.
Huang said it’s important for schools, like the Kelley School of Business, to take a company’s core values and ethics into account especially in this partnership, because Shein is providing the fellowship money.
“Also, if Kelly fellows are feeling conscientious, like taking those money, if while they're knowing those money might be results from like underpaying labors or like polluting our environment.” Huang said.
Shein is currently supporting five undergraduate students in summer fellowships that pay $25 an hour.
