15 Fast Fashion Brands to Avoid and Why

Chasing the latest trends and promoting consumerism, Fast fashion brands are on the rise worldwide, especially in the United States of America. However, this trend is harmful in many ways. And we want to empower you with this knowledge.

Brands like Shein, Temu, Uniqlo, Topshop, and Boohoo engage in unethical labor and manufacturing practices. They use toxic chemicals, a lot of water, and synthetic materials. They also produce a lot of textile waste and greenhouse gas emissions and exploit their employees by paying below the minimum living wage. 

This article will discuss 15 fast fashion brands and why you should avoid them. We will also offer you 15 alternatives to ensure you practice ethical fashion purchases. 

15 Worst Fast Fashion Brands to Avoid and Why

Quick links to the fast fashion brands:

1. Shein

One of the top fast fashion brands to avoid in 2024 is Shein. Sky Xu founded Shien in 2008, starting as an online store for wedding dresses made in China. In 2015, he ventured into trendy clothing. Shein gained popularity in 2020 and has been on the rise ever since. 

Shein produces and sells clothes at very low prices. The fast-fashion brand uses AI to follow the latest trends and makes tons of clothing. They create new designs within three days. Many have accused Shein of unethical practices.

Shein needs to be open about its labor practices and supply chain. Research shows that Shein uses inhumane labor practices. 

An investigation conducted by Sixth Tone, a Chinese publication, shows the poor working conditions at some of Shein’s Manufacturers. Their suppliers outsource to small workshops in terrible buildings to reduce costs. 

2. Forever 21

Forever 21 is next on our list of the worst fast fashion brands to avoid. As a retailer, it sells trendy clothing at low prices at the expense of its workers. Forever 21 pays its workers an unfair living wage—as low as $4 per hour. Workers earn 22 cents for every blouse they sew.

It is unfair because their workers are people with real-life financial problems. They can barely survive. Of course, Forever 21 denies this. It claims it is unaware because the brand works with several contractors as a retailer. The brand's spokesperson claimed they were working on ensuring their vendors pay their workers fairly.

3. Uniqlo

Uniqlo is next on our list of fast fashion brands to avoid. It is one of the cheap clothing brands that doesn't use eco-friendly materials and violates local labor laws. 

Fast Retailing acquired Uniqlo in 2005. Its parent company aims to become the largest fast-fashion retailer by expanding the Japanese market into China and the United States. 

We can't ignore Uniqlo’s environmental costs. It uses synthetic fabrics, increasing plastic pollution in the environment. It also has no sustainable fabric certification, even when it uses cotton to make clothes. Uniqlo uses cheap labor abroad to reduce its production costs. 

The Indonesian Jaba Garmindo factory group workers and Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) filed a complaint against Uniqlo regarding its violation of the workplace code of conduct. They claimed Uniqlo overworked its employees and fired them without severance packages. To date, Uniqlo has refused to pay Jaba workers.

4. Fashion Nova

You should avoid shopping at Fashion Nova because it is one of the worst fast fashion brands in the industry. Richard Saghian founded Fashion Nova in 2006. It sells various fashion apparel and accessories for adults and children. 

Fashion Nova moved from a fast fashion brand to an ultra-fast fashion brand by releasing up to 600 new styles weekly. They use unsustainable materials to make bad-quality clothing and cheap labor for their manufacturing process.

The Federal Department of Labor discovered that Fashion Nova doesn’t pay fair wages. Most of its workers are undocumented, which violates human and labor rights. The factories pay their workers $2.77 per hour. Fashion Nova owes dozens of factory workers $3.8 million in back wages.

In 2022, Fashion Nova had to pay $4.2 million to settle allegations filed by the Federal Trade Commission that it hid negative reviews of its products on its website. It suppressed reviews and ratings lower than four stars.

5. Lululemon

Some might argue that Lululemon isn’t part of the fast-fashion industry. However, it is not among the sustainable fashion brands. It uses unsustainable fabrics, such as nylon and pylon, to produce clothing.

It does have some eco-friendly practices, like recycling synthetic fabrics. However, it participates in greenwashing. Canada’s Competition Bureau investigated Lululemon on the claims that it misled the public about its environmental impact. Lululemon’s 2023 Impact report showed a 100% increase in climate pollution.

Furthermore, there are reports of abuse in a factory in Bangladesh. Lululemon pays below minimum living wage and physically assaults its workers.

They also claimed that the factory managers run by Youngone Corporation verbally abuse and hit the workers who break the rules or leave before they are expected to. Some workers claim they are forced to work even when sick.

