Kim Kardashian’s new range is designed for women to be ogled, not to excel in sport

That’s the message from Kim Kardashian’s latest venture into the commodification of women’s bodies in the name of body positivity.

NikeSkims, which launches this week, is a collaboration between Nike and Skims, Kardashian’s undergarment brand. It’s an uneasy match. On one side, Nike, a company historically associated with athletic performance, discipline and achievement. On the other, Kardashian, whose empire is built on slimming gummies, surgical enhancements and a relentless focus on sex appeal. The collection includes low-cut sports bras and leggings with a thong design sewn into the back to give the appearance of wearing a thong underneath.

The advertisement shows 50 female athletes wearing items from the collection, but the imagery undermines the message. The photographs are angled to show athletes’ cleavage or shot from below the bottom to make the bum look bigger. Athletes who in competition embody strength are recast here in overtly sexualised poses. American golf pro Nelly Korda is pictured not on a golf course, but on her back with her legs above her head.

These garments are not designed for women to excel in sport; they are designed for women to wear while being ogled as they perform a version of sport. After a summer when the sporting world celebrated women, a campaign like this leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It goes against the huge strides made by the rugby and football stars on the biggest stages this summer. This, then, is the new guise of body positivity: women can be both strong and sexy, but only so long as sexiness comes first.

Of course, women have the right to present themselves sexually if they choose. But when elite athletes present themselves sexually, the implications ripple outward into sexualisation of sportswomen, which can cause real issues.

Sexual harassment is one of the main forms of abuse sportswomen face. During the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup, online sexual abuse targeting players was 15% of the total volume of abuse received by athletes, according to Signify AI, a company that uses AI to detect abuse on social media and takes it through to prosecution. It was the third largest category behind homophobia (20%) and general abuse (23%).

“Sexual comments detected online can lead to real-world incidents involving infatuation, fixation and stalking,” said Jake Marsh, head of Signify’s sports division. “We have seen this particularly with women’s football and the increased commercial exposure of the sport and its players. For example, we have found that women’s football players at club level receive more than three times the level of sexual abuse than the men, and this is also often combined with more threatening, explicit and violent content.”

This is not to blame the athletes who choose to take part in such campaigns, but to express shame that such a faux narrative of body positivity has been extended into the authentic reclamation of women’s bodies that’s happened with the rise of women’s sport. Women can look beautiful while excelling in sport – they may wish to – but their appearance should not be valued above their performance.

There is a regression here from celebrating women’s capabilities. For Kardashian, the calculus may be undesirable but it is smart: she is embedding her brand into the world of athletics to lend legitimacy to her empire. For Nike, the bargain is to gain access to the cult-following of her brand, even if it must trade its authenticity to do so.

Photographs by Nike