Cheap and toxic - The dark side of mass-produced fashion jewelry from China | DW Documentary

blinging chunky chains glittering gems and plenty of bling over the top it's bang on Trend mostly because of these [Music] guys the hip-hop the hip-hop world dictates fashion fans want to imitate whatever the rappers are wearing it used to be underground now it's mainstream fashion jewelry is everywhere at a rock bottom price but the realities involved in making it don't look quite as pretty with overtime I work 60 hours a week as the products get cheaper the business gets faster sometimes I have 4 to 5,000 orders and often not all that Glitters Is Gold the material is 70% cadmium that's dangerous The Bling Bling business why the hype who's reaping the profits and who's paying the price [Music] I ain't put my je on pop culture has a major influence on the fashion world hipop above all it's bored The Bling culture in the 1990s rappers draped with extravagant inyou face jewelry like the trademark clock necklaces of flavor flave and Ice Cube t pack and Jay-Z flashy accessories are all part of the image hip hop comes hipop comes from the US from New York from the Bronx the people there grew up in total poverty and rough neighborhoods and once they made it out of there with their music Someone like 50 Cent or Jay-Z the first thing they did was buy gold chains it's a status symbol I've made it look I earn so much money with my art I can Splash out on luxury items like these Alex Amarin founded his own jewelry label some 20 years ago products are marketed on social media that's Tik Tok you have to turn it out my marketing manager is always telling me to be faster sometimes we'll shoot 100 videos for Tik Tok in one day TI to his collections are inspired by hip hop the absolute classic in Germany is the king chain this is a 5mm version the rappers a gold chain like this worth €20,000 and the consumer buys the same chain for €200 and the trends slowly spill over from music into Street Wear culture and at some point it becomes mainstream plenty of Dazzle and bling ice or iced out as the rappers [Music] say neace the big stars even dedicate tracks to their jewelry fueling the global fashion hype the chunkier the better okay if I walked into a bank wearing a chain like this I'd probably get a few looks for sure fair enough but let's not kid ourselves this silver chain costs around €2,500 if I walk around wearing it straight away I'm seen as a wannabe gangster or maybe people think I'm actually a gangster or they give you that yo yo yo but if a business student walks around with a 50,000 watch from his dad then that's totally acceptable who's the bigger show off a lifestyle that makes materialism its motto and fashion into more than an accessory you're either going to annoy people or get their attention a lot of people want that going against the establishment I can identify with that and I celebrate it [Music] and millions of others do too in 2022 the global jewelry market was valued at around $33 billion the luxury segment accounts for a lot of the sales diamonds gold Platinum with a price tag to match the alternative cheap fashion jewelry [Music] the price price means they can afford it stores now sell fashioned jewelry at rock bottom prices but how does that work two major international players are two German family businesses beu brigit and the beine group the latter company operates the brands Tosh I am 6 and accessories and they're almost everywhere the concept concession stores we deliver new Styles the moment we spot Market potential turning your smallest spaces into big opportunities beine group rents small spaces in department stores drug stores or supermarkets where the products are displayed for the stores themselves it's low effort the beine group group supplies its own fittings and staff known as mobile merchandisers they take care of everything from display setup to stock maintenance participating stores bear no risk whatsoever they only pay for the items that are actually sold the company says it's opened more than 30,000 sales points in this way and generated turnover in the Millions competitor beu brigit focuses on classic retail trade and online shops a silver hinge bracelet for €14. 95 small hoop earrings for $6. 95 CRS trendy gold for $195 how can accessories be so cheap we ask jewelry Professor Christina ludaka she takes a closer look at our bargain products materials often used in cheap jewelry are Alloys like copper nickel and zinc which don't cost as much as the base substance so if the core which constitutes the most material volume is cheap but the overlay is brass it looks like gold I put it on and it feels like gold on my skin costs are cut across the board from materials through to design it's all copied designers cost money and if you don't want to pay for that you have to imitate if people recognize it they'll buy it it looks like gold but it's not it costs you'll earn more with lots of small items than from one expensive piece that's the business model model students at forzheim University learn how to design and create their own jewelry a painstaking job that involves filing welding and mounting and that takes time I've already been working on this bracelet for two weeks so it's not fashion jewelry a production method that's the opposite of fast fashion craftsmanship design and materials it all costs money you have to cut Corners if you want to do do it on the cheap in terms of craftsmanship but also [Music] materials there's no real gold here silver only occasionally Brands like Primark Zara and H&M generally sell jewelry made from zinc steel brass and iron beine group products are described in vague terms gold or silverplated what's under that is anyone's guess on the beu Brit website we find some flowery descriptions often it just says material metal that's an indictment metal could be anything they obviously don't have to say what kind of metal it's astonishing that there's no transparency it's such a sham transparency is the key issue here we want answers and send samples to the lab the results are shocking more on that in a moment first the supply chains many companies now publish supplier lists in the case of H&M we can trace an individual piece back as far as the factory where it was made and the two Market leaders the product label often reads made in China but that's where the transparency ends we try contacting them for weeks to ask about production conditions and Supply chains first there's no reply then beu Brit gives us general information on the new supply chain law and sustainability reports however the corresponding reports will not be published until next year we are therefore currently unable to make any statements on the topics you have requested we don't hear a peep from beine group for now at least in our research we come across some old media [Music] reports around 20 years ago the CEO of beu brigit at the time allowed reporters into his supplier Factory Regent Deluxe in China what did they find safety issues extremely low wages and very long working hours what are working conditions in the fashion jewelry sector like today and what about the supply chains we don't let up and keep contacting the two big players on the Block for five months finally we get an answer from beline group the company cites sustainability reports and Supply codes on the issue of supply chain it