The NBA and Skims, the underwear brand from Kim Kardashian, announced Monday that they agreed to a multiyear partnership that will make Skims become the official underwear partner of the NBA, the WNBA and USA Basketball.
“I am incredibly proud of Skims partnership with the NBA, as it is a reflection of Skims growing influence on culture,” said Kardashian, co-founder and creative director of Skims in a news release.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement that the partnership will be seen through future events, including the NBA all-star and the NBA in-season tournament games. Silver did not specify any specific events or how the sponsorship will be seen across the league.
The deal comes days after Skims Mens launched on Oct. 26 with three different collections. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder, modeled the underwear during the new brand campaign launch alongside other star athletes.
Kardashian launched Skims in 2019. The idea was simple but zeitgeisty: body-positive shapewear, with sizes between XXS-5XL, released in drops. In the years since, the label has expanded to loungewear, dresses and swimsuits. Its products frequently sell out, inspiring lengthy waitlists, and a round of funding in July 2023 valued the brand at $4 billion, hinting at a future IPO.
Skims’s entree into the NBA reflects a long-standing relationship between fashion and basketball, where Nike has primarily been the powerhouse apparel partner. The NBA signed an eight-year deal with Nike back in 2015 that made the sporting company the official apparel provider for the league, including on-court uniforms. Nike was given “global rights to design and manufacture authentic and Swingman jerseys as well as on-court warm-ups and shooting shirts,” according to an NBA news release. The NBA did not immediately respond to questions about how the Skims partnership will impact its Nike deal.
One might consider Skims deal fitting. The NBA has had a knack for embracing pop culture and fashion trends in recent years, with many of its players arriving at games in stylish designer ensembles — “tunnel fits” — that are highlighted on TV and social media.
And Kardashian has had multiple ties to the NBA. She has been spotted at multiple NBA games and was briefly married to former player Kris Humphries. Her sister Khloe Kardashian has two children with NBA veteran Tristan Thompson. (Let alone the “Kardashian Curse” that has “sidetracked more NBA careers than cocaine,” as The Post previously explained).
Athletes have a storied history with underwear brands. Michael Jordan’s partnership with Hanes wrapped up its run in April after three decades. The partnership began in 1989 when Jordan was still new to the NBA and before he went on to be widely considered the greatest player of all-time. The partnership brought together two North Carolina standouts in Jordan, who attended the University of North Carolina, and Hanes, which is based in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Los Angeles Clippers guard Russell Westbrook modeled the Kings & Jaxs underwear brand. Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving teamed with the brand PSD in a similar capacity.
In soccer, similar deals have precedent. Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and tennis star Rafael Nadal have all linked up with underwear brands modeling for Armani, H&M and Tommy Hilfiger, respectively, in the last decade.
Skims was Kim Kardashian’s first bona fide business venture, and fans wondered whether she might be able to replicate the success of younger sister Kylie Jenner’s makeup line, Kylie Cosmetics, which allegedly made her a billionaire.
Kardashian worked with Swedish entrepreneurs Jens and Emma Grede and her then-husband, Kanye West, to craft a modern update to the smoothing and shaping products from Wolford and Spanx and a more approachable, less artsy version of the underwear-as-apparel concept with which her then-husband’s clothing line Yeezy often experimented.
(The Kardashians met the Gredes when Emma pitched the idea of the denim brand Good American to Khloe. Jens, who is Skims’s CEO, is also the business partner for Tom Brady’s eponymous clothing line.)
Skims quickly won over the masses, including the reluctant (and Kardashian-ambivalent) fashion industry. (“I hate how much I love My Skims,” read a 2021 headline in the Cut.) In addition to its own site, it is sold through luxury retailers like Net-a-Porter and Ssense.
Its regularly churned-out campaign imagery, crafted with help from art director Kim Schraub, seems less intended to launch products than make newsworthy moments of celebrity cuteness, like Kourtney Kardashian posing with Megan Fox shortly after both announced their engagements to tattooed bad boy musicians in 2021 (Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly, respectively), or Kim Cattrall in a bodycon dress earlier this month. Last week, Kardashian released a stylishly campy video announcing a new bra with false nipples, poking fun at global warming’s inability to keep one’s breasts appealingly pert.
Along with Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty, and American Eagle’s Aerie, Skims is frequently cited as a challenger to the unstoppable behemoth of Victoria’s Secret — better branding and casting, and, by many accounts, superior products, along with the right political tone when it comes to size inclusivity and contemporary pop feminism.
But what now sets Kardashian’s label apart from any of those competitors is its foray into menswear and sports. When she officially launched in late October, she told GQ, “we’ve never had a bigger request than to launch men’s.” That line includes underwear, T-shirts and socks.
The partnership positions the brand for further domination. So much so that Michael Rubin, the billionaire founder of sports apparel giant Fanatics, responded to Kardashian’s announcement a fire emoji and the super-sports phrase, “Lets go.”