Not long after Kim Kardashian West launched Skims , her body-shaping clothing brand, or 'shapewear,' in 2019, pandemic-caused shutdowns relegated her line of slimming products to the back of men's wardrobes. consumers.
However, Skims survived. It has even become a billion dollar business .
The company has raised $154 million in new financing, which Kardashian West says has raised its valuation to $1.6 billion. That's a heady amount for a clothing brand that's less than two years old, even if it's a company run by a celebrity of his caliber.
It also cements Kardashian West's status as a billionaire in her own right. In announcing his entry into that club this week, Forbes estimated Skims' value at much less than that. Kardashian West will remain the largest shareholder in Skims after the transaction, with her and her partner Jens Grede controlling a majority stake.
Skims has benefited from the timely introduction of pajamas and loungewear, with product lines such as the "cozy collection" increasing sales as women have traded in fitted styles for sweatpants. Shapewear, however, made Skims famous, and it remains the company's core product line.
"We're the go-to basics ," Kardashian West said in a Zoom interview as she prepared for a photo shoot, though "we're still able to keep the core of shapewear."
Kardashian West said she was heavily involved in Skims, from helping design the fabrics and collections to choosing photographers for product shoots and studying sales data. (And like most of what Kardashian does, Skims has at times been a family affair: Kanye West, Kardashian West's now-estranged husband, was "very involved" early on, when he was outspoken in criticizing early designs.) of Skims packaging, she said).
Skims is one of a number of new clothing brands to jump into e-commerce—a group that also includes Heist Studios and Honeylove—that has spotted an opportunity in the shapewear business, which for decades has been dominated primarily by one company. , spanx. Before 2020, when shapewear sales fell 30 percent, the category consistently generated just over $500 million in sales a year, or 3 percent of total apparel sales, according to NPD. Like other underwear companies, Skims was targeting the younger segment of the market.
Skims was defined with an emphasis on inclusivity, offering nine sizes, up to 5X, in as many skin tones. In its first nine weeks, it had racked up two million names on its waiting lists, Grede said. To date, Skims has sold more than four million units, with a customer retention rate of over 30 percent. Skims products are also sold at high-end department stores Nordstrom and Britain's Selfridges, as well as a number of online retailers.
Skims faced challenges even before the pandemic. One of them was the work of Kardashian West herself: the company was initially called Kimono, until accusations of cultural appropriation led her to change the name. (“Even though it seemed kind of innocent to me, people didn't see it that way,” he said.)
Then, in addition to declining sales of shapewear during the pandemic, the company experienced delays in sourcing raw materials for its fabrics, hampering its ability to develop, produce, and ultimately sell new products.
"We had to look at different factories and we were forced to get creative," said Kardashian West. Still, Skims made $145 million last year and expects to double its sales to $300 million this year.
Skims' future depends on how the pandemic has reshaped the clothing market. “Shapewear, which is actually bought in the wake of an event, has been trending down during the pandemic, and trending down substantially,” Grede said. He expects a future "rebalancing" of sales in all product categories, with the restoration of demand. Signs from retailers such as Anthropologie, which said last month that seven of its 10 best-selling items online were dresses, suggest shoppers may be planning to dress more formally again.
Kristen Classi-Zummo, an analyst at NPD, was more cautious, believing that the category will rebound, although customers who have grown accustomed to comfort will insist on easy-on garments, even as they re-embrace some aspects of shapewear.
"I think we will go back to dressing up, but I think the look and feel will be different," Classi-Zummo concluded.
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