NikeSKIMS: In Nike's Time of Need, Kim Kardashian Is the Next Michael Jordan
Can Kim Kardashian's SKIMS save Nike? Or, rather, is NikeSKIMS, a new brand powered by Nike and SKIMS, merely the pinnacle of Kardashian's red-hot shapewear label?
Nike and SKIMS announced NikeSKIMS on February 18, weeks ahead of the first collection's digital launch in spring 2025. With an international release planned for 2026, it sounds like NikeSKIMS has world domination on the brain — in other words, just another day for SKIMS.
“We’re energized by the opportunity to build a new brand and shake things up for the next generation of athletes with NikeSKIMS.,” Heidi O’Neill, President of Consumer, Product & Brand, Nike, Inc., said in a statement.
"This partnership is the culmination of that shared vision, delivering product that is meticulously designed to sculpt and perform for every body," added Kardashian, who co-founded SKIMS with Frame Denim co-founder Jens Grede. "Every single detail has been obsessed over and carefully considered."
NikeSKIMS will be a lifestyle-leaning womenswear line encompassing clothing, accessories, and sneakers, the latter of which is a new category for SKIMS.
In the NikeSKIMS release, the word "athlete" was accompanied by an ampersand clarified in Nike's newsroom post: "If you have a body, you are an athlete." Sounds like NikeSKIMS is a dedicated entry into the athleisure industry, which a November 2024 study estimated was worth nearly $400 billion.
That's old hat for Nike but fresh turf that SKIMS is keen to conquer.
Nike is currently on a quest to reclaim its cultural clout following a few quarters of wary revenues. New CEO Elliott Hill rejoined Nike in 2024 as part of a broader bid to restart the sportswear giant's winning streak, which began waning around 2023 when revenues began to plateau under former CEO John Donahoe and archrival adidas became the most vital name in sportswear (currently, at adidas, things are quite sunny).
SKIMS, meanwhile, may as well be fitted with rocket boosters.
Since Kardashian and Grede founded the company in 2019, SKIMS has masterminded splashy celebrity campaigns and viral products, swiftly expanding its business from women's shapewear to all-gender underwear, swimsuits, and more. It's latest valuation? A cool $4 billion.
Nike remains the bigger company by far, but SKIMS is currently the hotter property. It's an interesting reflection of where Nike's contemporary brand positioning — the Swoosh was once undefeated in the marketing department. Now, Nike needs that SKIMS boost.
NikeSKIMS represents both Nike's latent desire to claw back much-needed relevance and SKIMS' overarching interest in sportswear.
SKIMS has demonstrated a growing interest in sportier fare, collaborating with The North Face to create earth-toned skiwear late last year and becoming the official underwear partner of the NBA in 2023 (Nike remains the NBA's longtime uniform and apparel provider).
But what does SKIMS really get out the NikeSKIMS team-up? SKIMS is huge even without a Nike cosign and though SKIMS' debut Nike sneaker is a tantalizing proposition, you'd think that the company could've devised its own footwear sans Nike.
Digital speculation points to Nike weighing an acquisition of SKIMS. Nothing official there, not by a long shot. Still, that'd be the most viable method of ensuring that the NikeSKIMS partnership remains ongoing, which seems to be the plan: NIke's release positions NikeSKIMS as a dedicated Nike family brand alongside Jordan and Converse.
Certainly, Nike's short-lived acquisition of RTFKT implies that it's keen on "owning" changemakers in its space. This could be provide a much-needed infusion of "cool" that fuels Nike's redemption. And for SKIMS, that means the valuable backing of a household name.
It also means, in her own way, that Kim Kardashian is a modern-day Michael Jordan.
