Does Skims cost too much for the suppliers it has?

After a marketing lecture at Harvard, Skims has once again taken center stage in debates on TikTok. At the center of the discussion would be the actual cost to produce and the final price of the entrepreneur's products, the abysmal difference of which would anger many users and make many others rethink their purchases. Going in order, the first indications of the shitstorm against Skims came last year, when creator @heyalexfriedman used the site ImportYeti to find the brand's suppliers. The results identified the companies Eurotex Tekstil Ticaret-a Turkish company that also serves lower-cost brands such as Spanx-and AliBaba's branch Henglitai as majority suppliers, highlighting the low quality guaranteed by the two factories and the oxymoronic price of the final product. The video had then been taken down by TikTok for "illegal activities and regulated goods," only to become available again after a short time. This weekend, however, Justin P, another creator proceeded to do the same search on other platforms and got similar results. Reposted from the Instagram page Hollywood Unlocked, this latest TikTok has been making the rounds around the web collecting comments that are worth looking into. 

"They [the Kardashians/Jenners] slap their names on it and boom, you pay thousands of dollars for something that costs $40," commented one user, underscoring something that is true for Kris Jenner's daughters' brands: the marketing of the product is more important than the product itself. Whether the Valentine's Day campaign features the two Italian actresses from The White Lotus, or the spring/summer collection is told with a glossy 80s-style shoot, it is clear that product communication is worth more than the quality of the final garment. The branding of Kim and her sisters is carefully crafted to hit the recent sentiment of the mainstream audience, as well as that of many other brands that are positioned in the mid-to-high end of the market. Blinded by the fun and glossy campaigns, it's normal that the question "where do the products I'm buying come from" goes so much on the back burner, although when TikTok videos come along to open users' eyes, the complaints are very much heard.

In Skims' defense, Eurotex is a company with large production capacity and lower quality that also supplies other grand brands specializing in intimate apparel such as Spanx and Medela, while Henglitai serves more generic apparel brands such as Urban Outfitters and Guess. Underlying the concept of branding is differentiation from competitors, which can be done either by choosing better suppliers and materials with higher costs and therefore more risk, or through positioning, such as that operated by Kim Kardashian, which maximizes sales and reduces costs. After all, as another user commented, "Every major brand has a foreign supplier ... where do you think 90 percent of things are made? In America?" let alone delve into the "Made in Italy" claims on labels.