Temu’s $0 fur boots are the bottom of the fast fashion barrel

Just when you thought fast fashion couldn’t sink any lower, the online marketplace Temu decides to flog faux-fur boots for $0. Yes, you read that right: zero United States dollars. Temu loves to target its shoppers via Instagram, and this particular pair was spotted on a Stories ad in collaboration with one of those questionable fashion moodboard accounts. Ingeniously named ‘$0 Fluffy boots’, coughing up no cash could bag you a pair in mottled grey, dusty pink, and a number of other colourways – but only for new app users with qualifying orders, mind you!

The boots are a similar style to ones we’ve seen on the recent Moncler Grenoble runway, but for a fraction of the price (unsure about the maths on this – can zero be a fraction of something?) But although Mariacarla, Irina and Vittoria all crunched the snow-strewn runway in their own Moncler iterations, we suspect the Temu ones would disintegrate as soon as you stepped on the slopes. And while the club kid population of Paris clearly loves a fur boot moment, 20 minutes at the sticky-floored function and you’d probably leave the club with nothing on your feet.

But despite low product quality, advertising an item for free is still insane. To most people that $0 price tag sounds completely implausible – and that’s because it basically is. Last year, Wired UK reported that the company – owned by the Chinese conglomerate PPD Holdings – is losing $30 per order trying to break into the US market, an estimated loss of somewhere between $588 and $954 million a year. Temu also reportedly takes advantage of other things like tax-free trade loopholes, and has been accused of selling products “linked to forced labour.”

[When we reached out to Temu, its representatives denied this all, telling us that reports of significant losses “are far from reality and do not reflect our actual financial situation”, and its growth is based on “supply-chain efficiencies”, not trade loopholes.] But, if all this wasn’t enough, they’ve also gone hell-for-leather with the ads too, snagging a pricey TV spot at this year’s Super Bowl, one which featured their tagline ‘Shop like a billionaire’ – because we all know they’re the most ethical group of people.

If you’ve ever been tempted by the unreasonably low prices at Temu, just ask yourself, do I really need those $0 Fluffy boots? How much could they enrich your sad little life anyway? Instead of “buying” those boots, here’s a handy, non-exhaustive list of all the other things you could do that would also cost you nothing.

First of all, you could take a walk in the park. Then you could ring your mum. You could take a walk in the park while ringing your mum. You could also ring your nan, tell your neighbour they look nice (even if they don’t), go for a run, do some sit ups, do some press ups, get up at five and listen to the birds sing, do a menial task you’ve been putting off for six months but will actually take minutes – you could even just sit there. Please, do literally anything, just don’t ‘buy’ those boots.