Skims and Nike‘s second launch will bring what many wanted most: footwear.
The newly aligned partners revealed their first crop of shoes Wednesday, a trio of the archival Air Rift tabi sandal incorporating the trendy ballet aesthetic in black and two shades of brown. Pared down from the original silhouette, the NikeSkims Rift Mesh features a thin mesh upper and a similarly minimalist sole.
When Sam Le Roy, co-founder of the digital sneaker catalogue Hartcopy, first saw the shoe collaboration, he thought it could be a design from Matthew Williams, another Nike partner, 1017 ALYX 9SM and former Givenchy creative director.
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“I was really pleasantly surprised,” Le Roy told Footwear News. “It almost feels like it’s too good for a Skims collaboration because the apparel was neither here nor there for me, but the footwear is really strong.”
By partnering with Skims, Nike is seeking to take more share of the women’s athleisure market that’s helped Kim Kardashian‘s enterprise score a valuation of $5 billion — and has likewise been a boon for the likes of Alo and Lululemon. (Still, the latter has run into notable challenges of late.)
The athletic giant has made progress in catering to women from both the lifestyle and performance perspectives in recent years, but hasn’t fully spoken to the type of woman who purchases from the aforementioned brands.
“This women’s shapewear market that is not focused on the elite athlete, it is a much softer approach and captures women of all shapes and sizes that may not identify as athletes and may feel weird about the aggressive nature of Nike in general — that is what Skims offers that Nike hasn’t quite been able to capture,” said Bimma Williams, who consults with brands on collaborations and previously worked for Nike and Adidas Yeezy.
Williams posted a poll to his Instagram story Wednesday asking his followers to characterize Skims’ RiftMesh as either a “hit” or “miss.” At time time of his interview with FN, 64 percent chose the latter answer — but his audience is largely made up of the straight male audience typically associated with sneaker culture.
Jazerai Allen-Lord, the strategist, consultant and reticently described “women’s collector” doesn’t personally connect with the designs, but understands the appeal.
“That’s a crowd that never really wore sneakers until they saw Kylie in [Dunks from] SB and Kim in Yeezies,” Allen-Lord said of the target consumer. “[The shoes] look great, they’re just not for me. It’s the workout girl, the fashion girl who wants to do something casual. There are so many different little factions of women and sneakers now.”
Also not part of that target audience is Le Roy, but he did say it’s a shoe he’d love to put on. Based in London, he also thinks it has a chance to do well in Europe, where he hasn’t seen Skims catch on as well as it has in the U.S.
Winning over consumers such as Le Roy would just be considered a bonus for now, but it could prove a priority if the partnership does eventually turn to men. Skims launched its men’s line in 2023 and inked deal with the NBA to become its official underwear partner in the same year.
Kardashian’s label has several high-level athletes signed to their own deals, including Shai Gilgeous Alexander, widely considered the most stylish man in the NBA. He’s also the creative director for Converse Basketball and designed his own signature sneaker debut, the Shai 001, to general acclaim. Should Skims and Nike go the direction of men, he’d be a natural face to lead it.
Future speculation aside, it’s plain to see that the Rift Mesh is poised to be a hit. A sellout may have already been guaranteed even if the Skims’ logo was slapped onto an existing Nike silhouette, but the tabi-toe shoe has gone beyond what many expected from a design perspective.
Williams cited the proven success of ballet flat-derived sneakers and the trendiness of the comparably barefoot Vibrams Five Finger. Tabis are a bit more niche, however, but this could be the start of a new full-fledged push of the Air Rift, something of a cult classic since 1996.
