Kim Kardashian’s Skims Brand Opens Permanent Stores in Preparation for IPO
As part of its plan to garner an initial public offering, Skims, a brand owned by Kim Kardashian, is bolstering its presence in the brick-and-mortar landscape. Skims will open its first permanent store in Georgetown, D.C., on Thursday, with a further line-up of stores to launch this summer in Aventura, Fla.; Austin; Houston; and Atlanta.
The Georgetown store will cover an area of 3,300 square feet, selling exclusively women’s items. The third quarter of the year will see the introduction of men’s products. Crowd-pleasers and select drops will be featured in the store, but the core collections will occupy a majority of the store’s offerings.
Skims collaborated with Willo Perron of Perron-Roettinger to design its mall doors. The aesthetics of the brand, featuring signature rounded edges and glossy surfaces that were observed in former pop-ups and their multibrand stores globally, have been extended to the interior of the new store.
Prior to these new developments, Skims has made prior inroads into physical retail. The brand has created stand-alone pop-ups, including a pop-up at The Grove in Los Angeles in 2021; a Skims Swimwear pop-up in the Miami Design District; and a Skims summer pop-up at Rockefeller Center in New York in 2023. Collaborations played a role too, with pop-ups for Fendi x Skims spanning 13 cities in 2021 and Swarovski x Skims flooding eight cities in 2023. Additional pop-up locations have included The Corner at Nordstrom in New York City; Ounass in Dubai; Lane Crawford in Chengdu, China; and the Corner Shop at Selfridges.
Permanent stores, however, have now grabbed the brand’s focus. The next in line in Skims’ pipeline is a 3,721-square-foot store due to open in Aventura on June 27, a 3,382-square foot store set to open in Austin in July, a massive 6,909-square-foot store scheduled for unveiling in Houston in August, and a 3,500-square-foot store destined to debut in Atlanta in September.
Robert Norton, Chief Commercial Officer at Skims, elucidated that the decision to move into brick-and-mortar was motivated by a desire to build stronger connections with consumers and boost growth. “We’ve been a very successful digital-native brand, but we knew that in order to unlock the next phase of growth, it was imperative that we engage, connect and really build a deeper relationship with the consumer and potential consumers on a physical level,” he said to WWD.
Simultaneously working on flagship developments while establishing footholds in major markets across the U.S., Skims aims to acquire learnings, maintain flexibility, and efficiently apply these lessons into its business model. For the initial urban locations, Norton shared, “We wanted a mix of street locations that were proven street locations with high tourism, huge local consumer base, and a very broad demographic of consumers coming in.”
Norton further highlighted that their focus was on ‘where the customer is at,’ underlining the need for accessibility. Included among the first batch of stores are two prominent street-side locations and three situated within malls (Aventura Mall in Miami, The Galleria in Houston, Lenox Square in Atlanta).
The site selection was influenced by favorable real estate offerings, suitable demographics, an established customer base in these markets, and feasible economics. “These markets have really good starter positions for us,” Norton said. To understand the customer’s responses and requirements, a pilot store was launched in Austin six months ago. “We’ve been operating in the background and piloting and testing for six months,” he added.
Norton disclosed that while most growth strategies fall within Retail 101, the learning process revolved around understanding customer journeys from online to offline. The lessons learnt are being applied to bolster retention efforts.
Norton commented on the most action seen in the test store, “It’s really a balance of our core iconic products and newness.” Skims aims to foster advocacy for the brand and build a body of customers that promotes the brand. Norton views brick-and-mortar as a crucial milestone for the brand, and said he can envision the brand supporting more than 100 stores in the next few years.
Coming up next is the Northeast corridor, followed by the Midwestern, the West Coast and other Southern cities. The average store size ranges from 3,200 square feet to 6,900 square feet. The wide range of products on offer at each store will be a key determinant of Skims’ future strategy.
Skims, which was launched five years ago by Kardashian, has been disrupting the innerwear and fashion industry with its unique mixture of internet popularity and business acumen. Kardashian’s founding partner Emma Grede and her husband, Jens Grede, cofounders of the denim brand Good American and casualwear label Frame, are part of the Skims team.
Last summer, Skims received $270 million in investment from institutional backers, which raised the company’s valuation to $4 billion and paved the way for an initial public offering. Skims represents inclusivity in beauty, ranging from body shape to skin tone, and is showing fast growth with sales expected to reach $750 million, up from $500 million in 2022.
