Kim Kardashian's Skims now valued at $4 billion with plans to open physical stores next year
Amaris Encinas
Kim Kardashian’s flattering shapewear brand Skims has entered its billionaire era about four times over.
With Skims having raised $270 million in a recent funding round, the company is now valued at $4 billion. Investors valued the company at $3.2 billion just last year, The New York Times reported.
It has been only four years since Kim Kardashian and business partner Jens Grede brought Skims into the world. The plan has always been to make the company the next big brand.
“It has grown quickly, and we’re so proud of that. We’ve had a really good flow of product launches,” Kardashian told The New York Times.
Skims exclusively sold shapewear to its customers at first but has ventured out into a wide variety of apparel like swimsuits and loungewear. They have plans to sell men’s clothing come fall.
The company also plans on opening physical stores in Los Angeles and New York City sometime next year.
Skims is right on track
Skims has been turning a profit since it launched in 2019, but according to its chief executive, Jens Grede, Skims has become profitable only now. The company is set to make $750 million in sales this year, up from $500 million in 2022, according to The Times.
While a majority of its sales, about 70%, comes from millennials or Gen-Z, only 15% of its sales come from items purchased outside the U.S. Eleven million people have joined waitlists to buy Skim’s most popular items over the past year, Grede said.
What drew investors to Skims recently was its growth trajectory and popularity, Grede said. Wellington Management led the latest funding efforts, but other participating firms include Greenoaks Capital Partners. The existing backers are D1 Capital Partners and Imaginary Ventures.
“Skims has maintained unprecedented momentum since the brand’s inception. We’re thrilled to partner with the brand to support it through this pivotal growth stage,” said Michael Carmen, co-head of private investments at Wellington.
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One day, Skims plans on going public
Of all Kardashian’s ventures, Skims is one of her biggest successes. Kardashian and her business partner remain the company’s biggest stakeholders.
Though company had to contend with supply chain disruptions amid the coronavirus pandemic that made it difficult to source fabrics for its clothing, the biggest challenge now is managing inventory as the company expands its offerings and opens physical stores.
The company’s valuation, Wellington’s involvement and hiring a chief financial officer raise questions about when Skims might go public.
Kardashian and Grede aren’t in a rush to take the company public, but investors had shown interest in recent months in consumer-facing businesses.
“At some point in the future, Skims deserves to be a public company,” he told The Times.
SKIMS was credited with saving this young woman’s life
The only thing that kept Angelina Wiley from bleeding out after she was shot four times on New Year’s was her Skims bodysuit, she said on TikTok in May.
Wiley and her friends went out to ring in the new year in Westport, Kansas City. They called on a Lyft to get them all home safely but were caught in gunfire, according to the GoFundMe page created.
All of Wiley’s friends made it to safety, but she did not. She was struck by three bullets, one that remained inside her body. Wiley suffered a ruptured bladder and a cracked pelvis, and she needed medical attention to retrieve the bullet still lodged in her abdomen, the GoFundMe post says.
“It was so tight on me that it literally kept me from bleeding out,” Wiley said.
Wiley went on to say she recommends the product and will be buying more.
“I mean I should wear it every day. It's like body armor for women. Call it fate or call it Jesus, I’mma call it Kim,” Wiley said.
After followers tagged Kardashian in Wiley’s video, the Skims co-founder responded to the video with a “wowww” followed by a praying hands emoji, Cosmopolitan reported.
Skims followed up with Wylie to give her a refund and a discount after she told her viewers it was the first time she had worn the bodysuit. It will also be sending her some more Skim pieces, Cosmo reported.