SKIMS

Co-founded in 2019 by Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede alongside Emma Grede, SKIMS has become the most commercially successful celebrity-co-founded contemporary apparel brand of the 2020s, with the company valued at approximately $4.0 billion following its July 2023 funding round led by Wellington Management and other institutional investors. Kim Kardashian and the Grede co-founders continue as the controlling shareholders alongside the investor syndicate.

The defining product strategy centered on inclusive-sizing shapewear (sizes XXS through 5X), nude-tone range innovation that addressed gaps in market color matching for diverse skin tones, and a digital-marketing model leveraging Kim Kardashian’s global celebrity reach. Annual revenue reached approximately $1.0 billion in 2024, up significantly from earlier years as the brand expanded category breadth. The product range extended from shapewear into loungewear, sleepwear, swimwear, men’s underwear (introduced 2024), maternity collections, and an upcoming swimwear extension. The Dubai flagship store opened in Q2 2025 in The Dubai Mall, marking SKIMS’ first standalone store outside the United States and signaling a multi-region international rollout. The store was preceded by years of selective wholesale relationships including Nordstrom, Selfridges, Mytheresa, and Net-a-Porter, providing measured wholesale market introduction before owned retail expansion. SKIMS has not entered Russian markets through directly operated or wholesale distribution.

SKIMS operates approximately 6 standalone stores across the United States and the United Arab Emirates, with planned additions across the United States and continued international rollout into Western Europe and Asia through 2026. The standalone format emphasizes the brand’s signature nude-tone-and-architectural store design, with integrated technology-enabled fitting rooms and clear sightlines into the body-positive merchandising approach. For mall operators, SKIMS is a Class A specialty apparel tenant for premium regional and super-regional centers in major urban markets, typically positioned in lifestyle-center clusters near Lululemon, Alo Yoga, and contemporary women’s brands. The brand’s strong celebrity-to-product association produces unusual traffic conversion at standalone retail, supporting the higher rent envelope landlords can negotiate.