She Surpassed Spanx, Victoria's Secret, And Even Those Who Hate Her Are Buying Her Product. SKIMS Turned Kim Kardashian Into A Billionaire.

Kim Kardashian is no newcomer to the fashion and beauty industry. She and her sisters once started the clothing brand DASH, and she has launched several successful fragrances - including the Crystal collection, which sold out in six days for a whopping $14 million.

She recently launched skincare brand SKKN, as well as a collaboration with Beats. The reality star's goldmine, however, remains her women's shapewear brand SKIMS, which has made her a member of the billionaire club in 2020.

According to Business of Fashion, SKIMS has been valued at $3.2 billion after nearly four years on the market, far outpacing the revolutionary in the world of women's shapewear, the Spanx brand. Its value is 1.2 billion.

The portal also reports that SKIMS is not only competing with Spanx with its campaign and philosophy, but also with Victoria's Secret (which was valued at $11.58 billion last year). It is the latter that has been shaken to its foundations since 2019 after information surfaced that its former CEO Les Wexner was linked to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been accused of human trafficking for sexual abuse. Epstein, according to the New York Times, was to act as an adviser to Wexner. He also acted as a recruiter for Victoria's Secret, giving him access to young models in the 1990s.

In addition, there was a wave of criticism of the brand for its longstanding reputation as synonymous with unattainable standards of beauty. It is now trying to stand on its own two feet and is casting "non-models" in its campaigns - Hailey Bieber, Camilla Cabello and Sofía Jirau, who is the first ever model with Down's syndrome to feature in a Victoria's Secret campaign.

The Spanx brand is following a similar path. The face of the campaign is American plus-size model Ashley Graham. Both brands are feeling a lot of pressure with the arrival of SKIMS, according to BOF.

What is behind the success of Skims?

In the BOF podcast, Alexandra Mondalek acknowledges that already having 329 million followers on Instagram puts Kim Kardashian in an advantageous position. In addition, she also used the pandemic during which we were all forced to stay at home and sweatpants were a hot fashion item to create a brand offering lingerie and homewear. However, Mondalek stresses that the strength of Kardashian's brand lies mainly in the clear philosophy, the concept and the high quality of the product itself.

"I tried on a model from SKIMS. I wasn't blown away by it when I grabbed it, but when I put it on. It looks good under a t-shirt or dress. I think it's a really good product for the price it's in," Mondalek said. You'll pay about $70 for the bodysuit, and about $30 to $40 for a set of shaping panties.

SKIMS is truly for everyone

SKIMS was not the first on the market to approach product colours in the spirit of maintaining diversity, but it has taken it to a whole new level. The brand's philosophy is that shaping underwear should adapt to the skin tone and sometimes literally blend in with it. Thus, it has exactly nine different shades of body colour in its range. By comparison, Spanx offers only five.

Kim does not want you to wear corsets

Before Kim launched her brand, she spent two years selecting the right fabrics and materials that would make the products not only functional, but also comfortable. "In the past, people might have assumed that form-fitting clothing was extremely uncomfortable," Kardashian said, as reported by Indigo Digital.

"I've worn corsets, I know how uncomfortable it is. That's not a goal I want to achieve," she added. In addition, the cup sizes of the top or body models range from XXS to XXXXXL. SKIMS also has products that have up to 31 different waist sizes to choose from.

She made a campaign with a woman sentenced to life

SKIMS is also a step ahead thanks to a campaign in which not only women pose with different types of characters, but also different ages. One of the models is 66-year-old Alice Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a non-violent drug offence. Kim was so touched by her story that she brought it to the attention of the White House legal team, and former President Donald Trump granted Johnson clemency. Kardashian subsequently cast her in her campaign to break down stereotypes.

Collaboration with the brand FENDI 

While both SPANX and Victoria's Secret maintained exclusivity when it came to campaigns and marketing, SKIMS caused a stir by collaborating with luxury brand Fendi. The collaboration brought both parties to the limelight. For a while, SKIMS was ranked among the luxury brands and Fendi rode the "hype" around the reality show star. Win-win!

The collaboration was so popular that it generated sales of over a million dollars in a matter of minutes, and most of the collection sold out within 24 hours despite the products being in a significantly different price range than the classic SKIMS.

"We share a desire to push boundaries, think differently and challenge the stereotypes of modern society, which is why we found so much in common when collaborating on this collection together," explained the American star and Kardashian family influencer.

Campaign with former Victoria's Secret angels

A big surprise was this April's SKIMS campaign "Fits Everybody", which featured former Victoria's Secret angels such as Tyra Banks, Alessandra Ambrosio, Heidi Klum and Candice Swanepoel. It caused a stir online, with fans wondering why former models would rather not support the upstart new philosophy.

Kim, you can't have it all!

Despite its current success, the SKIMS brand has not been without controversy. A stir was caused right from the start because of the brand's original name - Kimono. Kardashian was criticized for appropriating the name, which is the name of a Japanese traditional garment anyway. Today, SKIMS is considered not only the biggest player in the lingerie and shapewear market, but also one of the most influential brands of our time. In March 2022, Time magazine named it one of the 100 Most Influential Fashion Brands of 2022.

What's more, Kim Kardashian has done what every entrepreneur aspires to do. To sell a product to her haters. One customer commented online: "I hate how much I love Kim's SKIMS shaping underwear."