Listen to the audio version of the article
From an (often criticized) ultra fast fashion brand to a market place and producer of other brands. The evolution of Shein continues – the Chinese ultra-fast fashion giant founded in 2012 by Chris Xu and grew exponentially during and after the pandemic – which today announced that it has taken over the Missguided brand from the British group Frasers.
The purchase of Missguided by Frasers Group
The transaction, the value of which was not disclosed, also includes an agreement to license Missguided’s intellectual property to Sumwon Studios, a joint venture between Shein and Missguided founder Nitin Passi. The Missguided brand will be operated by the joint venture, and its products and collections will be manufactured through SHEIN’s on-demand manufacturing model and sold on the brand’s sites. «The joint venture we have launched inaugurates a new type of partnership for SHEIN, as part of our constant commitment to satisfying customer demand – declared Donald Tang, executive president of the Chinese group -. Shein aims to resurrect the Missguided brand by capitalizing on its unique personality and driving its global growth through Shein’s on-demand manufacturing model, unrivaled e-commerce expertise and global reach.”
The strategy of the Chinese player – which the American media have repeatedly indicated is about to file the documentation to list in New York, but always without confirmation – therefore seems to be that of combining its identity as a low-cost fashion producer with that of a retailer of other brands, to which it can also extend its production model which is based on consumer demand (which manager Peter Pernot-Day, global head of corporate affairs, had told here at Il Sole 24 Ore).
The (expected) agreement with Forever21
After the announcement of the agreement with Sparc Group last August, the signing of a long-term agreement on the Forever 21 brand (with a focus on the men’s and women’s fashion categories) was announced today. Shein’s role will be to design, produce and distribute the Forever 21 x Shein collection which includes clothing, accessories, sportswear, activewear and swimwear. The collection will be produced with Shein’s “fast fashion on demand” method and sold in the USA, Europe and Australia.
The Forever 21 brand is one of the most historic examples of fast fashion, but it has experienced a period of strong crisis: founded in 1984 by Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, who arrived in California from South Korea, it has grown to have over 800 stores in almost 60 countries, only to then declare bankruptcy (2019) and be taken over a few months later, in February 2020, by the Authentic Brands group, Simon Property Group and Brookfield Property Group. The agreement with Shein could represent a digital growth driver for the American brand which, on the other hand, represents a retail “grounding” point for the Chinese company which already opened its first store at the beginning of October pop-up inside a Forever 21 store at the Ontario Mills shopping center in California (mall owned by Simon Group, founding partner of Sparc), with the passage of over 7,000 guests.