How Kim Kardashian Built a $3.2 Billion Empire with a Simple Idea

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Kim Kardashian, the reality star turned business magnate, has made a name for herself in the world of entrepreneurship, thanks to her innovative idea of dyeing her body shaper with tea bags. This simple idea has led to the creation of Skims, a $3.2 billion shapewear brand that has been named by Time as one of the most influential companies of 2023.

The Birth of Skims

In a recent interview with CNN This Morning anchor Poppy Harlow, Kardashian spoke about the inception of Skims and her motivation for starting the brand. "For me, I was just looking for a solution to the fact that I love to wear shapewear, and there wasn’t a color tone that fit my skin tone, let alone most of my friends," she said. "There was nothing in between a pale or a black color in shapeware at the time." Kardashian saw a gap in the market and decided to fill it by offering a wide variety of colors in shapewear for women.

The brand's success led to the creation of SKII Partners, a private investment company founded by Kardashian last year.

Building an Empire

When asked about the secret to her success, Kardashian credited it to trust and mutual respect between her businesses.

"The businesses that I have now have a complete and equal respect and trust in each other to run and do our thing," she said. "If you trust each other like that, it absolutely can be magic." As she has aged, the 42-year-old reality star has learned to choose the people she wants to be surrounded by.

"It sounds really simple, but I didn’t have that opportunity for so much of my career of choosing who I want to be in business with or what deals I did or having the opportunity to get to know them," she said.

Kim Kardashian's best business advice pic.twitter.com/1jy1zxaUlO — CNN (@CNN) April 28, 2023

Fighting for Justice

Aside from her business ventures, Kardashian has made headlines for her activism and efforts to bring about change in the justice system. "I had no connection to the justice system.

As I got to figure out how to help someone and make a difference and get them out, I was genuinely naive to all of the issues with our [justice] system," she said. "Once I saw that I was able to make a difference, I couldn’t stop there." One of her most notable achievements was freeing Alice Marie Johnson, a woman serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense.

Although Kardashian considers it a "fairly easy experience" for her, she acknowledges that it should not have been. "It takes 10 to 20 years to do what I did in six months, and I didn’t realize the fight at the time," she said.

"To me, that was a few phone calls and that really struck me …. that that process has to change."