NikeSKIMS Bets on a Shanghai Store After China Slump

NikeSKIMS will open its first mainland China store on September 29 at HKRI Taikoo Hui in Shanghai. The Nike and SKIMS label is bringing a nine-fabric apparel kit, footwear, accessories, and a hemming desk, about a year after its first U.S. sale.

Nike’s Greater China sales fell 11 percent in fiscal 2026, and digital sales there dropped 29 percent. The pop-up is booked through February 2027 on Nanjing West Road, which is a long rehearsal for a brand that still has to prove Chinese women will pay for sculpting kit from a joint American label.

Nike’s Greater China Slide Is the Reason for the Store

When Nike and SKIMS introduced the line on February 18, 2025, they said a global expansion will follow in 2026. China is that chapter, and it is arriving after a hard stretch in the region that once padded Nike’s growth.

Fiscal 2026, which ended May 31, 2026, left Nike Inc. revenue flat at $46.4 billion. Greater China was the drag. Filings show Greater China revenue of $5,847 million, down from $6,586 million, or 13 percent on a currency-neutral basis. Two years earlier the same region did $7,545 million.

Apparel, the bucket NikeSKIMS actually lives in, fell 5 percent to $1,535 million. Footwear, still most of the China mix, fell 13 percent to $4,188 million. Nike Direct in Greater China fell 12 percent, with digital down 29 percent and owned stores down 4 percent. Elliott Hill, Nike’s president and chief executive, said the company spent the year trying to “strengthen the foundation” and “reposition our business for long-term growth.”

CHINA SALES, TWO WOMEN’S BRANDS

A pop-up cannot reverse those Nike figures on its own. It can show whether a sculpting-first kit, sold with fittings rather than another app drop, gets women back into a Nike space after the digital channel in China shrank.

A Five-Month Room Next to Louis Vuitton

The store occupies units N130 and N134 at 366 Shimen 1st Road in Jing’an, inside HKRI Taikoo Hui. Swire Properties lists the mall at 789 Nanjing Road West, with about 250 brands on Nanjing Road West, roughly 1.1 million square feet of retail, and metro lines 2, 12, and 13 under the complex. Louis Vuitton’s ship-shaped store sits on the same block.

Black hoarding with the joint logo went up at the mall in August. The brand is calling the space a slow flash, open from September 29 through February 2027, with try-ons, community events, and custom hemming it says is unique in Shanghai right now. That hemming desk is the local product. Tight bottoms and bras fail on length and rise more often than they fail on a moodboard, and a five-month lease is long enough to alter garments in front of shoppers who can walk out and buy elsewhere.

Shanghai’s investment office put the debut on its own feed on September 20, using the line “Made to move, shaped to fit.”

Made to move, shaped to fit🤸‍♀️. NikeSKIMS will make its China debut in #Shanghai, bringing its blend of sports performance and body-conscious design to a physical experience space at HKRI Taikoo Hui from Sept 29 to February 2027. @Nike @skims @KimKardashian #KimKardashian pic.twitter.com/9aq9c8BKzT

— Invest Shanghai (@InvestShanghai) September 20, 2026

Hong Kong is not waiting for the Shanghai doors. Lane Crawford began selling the Fall 26 line there on September 17, the same day the U.S. drop went live, 12 days before the mainland pop-up. Online in China, the kit is due on the Nike App and Nike’s China site.

The China Line Adds Footwear and a Hemming Desk

The first U.S. NikeSKIMS drop, unveiled September 22, 2025 and sold from September 26, ran across seven collections and 58 silhouettes, with more than 10,000 stated mix-and-match looks, sizes XXS through 4X, and prices from $38 to $128. China is getting a wider fabric map on day one, plus shoes, which the original U.S. launch did not lead with.

NikeSKIMS showed its first shoe, a recut Air Rift, on January 14, 2026, with the Mesh pair on sale in North America on January 26 at $150. A Satin pair later listed at $160. Mainland China did not get that winter footwear drop on SNKRS. The September kit puts shoes in the same room as the tights.

SKIMS posted the Fall 26 Edit 01 film on September 15, calling the clothes “body-obsessed silhouettes designed to hug every curve, support every shape, and move with every body,” with Fall 26 Edit 01 on SKIMS from September 17.

