Kim Kardashian Plans Brick-And-Mortar Launch For Shapewear Line Skims
Fans of Kim Kardashian’s Skims are all too familiar with the nail-biting process of snagging an item during a highly anticipated online product drop.
Soon, a select group of customers will be able to skirt that anxiety by shopping the line in person.
The first brick-and-mortar Skims stores will open in Los Angeles and New York in 2024, according to BNN Bloomberg. The news comes on the heels of temporary pop-up shops opening in London and New York.
Skims expects to open at least four stores next year before accelerating U.S. expansion plans, eyeing markets like Dallas, Atlanta and Miami. International stores are also being targeted.
“Kim and I can envision a future where years from today there’s a Skims store anywhere in the world you’d find an Apple store or a Nike store,” Skims co-founder and CEO Jens Grede told BNN Bloomberg. “It marks the second chapter.”
Skims was an immediate success upon its debut in 2019. The brand sold $2M worth of product within the first few minutes of its website launch, per TMZ, with thousands of items selling out within the blink of an eye.
By comparison, shapewear line Spanx made $4M in its first year.
Kardashian’s famous siblings have seen similar success with their own businesses, though some have been a bigger hit with customers than others.
Kylie Jenner sold just over half of her makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics, to beauty brand Coty in a deal valued at $1.2B in January 2020 — one of the biggest celebrity cashouts in history, according to Forbes.
When Khloe Kardashian debuted Good American with Grede's wife, Emma, in 2016, it was heralded as the biggest apparel launch in denim history, per Cosmopolitan. Good American made more than $200M in 2022, while Skims raked in $475M, according to People World.
Even Rob Kardashian got in on the fashion game with his sock brand Arthur George, though he lost full control of the company in 2018 after financial woes forced him to sell his 50% share back to his mother, Kris Jenner.
Skims was valued at $3.2B in a 2022 financing round, with funding now close to $400M. The company has ambitions to eventually go public, though Jens told BNN Bloomberg an IPO won’t be happening anytime soon.