6. ASOS

ASOS is a leading fast-fashion brand that produces poor-quality clothing. It has about 26 million active buyers and updates its online store with 5,000 new products weekly. People have often queried ASOS about its labor standards. 

BBC called them out on the use of child labor and the exploitation of temporary warehouse workers. BuzzFeed also published an article discussing the terrible conditions of its garment workers. These conditions include cut pay, wrongful termination, and surveillance monitoring.

ASOS claims its labor standards are ethical, but its supply chain lacks ethics certifications. There is no proof that they follow fair trade complaint labor rights. ASOS also refuses to fully commit to sustainability. 

In 2020, they created a circular fashion collection using recycled materials. They used the three foundations of a circular economy designed by the Ellen McArthur Foundation, an environmental charity, as a guide to creating eight sustainability principles.

These principles include recycled input, zero-waste design, disassembly, and minimized waste. ASOS claims that clothing from its circular collection must meet at least two green principles. However, the flaw in its attempt to be a sustainable fashion brand is that it needs to close the loop. 

They champion recycling and minimal waste production but do not plan to allow people to return clothes for recycling. ASOS refuses to commit 100% to circular fashion by picking the sustainability aspects they commit to.

7. Pretty Little Thing

Pretty Little Thing is a Boohoo subsidiary established in 2012 in Manchester. The brand uses a low percentage of sustainable materials, such as organic cotton and recycled synthetic materials, like recycled nylon and polyester. It lacks transparency regarding its supply chains. 

People criticized Pretty Little Thing for its immense contribution to textile waste and labor exploitation in the fashion industry when it offered a 100% discount on some products on Black Friday and 80% on Cyber Monday. 

Although the company claims it does not exploit its workers, there is no way it facilitates its outrageous “marketing investment” without exploitation.

8. Topshop

ASOS owns Topshop, but it is not a sustainable brand. It doesn’t use enough sustainable materials but follows the latest fast fashion industry trend. Before ASOS bought Topshop, people made several accusations against Philip Green, its founder. 

They claimed he doesn’t pay taxes and his workers adequately. He allegedly bullied them when they asked for a fair wage. Topshop stores started selling a vegan shoe collection and sustainable clothing line, but we believe it is just a farce.

Topshop doesn’t set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions or regulations against toxic chemicals. Furthermore, Philip Green was accused of sexual harassment and racism in 2018. Instead of denying these claims with substantial evidence, he took legal steps to stop media outlets from publishing the accusations.

9. Temu

Temu is one of the most ridiculously priced fast-fashion brands. Due to its outrageously low prices, it gained popularity, with an app ranking 5th in the Apple Store. Temu claims to be sustainable, but that is a blatant lie. It promotes overconsumption and unregulated labor practices. 

Temu ships about 600,000 packages to the United States daily. It is also not open about its labor practices. There’s no information about its workers or how much Temu pays them. 

The US congressional committee requested information about its compliance with the US anti-forced labor laws but found that Temu’s business model helps it avoid obedience to US laws.

It doesn’t have an audit process to assess the risk of labor and human exploitation. Also, consumers complain about late or no deliveries. Some don’t get the goods they ordered or a refund. 

We can tell that Temu is pretending to be green by partnering with Trees with Future and planting trees across sub-Saharan Africa. They claim the project has had a transformative effect on the land while addressing environmental concerns, but we can't find any evidence of Temu’s claims.

10. Urban Outfitters

Avoid fast-fashion brands like Urban Outfitters because they contribute immensely to textile waste in the environment. They are among the clothing brands that destroy the products they couldn't sell. According to Remake World, an employee spoke about how the higher-ups ordered her and other employees to destroy unsold products.

Urban Outfitters is also one of the fast-fashion companies that practice greenwashing. During Earth Month, it pretends to be sustainable and eco-friendly by installing storefront art made with seed paper dyed with turmeric while destroying perfectly wearable products. 

Former employees claimed they lacked a proper work ethic. Urban Outfitters doesn't have an HR department. They also operated physically during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Employees claimed the management fired those who spoke up about their unsustainable practices and had them sign a non-disclosure agreement. Urban Outfitters avoids discussing its supply chain issues using corporate PR.

11. Boohoo

Boohoo is the next on our list of fast fashion brands to avoid. People claim that Boohoo made cheap clothing under inhumane working conditions. In 2022, Boohoo made E1.7 billion worth of sales with its 18 million customers. One of the factories in Leicester paid its garment workers less than minimum wage. 

