Is Cider Fast Fashion?

Not unlike Shein, Cider has taken Tik-Tok and Instagram by storm since they launched in late 2020, having been founded by a group of friends with Silicon Valley backgrounds from Hong Kong, LA, and Singapore. A number of Cider’s earlier garments went viral, and within a few short years the brand became a fashion staple for the influencer class of Gen Z and millennials.

Some would argue Cider’s growth has been greater than Shein’s, with Shein racking up 20 million plus followers over twelve years, versus Cider’s 5 million followers in just over three.

Rapid growth doesn”t always equate with poor practices…but it usually does. Still, we plunged deep into Shop Cider reviews, news, and available information to see what all the fizz is about when it comes to this uber-trendy clothing brand who calls itself “your closet’s happy hour”.

Cider thinks of itself as a cutting-edge “social first” approach to fashion, one that “makes everyday statement pieces for everyone, everywhere,” via a fast fashion business model they call “smart fashion”.

What the heck is social first smart fashion, you ask? And is Cider a good brand because of it?

As “a globally-minded, social-first fashion brand,” Cider works by listing small batches of items for specific moods and occasions every week and operates like a direct-from-factory marketplace. Based on user data and social media algorithms, Cider is well aware of where demand lies, which is why they say their costs are kept low and textile waste is significantly reduced.

The brand also prominently features a “Sustainability” page on their website, with terms like “recycled fabrics,” “biodegradable packaging,” ”responsible supply chain,” and “tips to contribute to a greener future” featured boldly on their website.

But while Cider appears to nobly pursue sustainability, the brand has also received many questions surrounding their sustainable claims and production practices, with the usual greenwashing red flags being raised. They know their millennial and Gen Z shoppers have empathy for the planet but lack the wallet to support the cost of sustainability, so environmental benchmarks can remain unmet and hidden behind slick marketing.

In Cider’s instance, there are a number of red flags we’ll look at.

From design theft and cultural appropriation allegations to a largely unacknowledged packaging scandal, unconfirmed dropshipping accusations, and greenwashing galore, Cider’s brand image may look like an apple orchard of cherubic and stylish women in the Garden of Eden, but the truth behind the brand is far from the case.

After all, what eco-friendly clothing brand would have consumers “shop by mood?”

We’ve never heard of emotional impulse shopping as an approach to finding durable, lifelong staples that are going to provide style, comfort, and utility for decades to come.

Because if you were still wondering, “Is Cider a fast fashion brand?”, the answer is a bubbling, crackling YES. Cider is most definitely fast fashion.

But remember, we aren’t here to shame anyone for their fashion choices. If it’s all your budget allows to shop for, we’re never there to judge a person. We all need clothes. That said, we hope our Cider fast fashion brand breakdown inspires everyone to take that hard earned cash money to a brand that’s a little more green and perhaps a little less greenwashed.

Design Theft

The ascent of Cider clothing brand was largely thanks to a dress that was allegedly a stolen design from a small Etsy designer, Wanda Cobar, and previously featured in the film 13 Going On 30, and then Vogue, and then… everywhere.

Cobar charges around $400 for her eclectic handmade dress, while cash-strapped Gen Z shoppers can flock to Cider for their $18 ripoff. To this day, Cider still carries their best-selling polyester version of the dress that Jennifer Garner iconically showed off her “Thriller” dance in.

Then there was sustainable fashion brand Lydia Bolton who’s jacket design was also ripped off by Cider with little resolution. Bolton makes sustainable alternatives from textile scraps using ethical and sustainable practices, with most designs a unique one-off. The jacket in question was a print patterned apple pumpkin jacket, created from an old tablecloth.

When Lydia was notified by a follower of Cider mass-producing an identical item, she contacted the brand, who said that while they take allegations of plagiarism seriously, nothing could be done without a trademark. The case went cold.

