Nike’s collaboration with Skims, Kim Kardashian’s billion-dollar shapewear empire, is among the most talked-about partnerships in years. Inside days of the announcement, Nike’s market cap surged by $6 billion, a transparent sign that buyers noticed monetary upside.
However beneath the headlines and the preliminary inventory soar, there’s a extra urgent query:
Is that this a strategic evolution for Nike, or simply one other reactionary transfer to keep up cultural relevance?
Nike has at all times been the model that led tradition, not chased it, however current years have painted a special image. This Skims partnership might be a glimpse into Nike’s future, or it might be one other short-term, hype-driven distraction that fails to handle deeper points.
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To grasp what this deal means, let’s break it down:
How We Bought Right here: The Shift from Innovation to Affect
Nike constructed its empire on efficiency, innovation, and athlete-driven storytelling.
- Air Max revolutionized operating.
- Flyknit modified the way in which sneakers have been constructed.
- ZoomX foam rewrote marathon historical past.
- Dri-FIT set a brand new commonplace for sports activities attire.
However up to now decade, Nike has shifted from product-first innovation to culture-first collaborations, leaning on hype cycles, restricted drops, and celeb partnerships to drive curiosity.
The issue? It’s a short-term technique that may inflate model warmth however doesn’t create lasting differentiation. In the meantime, rivals like Lululemon, On Working, and Hoka are profitable with precise product innovation.
Enter Skims…
Nike’s ladies’s enterprise has underperformed relative to its males’s division, and Lululemon has taken a big lead within the feminine activewear market. This partnership offers Nike immediate entry to Skims’ highly effective viewers of millennial and Gen Z ladies.
On the floor, it is sensible. However does Nike want Skims to win on this area? Or does the very existence of this partnership sign that Nike lacks the inner sources to do that themselves?
What This Partnership Means for Each Manufacturers
What Nike Will get
- A shortcut into the extremely aggressive ladies’s way of life market
- Cultural credibility by means of Kim Kardashian’s affect
- A enterprise hedge as sneaker gross sales sluggish and attire turns into an even bigger focus
What Skims Will get
- The Nike Swoosh—immediate sportswear credibility
- Large world distribution and retail growth
- A stronger positioning in activewear, making a future IPO extra engaging
The largest winner right here? Skims.
Skims just isn’t an activewear model—it’s a shapewear, loungewear, and underwear firm. This partnership permits them to pivot into sportswear in a single day.
In the meantime, Nike—the undisputed sportswear chief—now borrows cultural capital from Skims.
That’s the contradiction:
- Nike is meant to be the model that defines tradition.
- Now, it’s aligning with another person’s model to remain related.
Nike ought to be the one making Skims credible, not the opposite means round.
A Contradiction in Values: What Message Does This Ship?
Nike has spent a long time positioning itself as a model that champions athleticism, empowerment, and efficiency. Its largest feminine athletes—Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, and Simone Biles—have helped outline what Nike stands for.
Now, Nike is partnering with Kim Kardashian—a enterprise mogul, sure, however one whose model is rooted in aesthetics, physique sculpting, and influencer tradition.
Nike’s press launch states this collaboration is about making ladies really feel “sturdy and horny.”
However ask your self this:
- When has Nike ever instructed younger male athletes that they should really feel “horny”?
- Is Nike’s definition of energy for girls now tied to physique picture somewhat than efficiency?
Nike’s best threat isn’t irrelevance—it’s blindness.
If the following technology of feminine athletes sees Nike extra targeted on aesthetics than athleticism, they could begin trying elsewhere.
Is This a New Path for Nike—or Only a Fast Win?
Right here’s the true check:
Will Nike use this partnership to actually innovate in ladies’s activewear, or will it’s simply one other collaboration that fizzles out as soon as the hype dies down?
We’ve seen this earlier than:
- VF Corp acquired Supreme for $2.1B in 2020, solely to promote it for $1.5B in 2024—a $600M loss after the hype wore off.
- Apple acquired Beats by Dre for $3B in 2014, however shortly pivoted to constructing its personal competing product (AirPods).
- Adidas leaned closely into Kanye West’s Yeezy model, solely to endure main losses when the connection soured.
Nike’s $6B market cap surge on the Skims announcement is thrilling. However inventory bumps don’t construct manufacturers—imaginative and prescient does.
The massive query: Is that this transfer a part of an even bigger strategic plan, or only a monetary sugar excessive?
Nike’s Alpha Standing is Now Its Greatest Danger
That is new territory for Nike. Everybody who knew what it was wish to battle for the highest spot is lengthy gone. If you’ve been the alpha for this lengthy, finally, you cease trying over your shoulder.
Malcolm Gladwell stated it finest:
“Why do giants lose? As a result of they’ll’t see. After they turn out to be huge and highly effective, they lose the flexibility to understand the world round them.”
That’s the danger Nike faces at this time. It’s not seeing the shifts occurring in actual time—it’s reacting to them after the actual fact.
Nike isn’t main tradition anymore—it’s chasing it. And once you begin taking part in protection as an alternative of offense, you begin shedding floor.
The query is: Does Nike nonetheless have the starvation to battle like a challenger? Or has it turn out to be too comfy being Goliath?
What Nike Ought to Be Doing As a substitute
If Nike actually needs to reclaim its management place, right here’s what it ought to concentrate on:
1. Prioritize Innovation Over Borrowed Affect
Nike must cease counting on collabs and begin creating merchandise that change the sport once more. The place’s the following Air Max? The following Flyknit?
2. Repair the Ladies’s Enterprise on the Product Stage
Advertising and marketing is nice, however ladies don’t simply need resized males’s sneakers. Nike must spend money on women-specific innovation, match, and efficiency.
3. Rebuild Retail & Wholesale Relationships
Nike’s DTC-only strategy harm greater than it helped. They should rethink their retail technique and make their merchandise extra accessible once more.
4. Get Again to Constructing a Cult, Not Simply Promoting Merchandise
Nike’s strongest moments weren’t nearly sneakers—they have been about perception. The model must reignite that emotional connection.
5. Cease Enjoying Protection—Lead Once more
Nike ought to be creating the long run, not reacting to rivals.
Closing Take: Nike must Determine What It Stands For. If it continues to prioritize aesthetics over athleticism, it dangers one thing far worse.
Contributed to Branding Technique Insider by R.J. Abbott, Founder @ Neighborhood Cult
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