Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand is being sued by a small New York designer over the shapewear label’s use of the “Fits Everybody” name.
In documents obtained by Page Six on Friday, the “Kardashians” star’s fashion empire is being targeted over their Fits Everybody collection, with much smaller apparel brand Fits Everybody To A T claiming it already has rights to the name.
In the 43-page trademark infringement lawsuit — which was filed on March 31 in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Denise Cesare — Fits Everybody To A T claims Skims went ahead with launching its Fits Everybody collection even “after receiving repeated, unequivocal notice” of their rights.
It also alleges that Kardashian’s wildly popular lingerie brand identified “a trademark owned by a small, self-funded woman-owned business” and recognized that “the small business owner would likely lack the resources to fight back.”
Cesare is seeking an order barring Skims from continuing use of the name, as well as damages including legal costs and profits.
Lawyers for the small business accused Skims of making a “calculated decision” to use the name anyway, “relying on its overwhelming financial resources, celebrity connections, and marketing machine to simply crush” Fits Everybody To A T “out of existence” in the docs.
“Defendant believes it could simply outspend, out-market, and outlast any legal challenge from a small business owner,” the documents read.
The reality TV icon launched her $5 billion dollar Skims brand in 2019, while Cesare’s brand has been selling apparel and swimwear under the Fits Everybody To A T name for nearly ten years.
Among the petitioner’s concerns is that Skims’ use of “Fits Everybody” is likely to cause “confusion” and threatens to “overwhelm” the smaller company’s “brand identity.”
The documents also state that in search engine results, the smaller brand has become “effectively invisible” as a result of the similar names.
“The complaint, which is publicly available, tells the story of our client – a small, self-funded business founded and run by Denise Cesare, its sole owner and operator,” Cesare’s attorney, Jessica Mathews, told the Daily Mail in a statement.
The statement also noted that Cesare “built her brand from the ground up, years before Skims entered the market.”
“What followed, as alleged, is a textbook case of reverse confusion: a far larger, celebrity-backed company adopting a confusingly similar name and rapidly saturating the market through scale, advertising, and the cultural reach of its co-founder, Kim Kardashian,” the statement continued.
They added, “We asked them to stop using her mark almost two years ago” and claimed that “they refused.” Cesare has two active federal trademarks, in 2016 and 2024.
“The USPTO then refused to register their mark twice because of our client’s registered mark,” Mathews told the outlet.
The Skims application was declined by the USPTO in December based on what Trademark officials called a “likelihood of confusion.”
Kardashian’s company filed for a three-month extension in March amid a six-month response deadline, with Cesare filing a federal lawsuit at the conclusion of last month.
“Trademark law doesn’t care how big you are or how many followers you have,” Mathews’ statement to the outlet concluded. “It cares about who was first to use the mark. Our client was first, and had no choice but to file suit to protect her brand and small business.”
The lawsuit claims that instead of pulling back after they’d received notice of the alleged infringement, Skims continued touting their “best-selling” Fits Everybody collection and expanding it — to generate a mind-boggling $700 million to $900 million in revenue.
Reps for Kardashian and Cesare did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment on Friday.
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