Nike forms new team for secretive brand with Kim Kardashian

Nike Inc. is putting together a dedicated team of executives and designers to operate a new brand with entrepreneur and reality TV star Kim Kardashian’s apparel label Skims, with plans to release its first collection geared toward women this spring.

Called NikeSkims, the project was kept quiet for more than a year until the two companies teased a partnership in February. The vague announcement promised to deliver a new line of “training apparel, footwear and accessories” and pledged to expand the brand globally in 2026. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms. 

Details are now trickling out about the tie-up, which people familiar with the project say goes beyond a traditional fashion collaboration. Instead, they say NikeSkims will operate under Nike as a sub-brand, much like Nike SB, the company’s skateboarding business. That means the NikeSkims brand will have its own products, marketing and growth targets and will be run separately from Nike’s basketball, running and other sports divisions. 

Nike’s biggest partnership is with basketball superstar Michael Jordan, whose brand has its own management team at Nike and has grown into a nearly $7 billion business.

Kardashian hinted at the standalone brand structure when she posted a NikeSkims employee badge that indicated she was employee number one. Since then, the project’s staff has worked weekends, using codewords and secret meetings to get the new brand ready to debut, one of Nike’s executives said. 

The stakes are high for the world’s largest sportswear company, which has struggled to bring fresh products to market in recent years and has failed to win over female customers like rivals Lululemon and Alo Yoga. 

The NikeSkims collaboration also comes at a critical time for Chief Executive Officer Elliott Hill, who came out of retirement to lead the company last October after his predecessor, John Donahoe, was ousted. Hill has promised to turn around the flailing business, which leaned too heavily on its decades-old lifestyle sneaker franchises and was slow to develop new items. 

Hill’s arrival initially boosted Nike’s shares, but Nike stock is down more than 24% so far this year. 

Nike’s secrecy on its Skims project prompted confusion over how the Kardashian-run intimates business fits into Hill’s turnaround plan, which emphasizes a return to Nike’s roots in sports and a focus on athletes over fashion. Hill has said fitness products are a priority.

Skims approached Nike with the initial idea and the two parties have been working on the project since October 2023 under Nike’s previous CEO, according to a person familiar with the matter who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the partnership. Hill had jettisoned some of Donahoe’s other pet projects such as Rtfkt, Nike’s virtual sneaker division.

“It really didn’t feel very authentic to the brand,” said Gina Clementi, a brand strategist who worked at Nike for 12 years before leaving in 2017. Although she isn’t working on the new label, she said she doesn’t see how NikeSkims is “built on any sort of athletic achievements.”

When reached for comment, representatives from Nike and Skims referred to a previous statement from Heidi O'Neill, Nike's president of consumer, product and brand, who said the partnership "unlocks an incredible opportunity to disrupt the industry," and a statement from Skims CEO Jens Grede, who said the pair are "poised to create a new standard in the activewear market."

Kardashian, who raised $270 million in 2023 to value Skims at $4 billion, isn’t your typical Nike athlete. But she has been informally connected to Nike for years according to people familiar with the relationship. 

Kardashian’s beauty partnership with Coty Inc. ended this year after she bought back the 20% of the company she had sold to the cosmetics giant. 

Her Nike linkup comes after years of supporting Adidas AG's sneakers by wearing Yeezy products created by her ex-husband – the designer formerly known as Kanye West.

A representative for Kardashian declined to comment.

Job Postings

In more than two months since Kardashian posted her black and red NikeSkims badge, Hill has let on very little about the brand. He told investors in March only that “we identified a consumer need and are creating a new market of style-led products that sculpts and performs.” 

In recent weeks, though, Nike has moved employees over to NikeSkims, including at least five executives in marketing and operations. Management selected 14-year Nike veteran Jordan Mills to lead operations at the division, which is hiring more employees in product development, merchandise planning, studio operations and graphic design, according to posted job listings. NikeSkims has two co-general managers from Skims: marketing executive Tracy Romulus and merchandising executive Paula Galperin. 

Nike’s team, led by women’s fitness executive Jaclyn Safley, is located at Nike headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, and in Los Angeles, where Skims is based, according to recent job listings.

Safley, Mills and Galperin didn’t respond to requests for comment. Romulus declined to comment.

Wall Street analysts say they are waiting to see if NikeSkims can make Nike more competitive in the athleisure market and boost the sportswear company’s women’s business, which has grown to $8.6 billion in annual sales but is still much smaller than its $21 billion men’s business.

“Athletic brands have a mixed track record with celebrity partnerships, but NikeSkims seems like a big win for Nike,” Telsey Advisory Group analyst Cristina Fernández said. “It helps that Skims already has a sizable revenue stream and is a fast growing brand.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com