Lydia explained in one interview the irony of the situation; since the piece was so requested, she considered printing the fabric herself to increase her profits, but chose not to operate against her values:

“I thought to myself ‘maybe I could do a similar print and step aside from my normal ways of practice and print some on organic cotton’ but then I thought actually ‘I’m only going to do that to make money. I’m not doing that for like the core brand value, which is sustainability and reducing waste’.”

Cultural Appropriation

Scrolling through Cider’s social media accounts, it’s almost eerie how few comments they receive of feedback or negativity, which leads one to wonder if “digitally native” Cider actively curates their comments.

The only point of controversy on their Instagram feed is Cider’s own statement on cultural appropriation regarding a traditional Chinese garment they copied and sold. In fashion, cultural appropriation refers to lifting motifs of a particular culture in a way that doesn’t pay homage to or even acknowledge the original culture of influence, but rather misuses it, often by sexualizing aspects of a culture.

Cider was approached by a number of customers upset by their traditional Chinese Qipao garment. Buyers found it insensitive because a real Qipao involves a level of craftsmanship, quality, and tradition that many hold sacred.

For Cider to sell a cheap, mass-produced polyester version was upsetting. And when they responded by saying their founders are Chinese too and see no problem, it stirred people up even more.

Oxo-Biodegradable Packaging

Put simply, Cider is fast fashion that hides behind greenwashing. We’ll get into that further along our breakdown, but the biodegradable packaging issue is worth pointing out now as a scandal.

Because once again, Cider has somehow managed to skirt this controversy off, in spite of it being the opposite of supposed eco-friendly practices.

Every item purchased from Cider comes in a small “biodegradable plastic” pouch, made from d2w® patented technology, which claims to change the molecular structure of plastic so that it biodegrades, sometimes called “oxo-biodegradable.”

Just one quick Google search and it’s apparent how contentious and refuted this technology is. Recently, the EU commission banned it because the claims are so inaccurate, with one EU commission member saying that to market this plastic as eco-friendly “is absurd.”

Even if they did break down in due time, how would that answer the microplastics problem, given all plastic inevitably contributes to the worsening microplastic crisis?

Dropshipping Accusations

Dropshipping is when third party partner factories make and stock an item, with a brand “dropshipping” it from that third-party upon request from the buyer. It means Cider doesn’t stock the item; a third-party supplier does.

Just like ultra shady shopping sideTemu, the fashion brand claims that their “smart fashion” model exists to reduce waste and cost associated with traditional inventory; meanwhile, the internet is highly suspicious, given their model actually appears to be dropshipping, which is the opposite. Many buyers have found exact Cider clothes on a number of other shopping platforms, along with Lazada (Thailand and Philippines’ answer to Amazon) and AliExpress.

Essentially, dropshipping would mean that Cider is the middle-man of a sea of independent factories who produce items and then stitch a Cider tag onto it and ship it to the customer on behalf of Cider when someone purchases the item.

Additionally, returns state to send items to their Hong Kong warehouse, which is different from where most of their packages are actually shipped from, since they sometimes come from independent factories.

So while Cider makes it seem like their fashion is “made to order,” it’s more likely the case that it’s all piled up in warehouses waiting to be drop-shipped.

While Cider wants to appear as light and refreshing as a crisp beverage during a hot summer happy hour, their ethics reveal a whole lot of greenwashing to hide the nasties lurking within Cider ethics.

The brand claims to have a responsible value chain, to care about animal welfare, and to responsibly manage things like wastewater, but how ethical is Cider, really?

Transparency

Cider is based in Hong Kong, but because of their drop–shipping production model that relied on countless independent factories, we don’t really know where Cider clothes are made (much like YesStyle).

While horrid working conditions have yet to surface like their Shein peers, Cider tries to make their garment workers seem like equal players in the game by strategically placing images of toiling workers alongside a statement about “Team and Community”.

But what they leave out is viable and transparent information about their workforce. While they include a section about having a “responsible supply chain” with a snapshot of three factories (which have BSCI certifications and SMETA memberships), we’re left without a full picture of their entire fashion production ecosystem.

