The fast-fashion giant launched an elaborate PR campaign in Washington, hiring at least three high-ranking Trump officials. But it wasn’t enough to save Shein from Trump’s tariffs.
www.wired.com
The ultra-fast-fashion company Shein spent years carefully curating its
corporate identity. Its apparent goal was to create a brand born from social media, distinct from any single place but whose products were everywhere. Shein has been more successful in some aspects of this pursuit than in others. The company grew into a global online shopping juggernaut, thanks in large part to its extremely low prices. But its efforts to remain anonymous and inoffensive have been undone by
allegations of labor abuses,
environmental criticisms and, despite moving its headquarters to Singapore, persistent concerns about its Chinese ownership.
Its latest shape shift took place largely behind the scenes in Washington, DC, where the company took a sharp turn over the past few years into the world of MAGA. Many companies have shamelessly courted President Donald Trump, hoping to curry favor with a uniquely transactional American leader, but few appear to have gone as far as Shein. The company counts Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as a shareholder in its parent company,
WIRED reported in February. Deputy US attorney general Todd Blanche, the second highest-ranking official at the Department of Justice, disclosed that Shein was previously one of his legal clients.
Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative (USTR) who serves as the president’s top adviser on matters related to international trade, also advised the company before joining the Trump administration, according to a former Shein employee as well as internal documents reviewed by WIRED. And a host of lobbyists drawn from the orbit of Trumpworld continue to push the company’s talking points across DC. Shein, which did not register hiring a single lobbyist until 2022, spent $3.9 million on federal lobbying last year, according to public records. In the first quarter of 2025, it has doled out $1.49 million.
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But despite the company’s overtures, Trump has dealt Shein a series of devastating blows since returning to office. His administration imposed punishing tariffs on Chinese imports that threaten to erode the company’s price advantage and simultaneously
moved to close a crucial trade loophole called the de minimis provision that allowed the ecommerce giant to flood the US with low-cost packages shipped into the country duty-free.
These unwelcome developments come as Shein has struggled in its bid to go public. It is now reportedly
seeking a place on London’s rapidly shrinking stock exchange after being shut out of the US market. The company is
under pressure from investors to slash its valuation to around $30 billion, a steep decline from a valuation of $100 billion in 2022, according to Bloomberg.
