![]() On the ground lay a mound of shirts, skirts, and dresses from Romwe.įor years, Shein’s public face has taken the form of people like Kelly, who make up a federation of influencers filming hauls for the company. There was a Christmas tree, a cat tower, and, in the middle of the landing, an iPad mounted on a tripod and haloed with a ring light. She skipped off to the living room to dance around-a warm-up-then led me upstairs to the carpeted second-floor landing where she does her shoots. People have watched it more than 40,000 times the argyle sweater is sold out. The camera is trained on her midriff, while, in voice-over, her tongue makes juicy sounds. ![]() In a video I first watched last fall, she twirls around in her backyard, in front of a tree with golden leaves, wearing a $9 cropped argyle sweater. A couple of years ago, she started filming hauls for a Shein-owned brand called Romwe she posts a new one about once a month. On Instagram, she has 340,000 followers on YouTube, she has 1.6 million. Kelly, a redhead with the vibe of a glamorous Cabbage Patch Kid, is famous for ASMR content: tapping on boxes, tracing words in the snow outside her house. One federal trade regulator told me he had never heard of the brand, and then, that evening, emailed: “Postscript-not only did my 13-year-old daughter know the company (Shein) but was wearing a pair of their corduroys tonight.” It occurred to me that if I wanted to understand Shein, I should start with the people who seemed to know it best: its teenage influencers.Ġne bright afternoon last December, a 16-year-old named Makenna Kelly greeted me at the door of her house in a quiet suburban neighborhood of Fort Collins, Colorado. ![]() Mike Karanikolas, a co-CEO, responded, “You’re talking about the Chinese company, right? I’m not sure how to pronounce it-s-h-e-i-n.” (It’s SHE-in.) He dismissed the threat. In an earnings call last year, a financial analyst asked executives at the fashion brand Revolve about competition from Shein. Its CEO and founder, Chris Xu, declined to be interviewed for this article.Īs I began looking into Shein, it seemed almost as if the brand existed in some liminal space occupied by people in their teens and twenties and no one else. Being privately held, it doesn’t disclose financial information. Most of its suppliers are located in Guangzhou, the Pearl River port city about 80 miles northwest of Hong Kong.īeyond that, the company has shared surprisingly little information with the public. Here’s some of what’s known about Shein: It’s a Chinese-born company with nearly 10,000 employees and offices in China, Singapore, and the US.
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