Shapewear and lifestyle brand Skims, co-founded by global celebrity Kim Kardashian in 2019, has announced a full voluntary refund scheme for every customer who purchased its recently released $148 (£110) 12-day Christmas advent calendar, following a wave of scathing viral criticism across major social media platforms. Marketed initially as a curated collection of “twelve days of fun surprises”, the limited-edition holiday offering was widely derided by buyers who shared unboxing footage across TikTok, Instagram and X to highlight the perceived low quality and repetitive nature of its contents. Unboxing videos revealed the 12 compartments held an assortment of largely identical Skims-branded small accessories, including multiple sets of hair ties, repeated batches of logo-printed hair clips, a teddy bear keychain, a squishy branded ornament, a comb keychain, and a furry compact mirror keychain, with no items tied to the brand’s core popular shapewear or apparel lines. Hundreds of social media users joined in the mocking discourse, with top viral accounts comparing the calendar’s contents to random trinkets found tucked under sofa cushions, stray items their household cats had collected, and leftover clutter Kardashian might clear out of her personal bedside table. Some users even posted humorous clips where they pulled random small household items from behind their own couches and joked they had accidentally replicated the Skims advent calendar without paying the $148 price tag. A Skims official spokesperson confirmed the policy to multiple mainstream media outlets earlier this week, acknowledging that the product failed to align with the high expectations many loyal customers held for the brand. The company says its customer support team has already reached out personally to every single purchaser of the advent calendar, offering them a choice between a 100% full cash refund with no requirement to return the original product, or a full store credit that can be redeemed against any other Skims merchandise across its core apparel, loungewear and shapewear ranges. As of press time, the BBC has stated it has reached out to Skims’ leadership for additional official comment to expand on the policy. Founded six years ago, Skims rapidly grew from a niche shapewear startup to a major global lifestyle brand, with Forbes crediting the venture for elevating Kardashian to billionaire status, and a 2025 funding round pushing the company’s total valuation to a reported $5 billion.
Kim Kardashian’s Skims offers refunds for $148 advent calendar after backlash
