The multitasking media mogul strikes again, and this time, in the world of sportswear! Yes, we are talking about none other than Kim Kardashian, who already has business endeavors going in the worlds of social media, marketing, law, shoes, selfie books, skincare, makeup, video games, and, of course, the very successful shapewear brand, SKIMS.

The last of which Kardashian has now started to move in the direction of sportswear, having already famously designed a loungewear line for the US Olympic gymnastic team, and with many famous athletes such as Neymar Jr., Nick Bosa, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander modeling for the brand’s menswear line, but now it looks like Kim Kardashian is shooting even higher and looking to get into the ranks of some of the top sportswear brands in the country, if not the world.

It was announced just hours ago that SKIMS is partnering with League One Volleyball to be the exclusive loungewear, intimates and sleepwear partner of the promising volleyball league. Considering the league has a rapidly growing fan base, with 92,000 fans marking the largest crowd ever for a women’s sporting event in 2023 when the Nebraska Cornhuskers played the Omaha Mavericks, this looks to be a promising move. Further, the 2024 Women’s NCAA Volleyball Tournament had 1.3 billion minutes consumed across ESPN’s streaming platforms, pushing the network to secure media rights for all the League One pro matches.

It doesn’t stop here, though. It was announced in February that Kim Kardashian and SKIMS are partnering with none other than Nike to launch a new venture in women’s sportswear. Considering apparel contributes to only 28% of Nike’s total revenue, this seems to be a wise marketing decision for the brand, which, after the announcement, had a $6B surge in the market cap, but could Kardashian’s business armageddon in the sports world be a threat to something as formidable as Nike?

Putting things in context: Kim Kardashian’s Skims is not at par with Nike…yet

Despite SKIMS CEO Jens Grede comparing SKIMS, the brand fronted by Kim Kardashian, with Nike sometime last year, saying that similar to Nike, the brand “exists at the intersection of culture and commerce,” the figures seem to speak otherwise.

For starters, in the fiscal year of 2024, Nike had a total revenue of $51.4 billion, while in the year prior, SKIMS earned $750 million with a projected $1B+ for 2024. Those numbers are nowhere near each other! However, Kim Kardashian does bring the added advantage of her enormous public persona with 350M+ social followers; this could greatly impact the sales of women’s wear for Nike, but her significant step in the world of sportswear will also ready her for new, perhaps solo, ventures in that world. So, in the long term, there could very well be competition.

Well, on the other hand, brands like Lululemon and Alo Yoga have used the gap in Nike’s women’s sportswear section to reach an untapped and clearly profitable market. While LULU had a 40% surge last year, Nike’s numbers stagnated, so this move with Kardashian looks to also keep Nike on top of the market. The collaboration aims to achieve this by addressing problems Nike hadn’t looked at in the past, which include body inclusivity and comfort meeting performance. Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS line is highly focused on the above, and the inclusion of this could greatly benefit Nike’s sales, and now seems to be the time to do just that.

The global athleisure and activewear market is projected to grow to $242 billion by 2030, which means that now is the time to tap into it, especially women’s wear. But there are many factors that will affect the success of the Kardashian-Nike collab, including competitive pricing. Lululemon has already developed a dedicated fan base with fairly reasonable pricing, so this will be a difficult market to tap into. Additionally, the collaboration may come across to many as a marketing tactic, so it may not take off as it is expected to.

In fact, according to some projection models used by Forbes and Bloomberg, it probably won’t. More specifically, Kim Kardashian probably won’t. Hypothetically, if Kim Kardashian went on to dominate the sportswear space, she could make an annual income of $1.5–2.5B, and in the long term this could potentially turn into $15–20B, which is still not really at par with Nike, which has 60 + years of brand building behind it, so should Nike be worried?

Considering Kardashian isn’t looking to be exclusive with Nike in her foray into the sporting world, maybe some worry would be wise. But the two parties need each other if they are looking to grow in this growing market, so worry or not, here they come. However, considering SKIMS CEO Jens Grede seems to be looking towards Nike as a business model for his Kardashian-fronted brand, the rope that is being tread does seem very taut!

In his 2024 interview where Grede compared the two brands, he added that, like SKIMS Nike is a“High-performing product, delivering real value for money, and a brand and a company that always had a voice in what was happening in the world.” However, those who’ve been watching closely will notice the similarities between Nike and SKIMS in brand marketing. Nike brought on Michael Jordan to sell their shoes in the 80s and then Tiger Woods and Roger Federer when the athletes were at the tops of their games in the 90’s, similarly, SKIMS doesn’t seem to miss out on getting themselves associated with the hot topics of the day, sports or otherwise, vis-à-vis Neymar and Simone Biles, for starters.

So, is it risky business for Nike to be partnering with a potential competitor in the sports market? Yes, but do they have a choice? Not really; Kim Kardashian has proven time and again that she knows a thing or two about business and judging by her exponential growth rate to date, she may prove Forbes and Bloomberg wrong with this new one.