Fast-fashion retailers Temu and Shein gained more than one million additional Australian customers in 2025, as consumers prioritise affordability and accessibility over sustainability.
New research from RMIT University had found that environmental awareness alone is often insufficient to deter people from buying ultra-fast fashion.
Click play to hear why sustainable fashion is at risk.
Associate Professor Carol Tan, Program Manager of the Master of Fashion program at RMIT University, explained to Youth Jam’s Isaac Mulcrone that shoppers systematically plan their purchases in response to rising cost-of-living pressures.
“(The purchases) are systematically planned. I’m sure, for example, you’ve built a wish list before, you park items in your cart and then (you wait) for a discount… You either wait for payday or you see a sale, then the final click is impulsive,” she told Newsflash listeners.
Professor Tan’s research found that cognitive buffering is common among consumers, who often rationalise their choices after buying from fast-fashion retailers.
“People know it’s bad for the environment, but after the purchase they use logic to rationalise, ‘I’m on a budget’ or ‘one item won’t matter’, ‘it’s the industry’s fault, not mine’. This happens post purchase, but they often believe they have limited influence on how the industry is,” she said.
While sustainable fashion retailers frequently remind shoppers of the positive environmental impact of purchasing their products, Professor Tan’s findings suggest these messages are failing to resonate.
“In some circumstances Shein and Temu are not bad, because they’re solving a real problem. Before Shein, let’s say you wanted to look for a plus size garment or wider shoes or you had a niche style preference, your options were limited. A lot of things were expensive.
“What Shein and Temu did, they democratised access,” she said.
Both Shein and Temu release up to 10,000 new items daily, utilising algorithmic recommendations and countdown tactics to prompt additional purchases.
“They use all these things to make you feel as though something is urgent, you’re going to miss out, that FOMO feeling… That is actually the real issue.”
Another concern highlighted by Professor Tan is that the average person wears a new item of clothing only seven times before discarding it, making sustainable fashion more economical in the long run.
“If you bought a $20 jacket, which maybe wouldn’t last as long and you only wore it five times, then it’s $4 per wear. In the long term it might be better to buy a more expensive jacket and wear it multiple times,” she said.
Professor Tan advises the sustainable fashion industry to emphasise cost-per-wear in its marketing while highlighting the broader benefits of moving away from fast fashion.
