Skims’ Strategy - 10 Reasons Kim Kardashian’s Brand Took Off
Is it great marketing or is it worth the hype? That’s what many wonder when they hear the name Skims, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear, loungewear and underwear brand. Since Skims launched in September of 2019 customers can’t seem to get enough of it. The three year old brand made $275 million in 2021 and Skims’ sales were forecasted to to reach $400 million last year. Investors took notice injecting $240 million into Skims during a round of funding last year which valued the brand at $3.2 billion. Even great marketing and hundreds of millions of social media followers can’t create a billion dollar brand in less than five years. Brands are successful for a reason.
From Skims’ focus on inclusivity, to partnering with brands like Fendi, to creating a fashion brand that elevates the look of your everyday basic apparel it’s clear that Kardashian’s years of experience in the fashion industry paid off when she created this brand. If you are curious about why Skims is worth the hype then consider these 10 keys to its success.
1. Inclusive colour range. Like Fenty Beauty when it launched with 40 shades of foundation Skims also focused on inclusivity right out of the gate. Many of Skims’ core shapewear products come in nine different shades of nude, recognizing the word “nude” represents different things to different people. Whether you have pale skin or dark brown skin there is a shade of Skims for you. Skims shapewear even comes in deep brown hues for darker brown skinned women who often have few options when it comes to finding makeup or undergarments that match their skin tone. While in recent years there has been a movement by brands to be more inclusive many still lag behind. Spanx, a name almost synonymous with shapewear, still has a limited colour range.
By having inclusivity in its DNA Skims is likely to draw in a much more diverse customer base that is looking for brands that authentically design products with their needs in mind. “I couldn’t find something that would match my skin tone,” said Kardashian speaking about why she decided it was important to cater to a more diverse customer base. “Let alone, how am I going to find something for my girls when they’re older?”
40% of Americans are considered to be non-white with the population of white people in the United States making up a minority of Americans by 2045. Catering to diverse needs is not only the right thing to do it’s just good business sense. Why wouldn’t you want to have a product that caters to the largest number of people?
2. Inclusive sizing. When thinking about inclusivity Skims did not stop with colour ranges it also has a size range that is broader than what many brands offer. Skims offers its merchandise in sizes from XXS all the way up to 4X recognizing that women of all body types want to look and feel good in the clothing they are wearing. The brand also does not have a separate plus sized section on its website. Imagine how a customer must feel every time they shop and they are told they must shop in a “different” section of a retailer’s website or store. Why not embrace all sizes?
When women are shopping for their next pair of underwear at Skims they can easily get a sense of what the product might look like on them since Skims shows merchandise on models in three different sizes, a smaller size, a medium size and a larger size. Apparel for women wearing extended sizes doesn’t seem like an afterthought when shopping at Skims.
Skims also prices its extended size range at the same price as smaller sized merchandise. This is a departure from many brands that charge more for larger sizes. With the average dress size in the United States falling between a size 16 and size 18, not catering to consumers that wear larger sizes leaves money on the table.
3. Use of older models. Skims has taken inclusivity one step further by using older models. One of those models is 66 year old Alice Johnson. Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole for non-violent drug charges. But after Kardashian campaigned for her release, former President Donald Trump granted her clemency. Subsequently Skims featured Johnson in its first video ad campaign with Johnson wearing Skims shapewear.
Women that are older than their millennial friends still contribute to a large portion of money spent on apparel yet they are often left behind as retailers target younger demographics. While Skims isn’t a poster child for older generations its use of older models like Johnson or even Kate Moss, is a move in the right direction. Skims also shoots models with sags and cellulite on full display for all to see. Details like this make the brand more inviting to different types of women instead of projecting that there is only one standard of beauty.
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4. A focus on comfort. One of Kardashian’s goals for Skims is to create shapewear that is more comfortable than what’s available from other brands. To do this she spent more than two years to get the fabrics used in Skims’ product lines just right. “In the past, people might assume that shapewear is more like girdles — something that’s extremely uncomfortable,” said Kardashian. “I’ve worn corsets for events, I know how uncomfortable it is. That’s not the vibe of what I wanted.”
Speaking about the importance of building an apparel brand like Skims around technically innovative fabrics, Jens Grede, CEO and co-founder of Skims said: “most great fashion companies are really built on their own fabric base,” referring to Levi’s and Lululemon. “Billion dollar apparel companies are built on identifiable, and not easily replicable, fabrics.”
A scan of the Skims product selection on Nordstrom’s website reveals that with many four and five star reviews Skims did a good job with its fabrication. One customer who purchased a pair of Skims’ sculpting mid thigh shorts wrote: “I wore these in a hot humid climate last week and they were great. Held me in and kept me decent in high winds. No bulge in the thigh and no roll down at the waist. Hand washed and they were dry in the morning. Love the fabric and all the solution oriented styles. A lot of thought was put into this line. I highly recommend.”
“The inclusive sizing, sharp price point and comfort are just a few reasons why the brand has been so successful,” said Lea Cranfield, Net-a-Porter’s former chief buying and merchandising officer.
5. Moving sales to other channels quickly. Many direct-to-consumer brands wait a while before moving into brick-and-mortar retail before realizing years later that selling offline presents a bigger opportunity. While there has been a surge in eCommerce sales in recent years the majority of retail sales still take place offline. In the third quarter of 2022 85.2% of retail sales in the United States came from brick and mortar stores in the United States.
