It makes me feel as if they're aggressively picking up where Forever 21 left off.
The Men's section looks like it would all be worn by the same dude (a certain British vegan chef with a goatee on YouTube).
It works something like this;
1. Somebody uploads a design they found (probably stole) and creates a piece of clothing
2. Somebody else with just a shred of desire clicks on a couple of buttons and pays $3.78
3. A Chinese sweat shop worker immediately picks up the order and creates the piece of clothing and gets paid $0.03 for the trouble (whilst working 18 hour days in leui of any breaks, weekends or holiday)
4. The clothes get air shipped across the world and delivered to the customer, skipping customs and taxes
5. The customer, who basically forgot they bought the clothes (it was after all purchased in a tiktok haze and didn't affect them much financially) trys on the item, takes a photo, and throws it in the closet
6. A year later it gets donated to charity, who assesses the quality and redirects it to landfill
(most of my information here has come from a documentary, "Inside the Shein Machine)
> Shein says it’s able to make affordable apparel by monitoring user behavior to predict customer demand and producing items in small quantities. The Chinese e-commerce company known for its $5 T-shirts and $20 cocktail dresses controls 40% of the fast-fashion market share in the U.S., with an estimated $8 billion in sales in the country last year. Shein’s inventory turnover rate is twice as fast as other competitor retailers such as H&M and Zara.
(the video also mentions "De minimis tax loophole" which I think another commentator here on HN mentioned)
I'm told there are people who care about this sort of thing. ($8B worth of other Americans, apparently)
Perhaps the colour but they are available in a super wide range anwyay (luckily, because Jack & Jones did only white, black and navy for a couple years).
Kids will always want to be cool. The old thing is not as cool as the new thing.
And fast fashion is a relentless machine to monetize that impulse.
My guess is tiktok is doing what it's made for, advertising and possibly putting China first to the mass of consumers.