00:00:02
blinging chunky chains glittering gems
00:00:05
and plenty of bling over the top it's
00:00:08
bang on Trend mostly because of these
00:00:12
[Music]
00:00:13
guys the hip-hop the hip-hop world
00:00:16
dictates fashion fans want to imitate
00:00:19
whatever the rappers are
00:00:22
wearing it used to be underground now
00:00:25
it's mainstream fashion jewelry is
00:00:27
everywhere at a rock bottom price
00:00:33
but the realities involved in making it
00:00:35
don't look quite as
00:00:38
pretty with overtime I work 60 hours a
00:00:42
week as the products get cheaper the
00:00:45
business gets
00:00:47
faster sometimes I have 4 to 5,000
00:00:50
orders and often not all that Glitters
00:00:53
Is
00:00:54
Gold the material is 70% cadmium that's
00:00:58
dangerous
00:01:00
The Bling Bling business why the hype
00:01:03
who's reaping the profits and who's
00:01:05
paying the price
00:01:09
[Music]
00:01:30
I ain't put my je
00:01:33
on pop culture has a major influence on
00:01:36
the fashion world hipop above all it's
00:01:39
bored The Bling culture in the 1990s
00:01:42
rappers draped with extravagant inyou
00:01:45
face
00:01:46
jewelry like the trademark clock
00:01:49
necklaces of flavor
00:01:51
flave and Ice Cube t pack and Jay-Z
00:01:55
flashy accessories are all part of the
00:01:57
image hip hop comes hipop comes from the
00:02:00
US from New York from the Bronx the
00:02:02
people there grew up in total poverty
00:02:04
and rough
00:02:05
neighborhoods and once they made it out
00:02:07
of there with their
00:02:08
music Someone like 50 Cent or Jay-Z the
00:02:12
first thing they did was buy gold chains
00:02:14
it's a status symbol I've made it look I
00:02:17
earn so much money with my art I can
00:02:19
Splash out on luxury items like these
00:02:30
Alex Amarin founded his own jewelry
00:02:32
label some 20 years ago products are
00:02:35
marketed on social
00:02:38
media that's Tik Tok you have to turn it
00:02:40
out my marketing manager is always
00:02:42
telling me to be faster sometimes we'll
00:02:44
shoot 100 videos for Tik Tok in one
00:02:47
day TI to his collections are inspired
00:02:50
by hip
00:02:53
hop the absolute classic in Germany is
00:02:56
the king chain this is a 5mm version the
00:02:59
rappers a gold chain like this worth
00:03:01
€20,000 and the consumer buys the same
00:03:04
chain for
00:03:06
€200 and the trends slowly spill over
00:03:08
from music into Street Wear
00:03:10
culture and at some point it becomes
00:03:15
mainstream plenty of Dazzle and bling
00:03:19
ice or iced out as the rappers
00:03:21
[Music]
00:03:23
say neace the big stars even dedicate
00:03:27
tracks to their jewelry fueling the
00:03:29
global fashion hype the chunkier the
00:03:35
better okay if I walked into a bank
00:03:38
wearing a chain like this I'd probably
00:03:39
get a few looks for sure fair enough but
00:03:43
let's not kid ourselves this silver
00:03:45
chain costs around €2,500
00:03:48
if I walk around wearing it straight
00:03:50
away I'm seen as a wannabe
00:03:54
gangster or maybe people think I'm
00:03:56
actually a gangster or they give you
00:03:58
that yo yo yo
00:04:01
but if a business student walks around
00:04:03
with a 50,000 watch from his dad then
00:04:06
that's totally acceptable who's the
00:04:08
bigger show
00:04:11
off a lifestyle that makes materialism
00:04:14
its motto and fashion into more than an
00:04:19
accessory you're either going to annoy
00:04:21
people or get their attention a lot of
00:04:23
people want that going against the
00:04:25
establishment I can identify with that
00:04:28
and I celebrate it
00:04:30
[Music]
00:04:31
and millions of others do too in 2022
00:04:35
the global jewelry market was valued at
00:04:37
around $33
00:04:43
billion the luxury segment accounts for
00:04:46
a lot of the sales diamonds gold
00:04:49
Platinum with a price tag to match the
00:04:53
alternative cheap fashion jewelry