Skims was different than many digitally native brands in that it started selling online in September of 2019 but by February of 2020, just five months later, it entered into a partnership with Nordstrom. Starting in February of 2020 Skims could be found in 25 Nordstrom stores and on Nordstrom’s website. The launch at Nordstrom was a huge success, generating over two billion media impressions. "It was a natural choice to bring Skims to Nordstrom as our first retail partner," said Kardashian. "Nordstrom is renowned for its unmatched customer service and inclusive size offerings. It was essential to me that we launch with the full range of sizes and shades that Skims has to offer, which is a value shared by Nordstrom." Skims can now also be found at several retailers including Selfridges, Harrods and Lane Crawford.
6. The right collaborations. If you are a retailer and you want to increase sales one of the oldest tricks in the books is to collaborate with another brand. Skims didn’t wait too long before employing this tactic by dropping a limited collection with luxury brand Fendi in November of 2021. Skims’ merchandise is reasonably priced but items in the Fendi X Skims drop started at $950 and featured $1,100 leggings and a $2,950 puffer jacket. Luxury brands do not collaborate with anyone as they fiercely try to maintain their heritage and reputation. So when the news broke that Fendi was collaborating with newcomer Skims it generated a lot of buzz for both brands.
Kardashian had this to say about the collaboration with Fendi: "[we both have] a cultural power that is very different from one another, but equally as strong". "We share a desire to push boundaries, think differently and challenge convention which is why we found so much common ground collaborating on this collection together." The collaboration was so popular it reportedly brought in more than a million dollars in sales within minutes and most of the collection sold out within 24 hours.
Kim Jones, Fendi’s creative director got the idea to do the collaboration with Skims when he noticed the women in his office were so focused on checking out a new drop from Skims they were all quiet. “Suddenly, all the women went silent and started looking at their phones. I didn’t know what was going on, but they were waiting for the launch of the new Skims collection. It was then that I thought: let’s do something together,” said Jones.
7. Savvy marketing. No one can deny the marketing prowess of Kardashian and she has used that talent to market Skims directly to hundreds of millions of social media followers. Her sisters have also played a role in marketing the brand with Kourtney Kardashian being featured in a campaign alongside Megan Fox. In addition to the Kardashian clan Skims has used a mix of social media influencers like TikTok star Addison Rae as well as high profile models like Kate Moss and celebrities like La La Anthony to peddle the brand.
Partnering with Fendi and launching in Nordstrom are also examples of how the brand has created attention for itself. In many ways Skims also markets itself with millions of fans and critics either reviewing Skims or watching and reading reviews online. "The launch [of Skims] exceeded our expectations with tens of thousands of orders in a matter of minutes and more than half a million unique visitors with an extremely high intent to purchase. The combination of broadcast TV and press, influencer reviews, wide celebrity support, and Kim’s own social channels created a truly synergetic effect with over one billion media impressions at launch," says Grede.
8. Making what’s old new again. Skims took a product, shapewear, that has been around for a long time, and gave it a modern twist. Kardashian did this not only by making it more inclusive but she turned a product that is typically only used for specific occasions and made it more fashionable and comfortable. The idea behind Skims is that shapewear should be comfortable enough to be worn at home while lounging. It should also be fashionable enough that Skims shapewear looks like it can fit right in your closet next to your lululemon gear.
While not everyone wants to wear their shapewear at home even if it’s from Skims the idea of making shapewear more comfortable so that it can be worn on more occasions as well as elevating the style so you enjoy how you look in it is a move in the right direction. "Skims might well be understood as a fashion brand that happens to do solutionwear," said Grede. "Why would we look at this category [of clothing] any differently from a fashion brand?"
9. Limiting demand to drive sales. Skims operates on a drop model where it drops (or restocks) new collections weekly. Skim drops can contain between 20,000 to 200,000 units. The drop model is one that streetwear companies like Supreme made popular.
Only dropping limited quantities create buzz and desire for a brand as popular items quickly sell out. That’s why women in Fendi’s office were glued to their phone. They wanted to see what Skims was dropping so they could buy what was available before it sold out. This model is different than the buying model used in department stores where items are bought in larger quantities and then are available for longer periods of time. Using a drop model for a hot brand can also help to reduce markdowns as products sell out quickly at full price.
10. Quickly expanding into new product lines. Another move Skims made that is a departure from the playbook of many successful direct-to-consumer brands is that it expanded outside of its core product of shapewear quickly. Billion dollar direct-to-consumer shoe brand Allbirds launched its second product line, a pair of slip ons a year after it went live.
After launching Skims in September of 2019 only one month later in October Skims launched its first loungewear collection. "The pandemic hit at like, our first or second drop of loungewear, and we had loungewear designed for the whole next year to drop," Kardashian said. "And it just happened to be the perfect time and the perfect storm of everyone staying home and wanting to just be a lot more comfortable."
Then last year Skims launched swimwear. “I am so excited for you guys to see swim, it’s so insane,” said Kardashian. “I really wanted pieces for every single body. So if you wanted to cover up and use a sarong, if you want to cover your arms, you can, if you want a triangle top or to fully cover your chest, different kind of bottoms — you just pick and choose. It’s like Lego pieces … You can hide the pieces you want to hide and accentuate the ones [you want to accentuate].”