SINGAPORE, Aug. 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SHEIN, a global online fashion and lifestyle retailer, showcased over 60 unique sewing and garment production tools at the second edition of its Tools Day event, demonstrating how targeted innovations are helping third-party suppliers overcome technical barriers, reduce the time spent at various stages of production, and improve the quality and consistency of the garments produced.

Held at SHEIN's Centre for Innovation in Garment Manufacturing (CIGM), suppliers were able to view and interact with the various technical tools and intelligent equipment developed by the CIGM's in-house team to address specific pain points in the manufacturing of fashion apparel. Through both on-site demonstrations and a livestreamed virtual tour, the event provided a comprehensive view of SHEIN's growing ecosystem of innovation, with dedicated zones showcasing some of the more popular tools, newly developed tools, as well as more specialised equipment such as sewing machine attachments to help with shirring and stitching of garments.

Innovative Tools for Delicate Materials: Automating Embellished Fabric Sewing

Sewing sequinned, beaded and rhinestone embellished fabrics, common materials used in evening and formal wear, has long been one of the apparel industry's most difficult production challenges. Many small and medium-sized clothing manufacturers have avoided producing garments like wedding dresses or evening gowns which use these types of materials and embellishments, due to the complex and labour-intensive processes required to handle these speciality materials and details.

Beads positioned along seam lines often cause sewing needles to get stuck or break. To work around this problem, workers often resorted to crushing beads manually with tools like hammers or pliers. However, this approach slows down the pace of production, leads to inconsistent results, and carries a high risk of damaging the fabric.

To address this, SHEIN's CIGM team developed two complementary tools:

The Beaded Embroidery Seam Presser Foot, which gently moves beads aside allowing the needle to move seamlessly between the beads, and
The Bead Breaking Attachment, which combines a component that breaks the beads and a mechanism that blows away the crushed bead fragments, automating bead removal along seam lines.

When used together, these tools have helped to preserve intricate designs, reduce fabric damage, and dramatically lower the level of manual skill required to construct clothes made using these types of embellished fabrics. Since these two tools were made available to suppliers in 2024, over 900 units have been deployed across supplier factories within SHEIN's supply chain.

Co-developing Solutions to Drive Real-world Results

This year's "Tools Day" event also featured seven newly developed tools launched in 2025. These innovations target the often overlooked but technically complex work of applying lace and webbing embellishments to cuffs, necklines, and hemlines, and other areas. Tools such as the Adjustable Flatbed Webbing Puller, the Four-Thread Overlock Lace Tape Presser Foot, and the Flatbed Pearl & Diamond Tape Puller automate alignment and feeding, helping to improve garment finishing, while simplifying previously labour-intensive processes.

These achievements are the result of SHEIN's approach which ensures that new tools are co-developed with suppliers based on the pain-points they have encountered, and validated in real-world factory settings before being made available to third-party suppliers across SHEIN's broader supply chain network.

"In the past, when we encountered styles with complex processes, we were often at a loss because there were no suitable solutions available on the market," said Wang Feng, a supplier who has worked in the apparel industry for over 20 years and joined SHEIN's as an evening gown supplier four years ago. "Now, whenever we face a technical issue, SHEIN's professional team responds immediately. They tailor tools for us, provide step-by-step instructional videos, and even send engineers to our factory to ensure the problem is truly solved."

To date, SHEIN has developed over 170 individual tools, providing nearly 6,000 units of these tools to suppliers since the launch of the CIGM in 2023. These tools, which are made available to suppliers for a fee, help empower them to meet the evolving production demands of the industry with greater agility, precision, and quality. The use of these tools is estimated to have helped third-party suppliers reduce the overall time required for manual labour by up to 80% at the stages of production where the tools are used.

Empowering Suppliers Through Capability-Building

In 2024, SHEIN's CIGM continued to support supplier capability-building through a range of training and advisory services. The centre delivered 69 vocational training sessions to over 1,200 participants across more than 1,000 suppliers, covering key topics such as garment production technologies, business operations, and organisational processes.

It also ran 97 technical certification courses, enabling more than 1,750 participants to gain certifications in areas such as quality inspection and assurance, as well as national vocational skill level certifications. Beyond training, the CIGM works directly with suppliers by providing advice on strategic factory site selection, layout planning, and facility design to help improve operational efficiency.

Investing in collaboration to drive industry-wide transformation

SHEIN is also deepening its investment in industry collaboration to drive the next wave of manufacturing transformation. In the first half of 2025, SHEIN entered into strategic partnerships with Donghua University and Transfar Chemicals, targeting key areas for textile innovation and technology. Together with Donghua University, SHEIN is co-developing a recycled polyester solution capable of accepting a wider range of materials, including both pre- and post-consumer polyester feedstock, and that results in fibres that can be recycled repeatedly without compromising key material properties. Meanwhile, a joint laboratory established with Transfar Chemicals is focused on advancing new dyeing and finishing processes and developing new functional fabrics. These initiative aims to position SHEIN as a global leader in textile technology innovation.

By embedding innovation into every layer of its digitally enabled, demand-driven supply chain, SHEIN is not only improving supplier capabilities and product quality but also shaping the future of efficient and responsive fashion manufacturing.

About SHEIN

SHEIN is a global online fashion and lifestyle retailer, offering SHEIN branded apparel and products from a global network of vendors, all at affordable prices. SHEIN remains committed to making the beauty of fashion accessible to all, promoting its industry-leading, on-demand production methodology, for a smarter, future-ready industry. To learn more about SHEIN, visit www.sheingroup.com.

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