00:04:57
[Music]
00:05:06
the price price means they can afford
00:05:10
it stores now sell fashioned jewelry at
00:05:13
rock bottom prices but how does that
00:05:15
work two major international players are
00:05:18
two German family businesses beu brigit
00:05:22
and the beine group the latter company
00:05:25
operates the brands Tosh I am 6 and
00:05:28
accessories and they're almost
00:05:30
everywhere the concept concession
00:05:36
stores we deliver new Styles the moment
00:05:38
we spot Market potential turning your
00:05:41
smallest spaces into big
00:05:46
opportunities beine group rents small
00:05:49
spaces in department stores drug stores
00:05:52
or supermarkets where the products are
00:05:54
displayed for the stores themselves it's
00:05:56
low
00:05:57
effort the beine group group supplies
00:06:00
its own fittings and staff known as
00:06:03
mobile
00:06:04
merchandisers they take care of
00:06:06
everything from display setup to stock
00:06:08
maintenance participating stores bear no
00:06:11
risk whatsoever they only pay for the
00:06:14
items that are actually
00:06:17
sold the company says it's opened more
00:06:20
than 30,000 sales points in this way and
00:06:23
generated turnover in the Millions
00:06:29
competitor beu brigit focuses on classic
00:06:32
retail trade and online
00:06:35
shops a silver hinge bracelet for
00:06:39
€14.95 small hoop earrings for
00:06:42
$6.95 CRS trendy gold for
00:06:46
$195 how can accessories be so cheap we
00:06:50
ask jewelry Professor Christina ludaka
00:06:53
she takes a closer look at our bargain
00:06:55
products
00:07:01
materials often used in cheap jewelry
00:07:04
are Alloys like copper nickel and zinc
00:07:07
which don't cost as much as the base
00:07:09
substance so if the core which
00:07:12
constitutes the most material volume is
00:07:14
cheap but the overlay is brass it looks
00:07:17
like gold I put it on and it feels like
00:07:19
gold on my
00:07:21
skin costs are cut across the board from
00:07:24
materials through to
00:07:26
design it's all copied designers cost
00:07:29
money and if you don't want to pay for
00:07:31
that you have to imitate if people
00:07:34
recognize it they'll buy it it looks
00:07:36
like gold but it's not it
00:07:39
costs you'll earn more with lots of
00:07:41
small items than from one expensive
00:07:43
piece that's the business
00:07:47
model
00:07:50
model students at forzheim University
00:07:53
learn how to design and create their own
00:07:56
jewelry a painstaking job that involves
00:07:59
filing welding and
00:08:06
mounting and that takes
00:08:10
time I've already been working on this
00:08:12
bracelet for two weeks so it's not
00:08:15
fashion
00:08:17
jewelry a production method that's the
00:08:20
opposite of fast fashion craftsmanship
00:08:24
design and materials it all costs money
00:08:27
you have to cut Corners if you want to
00:08:29
do do it on the cheap in terms of
00:08:31
craftsmanship but also
00:08:37
[Music]
00:08:38
materials there's no real gold here
00:08:41
silver only
00:08:42
occasionally Brands like Primark Zara
00:08:45
and H&M generally sell jewelry made from
00:08:48
zinc steel brass and
00:08:51
iron beine group products are described
00:08:54
in vague terms gold or
00:08:57
silverplated what's under that is
00:08:59
anyone's guess on the beu Brit website
00:09:03
we find some flowery descriptions often
00:09:06
it just says material
00:09:11
metal that's an indictment metal could
00:09:15
be
00:09:15
anything they obviously don't have to
00:09:18
say what kind of metal it's astonishing
00:09:20
that there's no transparency it's such a
00:09:25
sham transparency is the key issue here
00:09:29
we want answers and send samples to the
00:09:32
lab the results are shocking more on
00:09:36
that in a
00:09:37
moment first the supply chains many
00:09:40
companies now publish supplier lists in
00:09:43
