Skims, Kim Kardashian’s popular clothing and shapewear brand, is looking to attract a new target audience: men. Skims announced a new clothing line on Monday that will offer boxers, briefs, undershirts and socks for men.
The line is set to launch on Thursday, Oct. 26. Skims announced their new venture by posting an ad campaign featuring three prominent male athletes: San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa, Brazilian soccer star Neymar Jr. and the Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
These pro athletes will be the promotional faces and bodies for Kardashian’s new men’s line. However, USC students and athletes alike are a bit skeptical that the men’s line will be a hit.
According to the New York Times, Skims is currently valued at around $4 billion, offering clothes and shapewear for women as well as unisex styles.
Skims’ website boasts that the new men’s line is “the most comfortable underwear you’ll ever wear, designed for your best performance.”
The new collection features three fabrics: Sport, designed to aid performance, Stretch, for a lightweight feel and Cotton, for everyday wear. The prices on the garments range from $16 to $54 and will offer sizes from XS to 5X.
Skims originally launched to fulfill a need that wasn’t represented in the marketplace: a wide variety of shapewear with inclusive sizing and skin tones for women.
However, as the company is known for selling bras, underwear and other women’s clothing, men may be more skeptical about the brand.
USC Annenberg sophomore student Jordan Willis said that Skims is automatically associated with women.
“I think Skims is inherently associated with women because it was a woman-owned and marketed brand, so I think the boys will automatically assume Skims is for girls, whether it’s marketed for men or not,” Willis said.
In an article by CNBC, Kardashian said that she focuses more on creativity and marketing tasks than the logistical side of things in the business in order to attract people’s attention.
USC junior and Trojan football defensive lineman Korey Foreman believes that having male athletes promote the new line is a great marketing strategy.
“I think there’s a good look for the celebrity aspect involving athletes because there’s a lot of young athletes, and by mixing stuff like this, men might want to buy the clothes,” Foreman said.
In an interview Kardashian had with GQ she stated that there was a big request to launch a men’s line and that they had male customers who bought or wore the Boyfriend Collection previously.
Kardashian wanted popular athletes to promote the new line and “hoped the athletes will help Skims show that its pieces can fit a range of body types.”
However, Willis felt as if the athletes Kardashian got weren’t big enough names.
“Maybe if she got LeBron to wear it, [men] will start wearing it. She needs to use bigger names in order to catch men’s attention,” Willis said.