Consider the peculiar work required to make a garment disappear. It must hold without announcing itself, match skin without assuming everyone has the same complexion, and follow a body that refuses to behave like a mannequin. Before SKIMS, Kim Kardashian was doing some of that work herself, altering and dyeing shapewear. The interesting business question was sitting underneath her clothes: why was the customer finishing the manufacturer’s job?
- The opening: fit and skin-tone choices made underwear a design problem worth solving.
- The expansion: bras, lounge clothing and men’s basics created more everyday uses.
- The next bet: stores let customers test what a photograph cannot convey.
The beige problem
SKIMS began with an unusually specific proposition. Underwear could be engineered around the outfit and the person wearing it. Its 2019 launch advertised sizes from XXS to 5XL, with a range of skin-tone colors. A shaping garment was supposed to cooperate with a dress rather than demand that the dress accommodate it.
That is a useful distinction in a crowded market. Spanx already offered shaping expertise. Victoria’s Secret sold lingerie and aspiration. SKIMS brought a famous customer’s frustrations into the product brief, then made the brief visible in its campaigns. Neutral shades became something to look at. The supposedly uninteresting layer acquired an aesthetic of its own.
The first thing that broke was the name
Before the products reached customers, the branding caused trouble. Kardashian initially announced the label as Kimono. Critics objected to using the name of a Japanese garment for a shapewear business. Production was halted for a rename, and SKIMS launched on September 10, 2019.
The correction deserves more attention than a tidy origin story usually allows. A brand promising inclusion had chosen a name that people experienced as appropriation. Public feedback made the contradiction impossible to ignore. Changing the name meant accepting that the audience could identify a problem the founders had missed.
There is a practical lesson here for anyone naming a business: test what a word means to the people whose culture it invokes. A clever reference inside a meeting can become an expensive distraction outside it. SKIMS’s eventual name also gave the company room to sell much more than compression garments.
A drawer is a surprisingly large market
Today, a shopper can arrive for shaping shorts and leave considering a T-shirt, pajamas or a dress. Fits Everybody emphasizes stretchy, soft underwear and bras. Other collections supply cotton basics, lounge sets and fleece. Men’s underwear arrived in October 2023. These products share an interest in fit, but they perform different jobs.
That distinction matters when buying. A soft lounge garment is useful for relaxing; strong-compression shapewear is chosen for shaping beneath an outfit. Neither description guarantees the other’s benefit. The sensible shopping sequence is to choose the job first, then inspect the cut, fabric and size guide. Start with one garment before replacing the drawer.
Prices make this a considered basics purchase. At the time of research, the US Fits Everybody collection listed lace thongs at $20 and a T-shirt bra at $54, before discounts. The buyer is paying for a particular fit and feel, plus the brand. Whether that premium makes sense is decided on the body, not in the campaign photograph.
Fit meetings meet the front row
The celebrity explanation is tempting because it is so easy to see. Kardashian supplies attention; campaigns place recognizable people inside recognizable garments. But the official division of responsibilities is instructive: Kardashian oversees creative direction, Jens Grede runs the company, and Emma Grede has been identified as its founding partner and chief product officer.
“There’s never been a product that I haven’t seen and approved.”
Kim Kardashian, in a 2023 TIME interview
A useful reading of that arrangement is that SKIMS joins two kinds of knowledge: how clothes feel on a body and how an apparel company gets them to market. Its careers page stresses inclusion and innovation. The more concrete evidence of product ambition is its 2022 CFDA Innovation Award, covering a company whose work extended beyond a famous face.
Partnerships widen the audience. SKIMS became the official underwear partner of the NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball in 2023, shortly after launching men’s products. NikeSKIMS went further, pairing sculpting expertise with Nike’s performance capabilities. Its first collection launched in September 2025; footwear followed in January 2026. A customer who first encounters the name through sport may never have shopped for shapewear.
The expensive part is becoming physical
The business sells garments through its own website and stores, alongside selected retail partners. There is no subscription required. The commercial logic is straightforward: earn a first purchase, then offer another useful item or another color. More occasions to wear the clothes create more occasions to buy them.
Expansion takes capital. A $154 million financing was announced in April 2021, followed by $240 million in 2022 and $270 million in 2023. In November 2025, SKIMS announced another $225 million, led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, at a $5 billion valuation. Those sums financed a growing company; they do not reveal the cost of an individual garment or campaign.
Private financing valuations, not sales or profit. Years reflect financing announcements.
The latest financing announcement forecast more than $1 billion in 2025 net sales. That was a forecast, not a published full-year result. It also described plans to become predominantly a physical business. By September 2026, SKIMS was celebrating its first European flagship in London. Stores give shoppers a chance to touch the fabric and try the fit.
Copy the observation
For another founder, the transferable move is to study customer workarounds. Look for the alterations, compromises and improvised fixes people already make. Build around one, then expand into neighboring uses that depend on the same expertise.
The conditions matter. Broad sizing requires inventory and fit development. A premium price needs a benefit customers can feel. Celebrity distribution requires access few new businesses possess. And an inclusion promise invites scrutiny of who appears in the advertising. SKIMS has found a productive place between intimates and fashion. Its next customer still gets to decide whether the garment belongs there.