the case of H&M we can trace an
00:09:45
individual piece back as far as the
00:09:47
factory where it was
00:09:51
made and the two Market leaders the
00:09:54
product label often reads made in China
00:10:00
but that's where the transparency ends
00:10:03
we try contacting them for weeks to ask
00:10:06
about production conditions and Supply
00:10:09
chains first there's no reply then beu
00:10:13
Brit gives us general information on the
00:10:15
new supply chain law and sustainability
00:10:21
reports however the corresponding
00:10:24
reports will not be published until next
00:10:26
year we are therefore currently unable
00:10:28
to make any statements on the topics you
00:10:30
have
00:10:32
requested we don't hear a peep from
00:10:34
beine group for now at least in our
00:10:37
research we come across some old media
00:10:40
[Music]
00:10:42
reports around 20 years ago the CEO of
00:10:46
beu brigit at the time allowed reporters
00:10:48
into his supplier Factory Regent Deluxe
00:10:51
in China what did they find safety
00:10:55
issues extremely low wages and very long
00:10:58
working hours
00:11:03
what are working conditions in the
00:11:05
fashion jewelry sector like today and
00:11:08
what about the supply chains we don't
00:11:11
let up and keep contacting the two big
00:11:13
players on the Block for five
00:11:19
months finally we get an answer from
00:11:22
beline group the company cites
00:11:24
sustainability reports and Supply codes
00:11:27
on the issue of supply chain it simply
00:11:30
States for strategic reasons we do not
00:11:33
disclose this information
00:11:37
publicly they don't grant us an
00:11:39
interview and neither does B Bri instead
00:11:44
another written
00:11:45
statement we Source our products mainly
00:11:48
from China for competitive reasons we do
00:11:50
not provide any information on
00:11:52
individual producers or
00:11:54
suppliers our research hits a wall so we
00:11:57
take matters into our own hands
00:12:02
[Music]
00:12:17
hands the Hong Kong jewelry show one of
00:12:20
the largest in the world more than 2,000
00:12:23
exhibitors and more than 60,000 visitors
00:12:26
buyers and investors
00:12:29
China is key it's now the largest sales
00:12:32
market for jewelry and one of the
00:12:35
world's largest
00:12:37
[Music]
00:12:40
producers the latest trends are
00:12:42
showcased here and producers tell us
00:12:45
that Germany is an important
00:12:48
Market the jewelry trend is always comes
00:12:52
from Germany first if you found some
00:12:55
item is very popular always first
00:12:57
popular in Germany then Po in EUR
00:13:00
country
00:13:01
so the luxury segment is stealing the
00:13:04
Limelight today diamonds precious stones
00:13:08
and fine gold jewelry crafted by hand
00:13:11
but there's a growing demand for cheap
00:13:13
Alternatives you can have one or two
00:13:16
pieces gold jewelry you can't have a
00:13:18
thousand of jewelry right if cheaper
00:13:21
then you can have more styles for the
00:13:23
uninitiated there's no apparent
00:13:25
difference upon first glance at least
00:13:28
this look like it's like luxury ring
00:13:30
right but actually it's not it's very
00:13:32
fair price the young people they don't
00:13:35
really care about it's diamond or other
00:13:39
Stone they just want their style Chinese
00:13:43
online shops are gaining in popularity
00:13:46
Jeff Dy sells his jewelry through Amazon
00:13:48
shien and TAMU but the profit margins
00:13:51
vary
00:13:54
greatly we will have more higher sale
00:13:57
price or higher profit one pieces from
00:14:00
Amazon equal to six pieces more like
00:14:03
other online platform same piece but
00:14:06
different profit how does that work out
00:14:09
for the manufacturers and what are
00:14:11
production conditions
00:14:13
[Music]
00:14:15
like we want to visit factories where
00:14:18
fashion jewelry is
00:14:24
[Music]
00:14:24
[Applause]
00:14:27
