How the CEO of Kim Kardashian’s Skims Dodged Retail Armageddon

When Skims co-founders Kim Kardashian and Jens Grede were recently considering where to put their very first physical store, they knew right away that New York and Los Angeles wouldn’t work well. Their retail unicorn had previously held pop-up shops in those cities, and they had attracted enormous crowds that limited any chance to observe how customers actually shopped.

Instead, they wanted “a store away from the major markets,” Grede told The Information in a interview last month, where rowdy patrons wouldn’t hinder their study of the shop, and they could “tinker with it, learn from it and draw on those experiences as we’re set to open a lot of stores in very quick succession.”

So in November, Skims’ debut store opened at Austin’s Domain Northside, an upscale shopping plaza complete with a hotel, a sculpture garden and dozens of bars and restaurants. Grede crossed his fingers and hoped Austin would greet them with restrained excitement. “We were naive,” he said. On opening day, the entry line extended several hundred feet, and once inside, many customers tried on and purchased Skims clothing without taking it off their bodies. “Customers really want to wear Skims, and they really want to wear Skims out of the store—wear it out that day,” said Grede, 46, who serves as Skims’ CEO while Kardashian, 43, works as chief creative officer.