Then Boohoo made a move to save its image: Agenda for Change. The brand promised to pay its suppliers a fair price within realistic timescales. However, they never kept to their promises. A BBC reporter worked undetected at Boohoo’s factory in Manchester for ten weeks. While there, she learned how Booho lies to its suppliers for very cheap prices.

They pressured suppliers to reduce prices on goods that were ordered and ready for delivery. The reporter also learned that Boohoo didn’t keep its promise of producing within realistic time scales. They rushed the manufacturing processes, causing the suppliers to deliver four weeks earlier than the lead time. 

Boohoo even introduced a 5% cut every week the supplier’s order came in late. There’s footage of Boohoo’s unethical labor standards in the MM Leicester factory. Managers didn’t allow garment workers to go home to their families to meet Boohoo’s orders. They made their suppliers sign a code of conduct stating overtime is voluntary.

12. Victoria’s Secret

Victoria's Secret is one of the leading fast-fashion lingerie brands in America. Like other fast-fashion brands, it doesn't use eco-friendly materials to make its lingerie. Roy Raymond and his wife, Gaye Raymond, founded Victoria's Secret in 1977. 

There is no evidence that it has policies and regulations to reduce textile waste or its environmental footprint. Victoria's Secret signed up for Greenpeace’s Detox My Fashion program and set a target to stop using hazardous chemicals by 2020. Reports revealed toxic chemicals are still present in some of their facilities. 

Victoria’s Secret is not transparent about its supply chain and labor rights. Also, they discriminate against their consumers’ body types. They only sell to women with a slim body shape, promoting unhealthy eating habits. The brand is essentially fatphobic. 

13. Primark

Primark is next on our list of worst fast fashion brands to avoid. It claims to produce high-quality clothes for a sustainable wardrobe while operating under a fast-fashion business model. Primark doesn’t have an online store, yet it is the biggest clothing retailer by value in the United Kingdom. 

How is Primark sustainable when it exploits its workers in Bangladesh? Bangladeshi workers work in an unsafe environment. 

In 2013, the Rana Plaza building housing Primark garment makers collapsed, killing over 1000 employees. People claimed Primark has paid unfair living wages and used child labor, which it denied by blaming its suppliers and contractors.

Even though Primark has put in the effort to become more sustainable and ethical, we should still be cautious. Its dangerously cheap garments still come with a price.

14. Gap

Like many fast-fashion brands, Gap doesn’t disclose where it gets the leather, wool, and other exotic animal hair. It has a statement claiming to reduce animal suffering, but how are we to know they do not partake in animal cruelty when we don’t know the source?  

Furthermore, we don’t know if Gap hit its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. However, it is not as bad as the other fast-fashion brands mentioned earlier.  It doesn’t produce poor quality clothes and maintains its water usage adequately. Gap received an A in the Carbon Disclosure Project water security questionnaire.

15. Zara

Owned by Inditex Group, Zara is a Spanish multinational fast-fashion brand with 2,300 stores in over 90 countries. People claim Zara lacks transparency; you should consider other brands that use sustainable fabrics and adequately manage their environmental cost of production. 

Zara is vocal about its commitment to sustainability initiatives and goals. They plan to use eco-friendly materials, reduce greenhouse emissions, and become more circular by 2030. However, it doesn't provide evidence of these goals' progress and success.

The brand promotes overconsumption of fashion items by releasing a new collection weekly. Zara has a textile recycling program that fosters the use of recycled polyester. However, we can't tell if they are reducing the environmental impact of their manufacturing process. 

People claim it also exploits the labor rights of migrant workers from Bolivia and Peru despite having a sustainability page dedicated to information about its suppliers, factories, and remediation processes. These workers work 16 to 19 hours daily with little to no breaks.

15 Sustainable Fashion Brands Alternatives

We can end the environmental impacts of fast fashion brands by using sustainable alternatives. These sustainable fashion companies use sustainable fabrics and are mindful of the impact of their manufacturing practices. Here are 15 sustainable fashion brands: 

1. Reformation
2. La Relaxed 
3. Tentree
4. 3337 Brand 
5. Sami Miro Vintage 
6. Svala
7. Whimsy + Row
8. Kotn
9. Quince
10. Warp + Weft
11. Boody
12. Colored Organic
13. Haverdash 
14. Threads 4 Thought 
15. Your local clothesmakers

Conclusion: Fast Fashion Brands to Avoid and Why

We can help the environment by buying from sustainable fashion brands instead of fast fashion brands. If fast fashion brands lost most of their consumers and their sales dropped by half, they would reconsider their production choices and become more sustainable. Refuse to feed into consumerism.