made d one the nation's jewelry
00:14:31
Metropolis it's increasingly difficult
00:14:33
to work as a foreign journalist in China
00:14:36
for that reason we hand over to local
00:14:38
colleagues our research turned up a
00:14:41
company that also makes items for the
00:14:43
German
00:14:45
[Music]
00:14:53
Market entrepreneur Wang Q makes stylish
00:14:57
accessories for fashion chains all over
00:14:59
the
00:15:03
world we have over 700,000
00:15:07
products there are nearly 200,000
00:15:10
different styles right
00:15:12
here but we have another 500,000
00:15:16
products in another
00:15:18
Warehouse Rings earrings and
00:15:23
necklaces WQ is one of the sector's
00:15:26
Pioneers he's been in the business for
00:15:29
[Music]
00:15:31
decades initially there were only a few
00:15:34
jewelry factories in
00:15:36
China we belong to the first group that
00:15:38
set up business in
00:15:40
changan so changan is the birthplace of
00:15:43
all Chinese
00:15:45
jewelry my company had four factories
00:15:48
and around 2 to 3,000
00:15:51
employees I've been in this business for
00:15:53
56 years
00:16:01
a hive of activity around 100 people
00:16:04
work here producing up to 4,000 items
00:16:07
every day a lot of it is done by hand
00:16:11
polishing filing soldering gluing on the
00:16:14
rhinestones Q's Factory is a subsidiary
00:16:17
of regent Deluxe the name rings a
00:16:21
bell the beu breid supplier and the
00:16:25
catastrophic working conditions 20 years
00:16:27
ago the the factory still makes products
00:16:30
for beu bit but much has changed in
00:16:33
recent
00:16:35
decades wages used to be around € 12 a
00:16:38
month now it's 40 to 50 times more the
00:16:41
current base monthly salary is now
00:16:43
equivalent to between
00:16:47
500650 and there were no benefits before
00:16:50
now there's social insurance bonuses and
00:16:52
so on so all in all the average monthly
00:16:55
wage is between €900 and ,000
00:17:01
but it's a pay packet partly attained
00:17:04
through overtime Manan hang has been
00:17:07
working at the factory for 30 years in
00:17:09
quality
00:17:15
control we work 48 hours every week if
00:17:19
we work overtime it's 60
00:17:21
hours that's 10 hours a day 6 days a
00:17:24
week the company says that's only
00:17:27
necessary at times of high demand but
00:17:29
then staff might only get one day off a
00:17:31
month working hours like that would be
00:17:34
unimaginable in
00:17:36
Germany with the overtime I can earn
00:17:39
between 8 and 900 a month I'm very
00:17:42
satisfied with this salary because I can
00:17:44
use the money to finance my daughter's
00:17:46
education and send her to
00:17:51
University w q makes jewelry for
00:17:53
numerous companies worldwide including
00:17:56
German retailers he receiv receives
00:17:59
around
00:18:00
€350 per item profits that couldn't be
00:18:03
realized through online platforms like
00:18:06
shien and
00:18:08
teu 80% of the products at Shane cost
00:18:11
less than
00:18:12
€130 we can't produce jewelry for that
00:18:15
price
00:18:16
that
00:18:18
sent the prices are also unstable he
00:18:21
says and the business is full of risks
00:18:24
for
00:18:25
suppliers sh any help Shen wants me to
00:18:28
have a large number of items in stock
00:18:31
but a large inventory doesn't sell by
00:18:33
itself and if it doesn't sell it's
00:18:36
useless to
00:18:39
me so I'm not doing any business with
00:18:47
Shen the business with shien and Co
00:18:50
that's going on
00:18:53
[Music]
00:18:55
elsewhere namely here 1,000 km away the
00:18:59
city of yiu is a hub of global
00:19:02
[Music]
00:19:07
trade yiu is home to one of the world's
00:19:10
largest jewelry markets the Traders have
00:19:13
their hands full items are packed up and
00:19:15
boxes sealed necklaces bracelets
00:19:18
earrings hair accessories as far as the
00:19:22
eye can
00:19:23
see many Supply online giants like shien