simply States for strategic reasons we do not disclose this information publicly they don't grant us an interview and neither does B Bri instead another written statement we Source our products mainly from China for competitive reasons we do not provide any information on individual producers or suppliers our research hits a wall so we take matters into our own hands [Music] hands the Hong Kong jewelry show one of the largest in the world more than 2,000 exhibitors and more than 60,000 visitors buyers and investors China is key it's now the largest sales market for jewelry and one of the world's largest [Music] producers the latest trends are showcased here and producers tell us that Germany is an important Market the jewelry trend is always comes from Germany first if you found some item is very popular always first popular in Germany then Po in EUR country so the luxury segment is stealing the Limelight today diamonds precious stones and fine gold jewelry crafted by hand but there's a growing demand for cheap Alternatives you can have one or two pieces gold jewelry you can't have a thousand of jewelry right if cheaper then you can have more styles for the uninitiated there's no apparent difference upon first glance at least this look like it's like luxury ring right but actually it's not it's very fair price the young people they don't really care about it's diamond or other Stone they just want their style Chinese online shops are gaining in popularity Jeff Dy sells his jewelry through Amazon shien and TAMU but the profit margins vary greatly we will have more higher sale price or higher profit one pieces from Amazon equal to six pieces more like other online platform same piece but different profit how does that work out for the manufacturers and what are production conditions [Music] like we want to visit factories where fashion jewelry is [Music] [Applause] made d one the nation's jewelry Metropolis it's increasingly difficult to work as a foreign journalist in China for that reason we hand over to local colleagues our research turned up a company that also makes items for the German [Music] Market entrepreneur Wang Q makes stylish accessories for fashion chains all over the world we have over 700,000 products there are nearly 200,000 different styles right here but we have another 500,000 products in another Warehouse Rings earrings and necklaces WQ is one of the sector's Pioneers he's been in the business for [Music] decades initially there were only a few jewelry factories in China we belong to the first group that set up business in changan so changan is the birthplace of all Chinese jewelry my company had four factories and around 2 to 3,000 employees I've been in this business for 56 years a hive of activity around 100 people work here producing up to 4,000 items every day a lot of it is done by hand polishing filing soldering gluing on the rhinestones Q's Factory is a subsidiary of regent Deluxe the name rings a bell the beu breid supplier and the catastrophic working conditions 20 years ago the the factory still makes products for beu bit but much has changed in recent decades wages used to be around € 12 a month now it's 40 to 50 times more the current base monthly salary is now equivalent to between 500650 and there were no benefits before now there's social insurance bonuses and so on so all in all the average monthly wage is between €900 and ,000 but it's a pay packet partly attained through overtime Manan hang has been working at the factory for 30 years in quality control we work 48 hours every week if we work overtime it's 60 hours that's 10 hours a day 6 days a week the company says that's only necessary at times of high demand but then staff might only get one day off a month working hours like that would be unimaginable in Germany with the overtime I can earn between 8 and 900 a month I'm very satisfied with this salary because I can use the money to finance my daughter's education and send her to University w q makes jewelry for numerous companies worldwide including German retailers he receiv receives around €350 per item profits that couldn't be realized through online platforms like shien and teu 80% of the products at Shane cost less than €130 we can't produce jewelry for that price that sent the prices are also unstable he says and the business is full of risks for suppliers sh any help Shen wants me to have a large number of items in stock but a large inventory doesn't sell by itself and if it doesn't sell it's useless to me so I'm not doing any business with Shen the business with shien and Co that's going on [Music] elsewhere namely here 1,000 km away the city of yiu is a hub of global [Music] trade yiu is home to one of the world's largest jewelry markets the Traders have their hands full items are packed up and boxes sealed necklaces bracelets earrings hair accessories as far as the eye can see many Supply online giants like shien and TAMU when it comes to shopping apps shien and TAMU have secured their customer base in record time their strategy fashion at the ultimate dumping price at shiin and TAMU jewelry costs between 1 and €2 one reason why this works the online shops have very few warehouses and get most of their products directly from factories they set sales price parameters and take care of logistics the purchasing process and shipping this is good news for factory operators but manufacturers don't get paid until items reach customers and the quality is right in the event of defects contractual penalties may be applied David hafeld from the Swiss NGO public eye has analyzed Sheen's Market strategy we're essentially being presented with a flood of stimuli for example offers that run out in a few hours countdowns a continuous flow of vouchers to give us the feeling that if we don't redeem it now it'll be gone tomorrow it's all a way of constantly inciting me to buy more but the decisive factor is The Rock Bottom price many of these items are produced in yiu but no one's letting us into the factories we're only allowed to film at jewelry retailer Leu and and only at the head office not at his suppliers he's been selling through shien for a year his company has a staff of six this is quite nice our range is mainly bracelets earrings necklaces rings and jewelry sets we currently have approximately 5,000 Styles the head office does the packing and shipping to get fresh stock out the door as quickly as possible we can only ship between two and 3,000 items every day if the orders go up to four or 5,000 we need to hire temporary staff then we can ship between 5 and 6,000 items a day we show our research to David hafeld what he's describing here is very typical that basically the suppliers are the flexibility Reserve this model used by Shane TAMU and the like is based on speed and a vast range of products in launches 6,000 new Styles every day to do this many people in the supply chain need to work overtime for the most part in the production facilities not an issue for Leu and his small team we work eight hours a day 5 and a half days a week a 44-hour week this is precisely in line with Chinese labor law and what's stipulated by the code of conduct for suppliers of Shane but our research has shown that very few places follow these rules David held's team found some very different scenarios 75h hour work weeks days that begin at 8:00 a.

m. and run until 10 or 10:30 p. m.