Are they using just these three factories? Given the sheer number of Cider clothes designs and how quickly they rotate, doubtful. How many more? Have they been audited? Do they have manufacturing certifications? Who works there? Are they paid fairly? What are their working hours? Where do they source raw materials?

We need more transparency to better understand labor issues, workers rights, fair pay, and how they ensure no child labor or forced labor.

From what we DO know, most of their factories are located in the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Jiangsu, where the monthly minimum wage is approximately $275. Meanwhile, according to the Global Living Wage Coalition, $725 is the actual living wage, which is nearly triple the minimum wage.

Animal Welfare

Cider does not use animal materials, exotic animal skin, or leather, but they do use wool, for which they do not disclose the supplier and sourcing information. While ethical wool is achievable, the wool industry is often rife with animal welfare violations.

We hope to see a proper animal welfare policy from the brand soon, along with efforts of traceability to ensure they know where and how their wool is being farmed.

Cider’s sustainability claims paint a picture of a conscious company, but is Cider clothing legit in terms of sustainability?

Critics of Cider claim that the fast fashion brand pretends to pursue sustainability as a cover-up instead of out of sincerity.

We’ll give Cider some points for prominently featuring a Sustainability page on their website (unlike fast fashion brands to avoid usually do), but we agree, it seems mostly like lip-service. Let’s start with their stated mission:

“Sustainable fashion should be accessible, not exclusive. That’s why we’re on a mission to create affordable, everyday statement pieces with sustainability in mind. From inventing a smart fashion model that only produces on demand, to adopting recycled materials and a responsible supply chain in our production process, we’re able to reduce our environmental impact in the fashion industry all while working to create a more eco-friendly brand.”

This entire statement—and alas, their whole Sustainability page—is rife with marketing gimmicks.

Materials

Most of Cider’s materials are harmful fabrics like virgin polyester, nylon, rayon, and viscose, which are all made from fossil fuel-based petroleum. These synthetic materials are not only environmentally damaging to make but also don’t biodegrade at their end of life. Not to mention microplastics are now found regularly in both fish and humans.

However, it’s important to highlight the positive strides the brand has made. While their sustainable fabrics are lacking overall, they do have a Recycled Cider Collection made with recycled materials certified by the Global Recycled Standard (GRS).

The catch? At the time of writing this, there were just 40 pieces out of thousands upon thousands ofpolyester items being sold that actually featured recycled materials. What’s more, is that of these 40 or so “recycled” items, some had only 30% recycled polyester, with the rest being made of virgin polyester or plastic

On top of that, the brand alludes to organic cotton and recycled cotton, but at the time of writing this, their garments featured neither.

Manufacturing

Since Cider doesn’t release an annual sustainability report, we have no way to really know the brand’s carbon footprint or manufacturing impact.

For example, they call their manufacturing “smart fashion,” and state, “We are able to adjust production in real time by looking at direct feedback and data from our customers (pretty cool, right?!). This means we produce less waste than traditional retail fashion companies, allowing us to deliver fashion more quickly and with less waste.”

But the rationale here is both misleading and vague.

What is the baseline for ‘less waste’? Isn’t production for all fast fashion outlets informed by customer data? How does this deliver fashion faster? And wouldn’t it technically mean slower delivery times if production is being adjusted based on demand?

Made-to-order is a widely respected slow fashion practice of pieces only being made after they’re purchased, but such a practice certainly wouldn’t result in an order arriving from Asia in less than two weeks.

It seems like Cider is latching onto ethical and sustainable concepts and spinning them, to greenwash their destructive approach to making clothes.

Another example of murkiness is regarding water claims. While their website talks about “Our Clean Water Process,” without any published audits, we’re left to believe the brand without any actual evidence. When a huge corporation makes claims without proof like “we are tirelessly implementing strategies aimed at reducing our water usage in all of our factories, warehouses, and office locations,” we simply have no way to substantiate brand claims.

While sustainable fashion should be accessible, that’s not the reason for Cider’s affordable prices. Likely, their pocket change prices are because of cheap synthetic fabrics they use and cheap labor from developing countries like China that they exploit.