Skims is currently valued at $4 billion – Kevin Mazur
As bombshells go, Kim Kardashian’s latest was as shocking and succinct as any. “Introducing NikeSKIMS,” she posted to her 358 million Instagram followers. “A new brand coming this spring for the body obsessed. Designed to sculpt and engineered to perform.”
What’s that sound? Oh, just the hearts of every Nike purist shattering into a thousand tiny pieces. Was it not enough that the 44-year-old business mogul had already cornered the market in skincare, fragrance and flesh-coloured bras? Did she really have to come for their favourite sportswear brand, whose trainers they’ve loyally been wearing since they were 12?
Well, yes, she did. Kim wouldn’t be Kim if she ever stopped trying to become bigger than she already is. Nor need purists worry. Kim isn’t interested in redesigning their Nike Cortez – yet – she’s strictly focused on their bodies.
While a partnership between Kardashian and Nike may be causing some diehard Nike fans to shake their heads, that’s likely because said heads are male and middle-aged. This is not the demographic Nike is targeting. Instead, it has its sights set on the lucrative female activewear market. The new collaboration is likely to be firmly focused on the sort of tight, form-fitting, body-conscious activewear that has become something of a uniform amongst women for whom exercise isn’t so much a casual hobby as a way of life.
Nike’s stock price jumped six per cent after announcing the collaboration with Skims – Joshua White
“It would be easy to say this is all about the power of Kim Kardashian’s influence, but actually it’s much bigger and deeper than that,” says Sara McCorquodale, founder of influencer marketing agency, Corq. “It signifies a shift in how women are exercising and how seamlessly it must integrate into their daily lives.”
Kardashian might not know much about designing high performance trainers, but Nike isn’t looking for a Tinker Hatfield (legendary designer of the brand’s famed Air Jordan shoes) – it’s looking for a Tinkerbell who can sprinkle some of her magic fairy dust onto a legacy brand in need of rejuvenation. In short, Nike needs a bigger slice of the activewear pie – and that’s something that Kardashian is likely to deliver.
When she launched Skims in 2019, it rapidly came to dominate the shapewear market – its viral marketing campaigns and clever, fashion-forward products making competitors such as Spanx, Wacoal, Hanes and Victoria’s Secret seem staid. Wherever you think of Kardashian, it’s futile to deny that she excels at shifting products. Advertising campaigns featuring well-loved women such as Kim Cattrall, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX ensure the brand appeals to a wide demographic that runs the gamut from mid-lifers to Gen-Z.
More than two thirds of Skims’ shoppers are either millennials or Gen-Z – Marc Piasecki
But while Kardashian might be the queen of hype, Skims has the figures to back it. It took Nike 10 years to reach a $100m valuation, a feat achieved by Skims in six months. Scoff as you might at its £76 onesies or its £64 nipple bras: Skims is currently valued at $4 billion.
It’s Skims youthful, fashion-conscious female customer whom Nike is hoping to attract. With an annual revenue of $51 billion, Nike is still comfortably the world’s biggest sportswear brand. But it’s also experiencing its worst performance in 10 years, losing 31 per cent of its market value. While it doesn’t need to claw back its supremacy, it does need to reclaim its cultural relevance. It needs to be talked about again: and if there’s one thing Kardashian is good at, it’s inserting herself into the conversation.
When news of the collaboration broke on Instagram, comments under Kardashian’s post were predictably positive. On Nike’s Instagram account, opinion was more divided. “Why not collab[orate] with an actual athlete?” posted one user. “So many valuable women making their mark in sport, with so much to say, and you choose this?” wrote another.
Kim Kardashian launched her shapewear brand in 2019 – Stefanie Keenan
This misses the point. Nike’s female brand ambassadors include some of the most powerful women in sport, Serena Williams and Megan Rapinoe amongst them. Its Super Bowl ad featured top female stars including sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, gymnast Jordan Chiles and the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark. Winners as they are, they have no proven track record in the world of female activewear, a sphere as cut-throat and competitive as any field or track.
For Nike to be culturally relevant – and more profitable – again, it has to attract more women. Women currently comprise 40 per cent of its customer base, when they should comprise 50 per cent or more. The fact they don’t is due to the fiercely competitive nature of the body-conscious female activewear space, an area where Nike has long lost its lustre. Individually, brands such as Lululemon, Under Armour, Alo and Skims are no threat to Nike’s market share. But collectively, they, along with any number of smaller niche brands (including the Manchester-based brand Adanola), are denting Nike’s sales.
Nike is experiencing its worst performance in 10 years, losing 31 per cent of its market value – Ana Fernandez/SOPA Images
You don’t have to be a marketing guru to notice that Nike’s new chief executive officer, Elliott Hill, has been focusing his efforts on wooing female customers since taking his position last October. If he’s really smart, he should be focusing particularly on leggings. Once maligned as sad eighties relics that gave women nothing more than a severe case of camel toe, leggings are currently enjoying an almighty glow-up. Having been valued at $32.89 billion in 2022, the global leggings market is expected to reach a value of $57.97 by 2031, according to market research company Growth Market Reports. Market data analysis by Statista claims that four billion pairs of leggings will be produced in 2027.
Kardashian came up with the idea for the company after she was forced to dye her shapewear at home to match it to her skin tone – Kevin Mazur
Kardashian might not be synonymous with leggings, but she’s synonymous with that off-duty model and influencer look, spawned in Hollywood, of which leggings are an essential component. Leggings, a crop top, a baseball cap, trainers and white sports socks hiked up to mid-calf is a highly aspirational look amongst women who either love exercise, or want to pretend that they do.
“Realistically, Nike is losing market share to brands like Adanola and Skims,” says McCorquodale. “Women are choosing their products to do on-trend, low impact exercises such as yoga, Pilates and walking rather than Nike’s. They want to look stylish while they exercise, and wear the same clothes to go for matcha afterwards – Nike doesn’t really cover that as an aesthetic. Adanola has really benefited from creating products for this segment of the market – it reported revenue growth of 105 per cent year-on-year at the end of 2024.”
Adanola is the new cult leggings label to know
As for whether Kardashian is the secret sauce that will turn around Nike’s fortunes, we’ll have to wait and see. According to the Instagram user @databutmakeitfashion, Nike’s stock price jumped six per cent after announcing the collaboration. While her marketing prowess isn’t in question, the key to Nike x Skims success will lie in the quality of the product itself. Skims fans might tolerate the odd shonky seam, but Nike customers won’t. I can’t be alone in owning a pair of Nike leggings that have been washed and worn for decades, with not a sag in the knee or a lightning bolt stitch out of place. In the long term, being well-hyped will mean nothing if the collection isn’t also well made.