00:19:27
and TAMU
00:19:29
when it comes to shopping apps shien and
00:19:31
TAMU have secured their customer base in
00:19:33
record time their strategy fashion at
00:19:37
the ultimate dumping price at shiin and
00:19:40
TAMU jewelry costs between 1 and
00:19:46
€2 one reason why this works the online
00:19:50
shops have very few warehouses and get
00:19:53
most of their products directly from
00:19:55
factories they set sales price
00:19:57
parameters and take care of logistics
00:20:00
the purchasing process and shipping this
00:20:02
is good news for factory
00:20:06
operators but manufacturers don't get
00:20:08
paid until items reach customers and the
00:20:11
quality is right in the event of defects
00:20:14
contractual penalties may be
00:20:17
applied David hafeld from the Swiss NGO
00:20:21
public eye has analyzed Sheen's Market
00:20:24
strategy we're essentially being
00:20:26
presented with a flood of stimuli
00:20:29
for example offers that run out in a few
00:20:31
hours
00:20:32
countdowns a continuous flow of vouchers
00:20:35
to give us the feeling that if we don't
00:20:37
redeem it now it'll be gone
00:20:40
tomorrow it's all a way of constantly
00:20:42
inciting me to buy
00:20:45
more but the decisive factor is The Rock
00:20:48
Bottom price many of these items are
00:20:51
produced in yiu but no one's letting us
00:20:53
into the factories we're only allowed to
00:20:56
film at jewelry retailer Leu and and
00:20:58
only at the head office not at his
00:21:01
suppliers he's been selling through
00:21:03
shien for a year his company has a staff
00:21:05
of
00:21:08
six this is quite
00:21:11
nice our range is mainly bracelets
00:21:13
earrings necklaces rings and jewelry
00:21:15
sets we currently have approximately
00:21:17
5,000
00:21:21
Styles the head office does the packing
00:21:23
and shipping to get fresh stock out the
00:21:26
door as quickly as possible
00:21:31
we can only ship between two and 3,000
00:21:34
items every day if the orders go up to
00:21:36
four or 5,000 we need to hire temporary
00:21:38
staff then we can ship between 5 and
00:21:41
6,000 items a
00:21:44
day we show our research to David
00:21:49
hafeld what he's describing here is very
00:21:51
typical that basically the suppliers are
00:21:54
the flexibility
00:21:56
Reserve this model used by Shane TAMU
00:21:59
and the like is based on speed and a
00:22:01
vast range of
00:22:05
products in launches 6,000 new Styles
00:22:09
every day to do this many people in the
00:22:11
supply chain need to work overtime for
00:22:14
the most part in the production
00:22:16
facilities not an issue for Leu and his
00:22:18
small
00:22:20
team we work eight hours a day 5 and a
00:22:24
half days a
00:22:25
week a 44-hour week
00:22:31
this is precisely in line with Chinese
00:22:33
labor law and what's stipulated by the
00:22:35
code of conduct for suppliers of
00:22:39
Shane but our research has shown that
00:22:41
very few places follow these
00:22:46
rules David held's team found some very
00:22:50
different
00:22:53
scenarios 75h hour work weeks days that
00:22:56
begin at 8:00 a.m. and run until 10 or
00:22:58
10:30 p.m. with two breaks in the
00:23:01
middle but essentially 12-hour days and
00:23:04
six sometimes seven days a week two days
00:23:08
off per
00:23:11
month for many this is the only way to
00:23:14
earn enough to lead a relatively
00:23:16
comfortable life for producers the cheap
00:23:19
prices generate significantly less
00:23:21
profit than in
00:23:23
retail for example this product costs 30
00:23:26
cents giving us a profit margin of
00:23:29
between 10 and
00:23:33
20% 3 to 6 cents profit per item if any
00:23:38
money is to be made here huge quantities
00:23:40
need to be
00:23:44
sold I'm making a small profit but it's
00:23:47
hard you have to invest time energy
00:23:50
devote yourself to the job and do it
00:23:53
well if you sell a lot you earn more the