Introducing NikeSKIMS Fall ‘26 Edit 01: new performance innovations and body-obsessed silhouettes designed to hug every curve, support every shape, and move with every body. Arriving September 17.https://t.co/8SMu4qvooH pic.twitter.com/RSegQ8cLez

— SKIMS (@skims) September 15, 2026

NINE FABRICS IN THE FIRST CHINA DROP

• Performance Cotton Blend: Soft Dri-FIT tops cut for shape rather than a straight athletic block.
• Weightless: Semi-sheer, ultra-light layers with the same sweat-wicking yarn.
• Studio Stretch: Creamy, light, breathable fabric aimed at studio work.
• Matte: Smooth mid-level compression, the original core staple of the line.
• Stretch Nylon: Relaxed, roomier shapes for training and street wear.
• Ribbed Seamless: Vintage-washed rib knits with moisture control.
• Satin Shine: Light compression with a fine sheen, the dressier sport finish.
• Stretch Knit 2.0: Soft drape that still holds a contour.
• Airy: Breathable basics meant to stack over the sculpting pieces.

Every series is sold as Dri-FIT plus SKIMS patterning. The Chinese slogan on the launch materials is “shaped for form, born for movement.” Fit is the pitch, which is why a hemming counter is in the room and a ninth fabric is on the rack.

Stephanie Au Carries the Greater China Campaign

The China images are led by Hong Kong swimmer Stephanie Au, the city’s first five-time Olympian, with Dutch speed skater Jutta Leerdam, snowboarder Chloe Kim, and hurdler Anna Cockrell. Kim Kardashian is not in the mainland campaign set. The choice is pointed. The line was born as a celebrity-and-athlete hybrid; this chapter needs a Greater China face who has raced in a pool, not only posed in a studio.

Feeling myself and looking the way that I want to going into a race makes me feel so much more confident, and it definitely shows in my swimming. NikeSKIMS really sees women the way that they are. They empower women through their fabrics and that’s really what athletes need.

Stephanie Au, Hong Kong swimmer, Fall 26 campaign

Au singled out Studio Stretch as both “buttery” and hugging, “a strength and a softness.” That is the whole commercial argument in one garment: compression that still feels like loungewear. Kardashian, SKIMS co-founder and chief creative officer, used the China launch to talk past U.S. gym culture and toward the shopper the pop-up needs.

Chinese women are not only leading cultural trends, they are defining the future. We hope NikeSKIMS can open a new future for sport, so every woman is seen and empowered, and can break through every limit.

Kim Kardashian, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, SKIMS, China launch statement

Amy Montagne, Nike’s president when the first collection landed, called the brand part of Nike’s “broader commitment to her.” Heidi O’Neill, then Nike’s president of consumer, product and brand, said at the February 2025 unveiling that the companies wanted to “shake things up for the next generation of athletes.” China is where that language meets a market that has already moved on from generic tights.

More Than 170 Lululemon Stores Already Open in China

The wager has a named rival, even if Nike will not print it. Lululemon’s China Mainland business did $1.75 billion in fiscal 2025, up 29 percent, and made up 16 percent of that company’s sales. It ended that year with more than 170 company-operated stores on the mainland, after roughly doubling from about 70 doors in 2022, and it has kept opening shops in smaller cities.

That engine cooled in Lululemon’s latest quarter. China Mainland revenue rose 4 percent as reported and fell 2 percent in constant currency, with comparable sales down 8 percent. Management still guided China to a high-single-digit rise for the year. The gap Nike is walking into is not a vacuum. It is a dense store map plus a brand that just had a softer China season, which is exactly when a new fitting room can steal a trip.

Local names are moving too. Anta has been pushing MAIA ACTIVE, its yoga-and-studio label, in the same window. A five-month slow flash is also the usual China step before a real flagship, not a parade. If the hemming desk and the nine fabrics work, Nike has a reason to keep the lights on after February. If they do not, Nanjing West Road will have hosted an expensive sample sale.

What the Shanghai Pop-Up Has to Prove by February

The calendar is the contract. Shoppers can buy the clothes on a phone in late September. The physical bet is whether women will come back for a hem, a try-on, and a community session in a mall that already sells luxury and yoga. Digital in Greater China fell 29 percent last year, so a room with scissors is a direct answer to a channel that stopped converting.

THE PATH TO NANJING WEST ROAD

1. February 18, 2025: Nike and SKIMS announce NikeSKIMS, with a U.S. debut first and a 2026 global rollout.
2. September 26, 2025: The first collection goes on sale, 58 silhouettes across seven fabric groups.
3. January 26, 2026: The NikeSKIMS Rift Mesh shoe goes on sale in North America at $150.
4. August 2026: Hoarding with the joint logo goes up at HKRI Taikoo Hui.
5. September 17, 2026: Fall 26 Edit 01 lands in the U.S. and at Lane Crawford in Hong Kong.
6. September 29, 2026: The Shanghai pop-up opens at units N130 and N134.
7. February 2027: The lease as announced runs out.

By then the brand will know if Chinese women treat NikeSKIMS as a wardrobe system or as a celebrity capsule that looked good next to a Louis Vuitton ship. The doors at HKRI Taikoo Hui are the test, and they are only booked through February 2027.