Boohoo is a British fashion retailer that was founded in 2006. Boohoo has more than thirty-five thousand products on its online store.
However, is Boohoo a Fast Fashion brand?
Are Boohoo clothes ethical?
Does Boohoo use sweatshops to make their clothes?
In this article, we have tried to answer all of the concerns you might have about the ethics and policies of Boohoo.
Keep on reading to find out!
About Boohoo
Boohoo is a British fashion retailer that was founded in 2006 by Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane.
Initially, Boohoo operated in the UK until 2012 when Boohoo started its operations in the US and Australia.
To make shopping easier and more convenient for their customers, Boohoo launched its app in 2015.
Boohoo has been expanded to five Asin countries that are; Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
According to Boohoo’s annual report for 2019, the net income of the company was £47.4 million and the number of employees was 2,352.
According to the annual report for 2020, the revenue of Boohoo was £1.235 billion.
The secret to Boohoo’s success is social media. Boohoo focuses a lot on social media marketing. Boohoo has 11.5M followers on Instagram and 3.8M likes on its Facebook page.
Boohoo has more than 35,000 products. These products of Boohoo include clothing, accessories, and shoes.
Is Boohoo A Fast Fashion Brand?
What Is Fast Fashion?
Only a few years ago, people used to buy only a few clothes a year. However as the world is globalizing, the world is getting faster.
In this fast world, a new term i.e. “Fast Fashion” is gaining popularity. Fast Fashion offers trendy, new, and cheap clothes.
As a result, people have started buying as many clothes as they can in one year.
In 2018, WSJ found that an average American bought 68 pieces of clothing 2018. Another website called Statista found that an average American woman bought 32 pieces of clothes in a year.
People are also buying a lot of clothes as there’s a new trend every day and people want to stay in trend.
This wish of the public is fulfilled by many brands as they offer not only trendy clothing but also offer cheap clothing. So people buy as many clothes as they can.
However, the model of Fast Fashion is not sustainable or ethical. As social media is growing, many people are getting to know about the problems that the Fast Fashion industry has caused.
Hence many brands are taking a sustainable and ethical approach to growing their brand. Here are some of the harms that the Fast Fashion industry has caused;
- Many Fast Fashion brands work with suppliers who have sweatshops, where people are forced to work for 12-16 hours a day in inhumane conditions. They are paid less than minimum wages and in some cases, they are not even paid.
- Fast Fashion has caused a lot of water wastage and carbon emission as to manufacture one piece of clothing, litres of water and tonnes of carbon emission are required. The fast Fashion industry needs more and more clothes so more water is wasted.
- As all of the clothes are not sold and Fast Fashion brands have to constantly add new products to their inventory, hence unsold clothes are thrown away in land piles, which can cause land pollution. People also throw away their old clothes when the trend dies.
Is Boohoo Fast Fashion?
Yes, Boohoo is a Fast Fashion brand.
There are three elements of Fast Fashion; cheap, new, and trendy clothes.
Boohoo has all of these elements;
- Boohoo has cheap clothes. They almost always have a sale on some of their products.
- Boohoo has mentioned on their ‘about us’ page that they drop more than 500 new products every week.
- Boohoo sells trendy clothes.
Are Boohoo Clothes Ethical?
The clothes of Boohoo are not ethical.
Clothes are ethical when they are made by workers who are paid properly. The material used in these clothes is also not harmful to the environment.
In 2017, a documentary showed that Boohoo pays less than minimum wages to its workers.
In June 2020, when COVID was at its peak, Labour Behind the Label found that Boohoo was forcing its employees to work in the middle of a pandemic. They were also not following the social distancing and other SOPs in their factory. Boohoo was accused many times of being worse with their employees.
As Boohoo releases 500+ clothes every week, so a lot of them would remain unsold. Unsold clothes are often thrown into land piles by many Fast Fashion brands which can cause land pollution.
To manufacture these clothes, factories also require tons of carbon emissions and thousands of litres of water. Water wastage and carbon emission have huge impacts on the environment.
Does Boohoo Use Sweatshops?
Boohoo has been accused of using sweatshops.
Boohoo is known for paying less than minimum wages to their garment workers.
They also require their workers to work in extreme conditions. In June 2020, while the world was sitting at home due to COVID 19, Boohoo forced its workers to work in the factories without social distancing.
Why Is Boohoo So Bad?
Boohoo is considered bad because it’s not good with its labours.
Boohoo follows the model of Fast Fashion and drops more than 500 products every week.
Boohoo is known for paying less than minimum wages to its garment workers. They also forced their workers to work when COVID 19 was at its peak.
Therefore the clothes of Boohoo are not ethically made and the brand is considered bad.
Conclusion
Boohoo is a British fashion retailer that is operating in several countries around the world.
Boohoo has been accused of paying less than minimum wages to their employees. Boohoo has been involved in many controversies which raised many questions about its ethics.