00:23:56
harder you work the more money you can
00:23:58
earn
00:24:01
will this approach pay off David hafeld
00:24:04
doesn't think
00:24:05
so he hopes it's the right strategy
00:24:08
ideally producers like him would
00:24:09
increase their margins maybe pushing
00:24:11
prices up but that's not how the model
00:24:13
works because everything is optimized to
00:24:15
keep prices as low as
00:24:20
possible Classic Market logic clearly
00:24:23
doesn't apply here
00:24:25
[Music]
00:24:29
it's a system that comes at a high price
00:24:31
with 75h hour working weeks and low
00:24:35
profits for many
00:24:38
manufacturers customers in Germany could
00:24:41
also be paying a different kind of
00:24:44
[Music]
00:24:47
price material the material is 70%
00:24:50
cadmium that's dangerous heavy metals in
00:24:53
jewelry unfortunately all too common
00:24:56
says enus andere
00:25:01
heavy metals can accumulate in bones and
00:25:03
organs they're organ toxic that means
00:25:07
they can cause liver or kidney damage
00:25:09
for
00:25:10
example and cadmium is known to be
00:25:16
carcinogenic laws set strict limits on
00:25:19
these substances the EU rapid alert
00:25:22
system rapex conducts random checks to
00:25:25
monitor adherence thousands of products
00:25:27
have been with withdrawn from the market
00:25:29
in recent years including
00:25:34
jewelry look how much jewelry is
00:25:36
imported to Germany it's simply not
00:25:38
possible to test it all that's the
00:25:40
problem the huge quantities we can only
00:25:43
guess at the true scale of the
00:25:46
issue is the monitoring system working
00:25:49
or is contaminated jewelry reaching the
00:25:51
German Market a random sample analysis
00:25:54
May provide some
00:25:56
answers 18 product from six companies
00:26:00
Buu bit beine group Lisa and the Chinese
00:26:03
online stores teu shien and Ali Express
00:26:07
are sent to the
00:26:09
lab the mounting is 70%
00:26:14
cadmium it's the same issue here out of
00:26:16
these five rings one was
00:26:19
problematic this one here is almost 70%
00:26:22
cadmium plus we found lead in this
00:26:24
earring and necklace set but these are K
00:26:27
com
00:26:29
so it shouldn't be
00:26:32
sold the jewelry is so contaminated that
00:26:36
it must be withdrawn from sale this
00:26:38
applies to four items from AliExpress
00:26:42
beu brigit and two products from
00:26:45
shien shien writes we have withdrawn the
00:26:48
products from sale globally as a
00:26:50
precautionary measure in line with our
00:26:52
own safety protocols while we
00:26:54
investigate further AliExpress says the
00:26:58
non-compliant product range has now been
00:27:02
removed Buu bik claims to have carried
00:27:05
out its own tests with different
00:27:08
results all the tests we have initiated
00:27:11
continue to confirm that the bracelet is
00:27:15
marketable so the product remains on
00:27:17
sale we had our sample tested again by
00:27:21
another independent lab and the findings
00:27:23
were confirmed this bracelet is not fit
00:27:26
for sale
00:27:27
[Music]
00:27:29
11 other items contained small
00:27:31
quantities of heavy metals below the
00:27:33
legal
00:27:36
threshold just three of the items didn't
00:27:39
contain any heavy metals at
00:27:41
all 18 products were tested in the lab
00:27:45
15 were contaminated four of them were
00:27:47
so toxic they've been withdrawn from
00:27:49
sale in
00:27:52
Germany cheap fashion jewelry a real
00:27:56
money spinner fueled by bigname rappers
00:27:59
and small prices but good quality isn't
00:28:02
guaranteed The Bling Bling business
00:28:05
relies on a whole lot of overtime and
00:28:07
the big profits aren't trickling down to
00:28:10
everyone in the supply chain All That
00:28:12
Glitters isn't gold the business in
00:28:14
bling comes at a price
00:28:19
[Music]
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