Zara, Shein And Gymshark Can't Call Themselves Sustainable While Running The Same System
Zara, Shein and Gymshark can't call themselves sustainable while running the same system that is destroying everything. Sitting in the workshop with Vivi Rufino and David, the couple who run Freedom Ecowear together, Vivi, who left mass production herself, explains why a green side line on top of fast fashion is hypocrisy, why Gymshark sells the experience not the product, and why people are finally waking up.
Fast Fashion Not Sustainable
Vivi has earned the right to call out the big names, because she ran their model first. We had been talking about brands that announce a “conscious” collection, and she was unsparing, because before Freedom Ecowear she was making five figures a month in polyester and outsourcing to the same kind of factory. So when she says you cannot call yourself sustainable while running the same system that is destroying everything, it is not theory. Zara, Shein and Gymshark can bolt a green line onto the front of the shop. The machine underneath does not change.
Prove it, show me
“That’s why I don’t think Zara or H&M or even Gymshark really mean it when they say they’re going sustainable,” Vivi said. “Like, proven, show me. I don’t think you can call yourself sustainable when you’re still running the same system that is destroying everything, and that is compromising so many lives and resources.”
Her test is restructure or stay quiet. “Don’t tell me you’re becoming sustainable if you don’t restructure the whole thing you have going on,” she said. She knows the dodge intimately, because she refused it herself. “We could have continued making synthetic bikinis while doing a sustainable supply chain on the side. But that didn’t feel right. That feels hypocrite to me. I’m not integral with my work if I do that.” That is why her own polyester to natural fibre transition took the whole machine down, not a corner of it.
Gymshark sells the experience, not the product
Her read on Gymshark is the sharpest thing in the interview, and it stings because it is fair. “It’s a shame about something like Gymshark, because they’re the people’s favorite,” she said. “They’re super popular, super trendy. That’s because they focus a lot, not really on their product, but on their people. They sell the experience, not necessarily the product.”
She had watched him explain the strategy himself. “I was watching an interview of him, and he was saying that’s his strategy, do as many events as he can, involve people so they root for you,” she said. “Include them so they include you in their lives. You’re part of this huge community, and that’s why you defend it.” Then the line that lands. “But that doesn’t mean they’re developing the best products. You’re sweating all day in those fibres, there’s no way around that.” Community is not the same as a clean product. It is the same sleight of hand the bamboo red flag relies on, attention pointed away from the material.
The dead stock problem they never solve
The deepest issue is what happens to what does not sell, and Vivi has watched it from the inside. “These brands trying to be sustainable, but they’re producing at the same scale they’ve been doing their whole life,” she said. “What’s going to happen with the rest of the clothes that doesn’t sell? So many unworn clothes end up in landfills. Some brands even burn their dead stock.”
Ask the question, do not buy the slogan
The conscious collection is the cleverest move in fast fashion. It lets a giant keep producing at the same monstrous scale while handing you a guilt free aisle to shop in. As Vivi names it, it is hypocrisy with a nicer label, and the volume is unchanged underneath.
So the antidote is a question, not a purchase. Did the brand restructure, or did it add a line? Where does the unsold stock go? Whose faces make the clothes? People are waking up to this, she says, and that pressure is real. The most powerful thing we do is refuse to be soothed by the slogan and look at the machine. Our sustainable clothing guide helps you read past the marketing.
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