Nike x SKIMS, the IPO Market, and What's Trending
I, like many, have thought a lot about Kimberly Noel Kardashian over the years.
The New York Times reported that Nike is betting big on Skims. I’m excited to watch this play out. Jens Grede, the chief executive and co-founder, spoke on the company’s possible future IPO, with his now-repetitive line:
“Skims deserves to be a public company one day.”
A few months ago, when announcing their Fifth Avenue store (an EPIC move, I love that location) in a WWD exclusive Grede said,
“The only ones who have never spoken about our IPO is us. All I do is respond to people asking about it. We have never made a decision to go public. All I’ve ever said, and maybe that was a mistake, was that at some point we deserve to be a public company. And we have institutional investors,1 so of course, at some point we need to offer them optionality.”
Okay. Right. As we all know, the IPO market has been sloooow the last few years. Private markets have taken a hit. Going public is expensive and involves (undesirable) overhead. And, I’d offer, founders don’t find it as cool or compelling as they once did.
I’ve long-retired from trying to time anything in the market. Last winter, on a trip to SF, I went to event hosted by The Information and NYSE, and the topic for the evening was the state of the IPO market; everyone there was saying this is going to be the year it heats up again.
Who knows what could turn the tide—but if we know one thing, if anyone can make something trendy again, even an IPO… it’s Kim.
Including Thrive Capital.