Many stores are starting to earn more customers and that is because of micro-trends. Around 62% of consumers stated that they valued when brands include micro-trends into what they give consumers.
According to thecommons.earth, micro-trends are trends that go viral for a short amount of time. Brands attempt to adapt to these trends by coming out with goods or services that relate to these trends. Strawberry Girl makeup was a micro-trend this past summer, when a famous celebrity, Hailey Bieber, promoted her makeup brand Rhode by doing an all-natural red makeup look. This was supposed to mimic how you look after walking through berry farms. Lots of TikTok creators started to post doing this type of makeup, which thrived during summer and died down towards the end of the season.
Although any brand can adapt to micro-trends, certain stores have become very popular very quickly because their main focus is fast fashion. Stores such as Shein, H&M and Zara are known for their fast turnaround times to get the most popular items on their shelves. Because they care about getting these out fast to make money very quickly, the quality is usually lacking. These stores have surprisingly low prices for what they are selling. When creators are doing reviews on these products, they usually say “You get what you pay for.” I shop on some of these websites and I will say it is a hit or miss but when it is a hit it is usually equal to the quality of Amazon products.
When these stores first launched, there was non-stop rave about them. As people started to learn the truth behind these companies, there have been many skeptical thoughts regarding their ethics. Allegations against Shein have been around for over two years now, accusing the company of child and forced labor. It has been reported that minors have been forced to work up to 75-hour work weeks with barely any pay. It has also been documented that the people working for Shein have been put in unsafe situations.
In 2023, Shein announced that two of their suppliers had cases of child labor. Shein decided to cut off these suppliers and refused to work with them until they fixed the issue. The company made sure that these children were terminated, had regular checkups performed and paid them any outstanding pay they hadn’t received. Because of these cases, Shein made stricter supplier policies. If Shein discovers any suppliers that they use enforce child labor, they will be “immediately terminated.” They updated their website, stating that they reject forced child labor and unsafe working conditions. They also stated that they strive to protect human rights and assign penalties to suppliers going against their code of conduct.
Aside from the ethics of this company, the individuality of people is being compromised. Even though micro-trends only last a couple of weeks, they suggest to people that they should jump on these trends, even if it isn’t their style. Whether it’s cost or popularity, people buy what is in front of them. Factors that make people their own person are slowly fading away. People should think about if a product is something they would wear for a while and not just one time, because it can help bring individuality back.
The uprise in micro-trends has caused lots of overconsumption and waste. These short-lasting trends play into environmental impacts due to waste because companies mass produce items that are trending only for a certain amount of time. Even if they don’t sell all of the products, they have produced so much of global greenhouse emissions just assembling the products and any extra goods that aren’t sold can end up in landfills. Clothes can take up to 200 years to fully decompose, which is polluting our earth. In 2019, overconsumption from micro-trends caused 209.5 million pounds of waste.
Micro-trends can be fun by having the opportunities to see what you like and explore your uniqueness but they can also be damaging to the environment and the people who work to keep up with micro-trends. Learning about how a company produces its goods and the effects it has on people is something everyone should know.
