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Despite its controversial origins, people can’t get enough of Skims. Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand has doubled its valuation and is now worth $3.2 billion after raising $240 million from investors.
“This latest round [of funding] will allow us to focus on bringing more innovations and solutions to our customers and become even more of a trusted resource for them,” Kardashian said in an email, according to Bloomberg.
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When it launched in 2019 (after some drama that included its original name, Kimono, which people perceived as culturally insensitive), Skims was billed primarily as a shapewear and underwear brand—the line’s Sculpting Bra was an immediate viral success selling out instantly—but wisely expanded to include cozy loungewear including hoodies, matching sets, sweats, and slippers at the start of the pandemic.
According to reports, shapewear now represents less than 20% of sales and underwear accounts for the majority of its business. Kardashian is obviously passionate about her brand continually promoting it across her social media channels and wearing the pieces herself. Her promotion clearly pays off, as the brand boosted sales 90% to about $275 million last year and expects to hit $400 million in 2022.
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As Bloomberg reports, the brand has been busy planning partnerships and activations to drum up hype and get shoppers excited as it sets its sights on a global stage. Skims’s limited edition collaboration with Fendi, which dropped in October, brought in more than $3 million in sales within 10 minutes of release. Most of the demand for the logo-heavy items including $395 bathing suits and $4,200 leather dresses came from outside the U.S., according to Kardashian’s business partner and Skims chief executive officer Jens Grede, via Bloomberg.
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Skims will also have a global presence during the Winter Olympics in Beijing next month. Like it did during the Summer Games in Tokyo last year, the brand will once again outfit Team USA in loungewear and underwear. “We are continuously working on collaborations, partnerships, and events,” Grede said. “More to come.”
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In April 2021, it was revealed by Forbes that Kardashian had officially achieved billionaire status, joining younger sister and makeup entrepreneur Kylie Jenner thanks to several lucrative businesses, including Skims, KKW Beauty, as well as earnings from real estate, various endorsement deals, and income from her long-running E! reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
As Kardashian said in an interview with Forbes in 2016, when she appeared on the publication’s cover for the first time, “Not bad for a girl with no talent.”
