Shein

There’s only so much that PR can do. Even the most effective communications team couldn't help Shein recoup its $100M outlay to acquire the beloved Everlane apparel brand.

Everlane is the ethical fashion champion that is adored by millennials, while Shein is the notorious Singapore "instant fashion” pariah.

Shein has been accused of buying cotton grown in China’s Xinjiang region, where the native Uyghur people are battling to retain their culture and identity, as well as sourcing from factories that rely on forced labor.

Yale Climate Connections has crowned Shein “the biggest polluter in fast fashion.”

Everlane wears its commitment to sustainability and radical transparency on its sleeve.

Its website proclaims: “We’re working to enhance worker livelihood, achieve gender equality, and promote fair living wages. We’re also supporting community impacts at the intersection of social and environmental needs through our Black Friday Fund.”

There’s more: “We’re staying true to our radically transparent roots and breaking down the efforts behind every aspect of our business—from our products to our processes and partners—in a manner that doesn’t sound like a science textbook.”

No amount of greenwashing is going to clean up Shein’s lousy human rights record.

Shein may think it is bailing out Everlane, which had slipped financially under its L. Catterton private equity ownership. But it’s Everlane customers are going to bail out from their now-tainted clothing brand.

What was Shein's management thinking?

The kids are all right. Students at the University of Arizona commencement booed and jeered former Google CEO Eric Schmidt when he spoke of the impacts of AI. There were no reports of thrown tomatoes.

Young people are sick and tired of Baby Boomers like Schmidt talking up the wonders of AI. Boomers don’t face the same bleak jobless future as their Gen Z counterparts.

The Economist sums up the situation nicely in its “The Jobs Apocalypse: Hope for the best, plan for the worst” cover story of May 16-22.

It quotes a poll from the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School that found more than half of young Americans view AI as a threat to their job prospects. Some of those surveyed must have jeered Schmidt.

In an Economist survey of 13 universities, the rate of full-time employment for graduates since the late 2022 launch of ChatGPT fell from 70 percent to 55 percent.

Graduates in fields more exposed to AI (computer science, engineering and information science) dropped 6.6 percent. Those less exposed to AI (education, philosophy, civil engineering) fell only 1.5 percent.

To his credit, Schmidt acknowledged fear of AI among the young. “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.”

His advice: suck it up. Since there is no stopping the AI bandwagon, Schmidt said the best route for graduates is to focus on shaping the future of AI.

At this point in the development of AI, that’s the best counsel that anyone can offer.