With a freshly minted $5 billion valuation, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear firm Skims has grow to be a case examine in trendy celebrity-backed retail accomplished proper. Whereas Kardashian is indisputably the face of the model, her co-founders, Emma Grede and Jens Grede, are the architects and operational engine behind its success. The husband-and-wife crew additionally oversees a rising portfolio of manufacturers inside and past the Kardashian-Jenner universe.
“If the KarJenners supply the rocket, the Gredes deliver the gasoline,” Christine Russo, principal at Retail Artistic and Consulting Company and U.S. Correspondent for Retail Expertise Innovation Hub, informed Observer. “Whether or not it’s celebrity-founded or not, they perceive the fragility of consideration and are in a position to kick a flywheel and help it with performance.”
Emma Grede, 43, started her profession in London, whereas Jens Grede, reportedly 47 (his precise birthday isn’t public) grew up in Sweden. The 2 met by means of their work in trend. Emma labored as a trend present and occasions producer earlier than launching a expertise and occasions administration firm in 2008. Jens went on to co-found the denim label Body in 2012, the identical yr the couple married. He has additionally partnered on a number of ventures together with his childhood pal Erik Torstensson, together with trend advertising agency Saturday Group.
In 2015, Emma met Kris Jenner and pitched the concept for a denim model constructed round Khloe Kardashian. The end result was Good American, which launched in 2016 and have become one of the vital profitable celebrity-backed attire manufacturers up to now. At the moment, Jens serves as chairman of Body and CEO of Skims, whereas Emma is Skims’ chief product officer. The couple has 4 youngsters.
Rewriting the celeb playbook
Collectively, the Gredes have co-founded and maintain possession stakes in Skims with Kim Kardashian, Good American with Khloe Kardashian and Safely with Kris Jenner. Emma additionally co-founded Off Season in partnership with designer Kristin Juszczyk, the NFL and Fanatics, whereas Jens continues to construct Body as a standalone trend model.
Emma has emerged as a visual enterprise determine in her personal proper, showing on Shark Tank because the present’s first mixed-race girl investor and on the U.Ok.’s Dragon’s Den. In 2022, the Gredes, alongside Kim Kardashian, obtained the Council of Trend Designers of America’s inaugural Innovation Award.
Their celebrity-driven ventures haven’t been with out missteps. Skims confronted early backlash over its authentic title, Kimono (a kind of conventional Japanese gown), prompting a swift rebrand after criticism over cultural appropriation.
“That is illustrative of the very responsive method that they’ve taken in staying on prime of client developments, listening to suggestions and utilizing it to iterate and enhance what the manufacturers supply,” Sky Canaves, principal analyst of retail and ecommerce at eMarketer, informed Observer.
Sustainability stays a weak level for Skims, Canaves famous, which has scored poorly on supplies and sourcing and has but to meaningfully tackle these considerations. That scrutiny might intensify because the model expands into Europe, the place environmental rules are stricter. Nonetheless, Canaves added, “I can’t consider a comparable power within the trend trade right this moment throughout a number of manufacturers that’s not a significant conglomerate.”
“Emma and Jens Grede have constructed manufacturers with spine,” Albert Varkki, retail strategist and co-founder of luxurious leather-based model Von Baer, informed Observer. “Every label of their portfolio has a crisp product thesis—Skims focuses on match and resolution put on, Good American focuses on inclusive denim—they usually preserve constructing with that self-discipline. That readability and technique are why their repeat-purchase price is unusually robust for celeb manufacturers.”
Based on Varkki, the Gredes have rewritten the celebrity-brand playbook. “As an alternative of placing all the burden on hype drops, they constructed operational consistency—steady SKU structure, replenishable hero merchandise and actual match testing. That stability is what gave celeb branding legitimacy once more.”
Trend manufacturers are not often household companies. The trade tends to raise singular inventive figures—Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, Calvin Klein—however the Gredes are quietly reshaping that mannequin from behind the scenes. Their partnership, each private {and professional}, stays central to their success.
“It has been a present and a blessing that we had a working relationship collectively for just below a yr earlier than we really began courting,” Emma Grede mentioned throughout a dialog together with her husband on her podcast Aspire.
“I grew up in a house the place work and life have been all the time intertwined, and it wasn’t one thing that my mother and father have been making an attempt to separate. They obtained an amazing quantity of pleasure and worth out of it, similar to I imagine I’m getting an amazing quantity of pleasure and worth out of working with you,” Jens Grede mentioned. “We’re fortunate now that we don’t must argue a lot about who’s taking out the trash. However for most individuals, the division of roles and obligations in a house, in any relationship, it positive seems to be like work to me. So I don’t make that a lot distinction.”
