Why the Skims nipple bra sold out

Kim Kardashian's Skims Ultimate Nipple Bra was made to create an "attention-grabbing look." When the product was revealed in late October, it served its purpose, generating headlines and social media buzz, which Kardashian-led exploits tend to do. But a little less than a month after the bra was available, the undergarment had sold out, proving that the product was more than just another “break the internet” stunt. So what's behind the Ultimate Nipple Bra’s popularity? According to consumers and fashion psychologists, it’s about autonomy more than anything else.

“I think that this was something that people didn’t expect and people forget how many lives or how many people’s self-esteem and mental health it can help just by feeling like they have a full breast with a nipple that’s able to look hard,” Nicole Mikhael, 33, tells Yahoo Life.

The Los Angeles-based resident is a breast cancer survivor who, like many others, sees a great benefit to the bra. “I wish I had this in 2017 because I didn’t have any nipples,” she says, recalling when she received her diagnosis and got a double mastectomy at just 26 years old. She lived the next few years feeling incomplete without them before getting nipples tattooed. “When I saw myself just with a temporary tattoo, before I did the actual tattoo, I started crying. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I feel whole again.’ I would have never known that nipples would have completed this chapter for me."

That excitement or sense of empowerment isn’t isolated to those whose breasts have been altered through medical history. Natalie Bright, a 42-year-old content creator based in New York City, tells Yahoo Life that it’s an “ingenious product” for women all over who have been accustomed to concealing nipples with their bras and other products like nipple covers. She even created a DIY version of it once the Skims bra sold out.

“The no-bra look and free-the-nipple movement has been slowly gaining momentum,” she says, pointing to the fashion runways and publications as proof. “People want to push the boundaries and want to feel empowered to make their own decisions about how to dress.”

This isn’t an entirely new concept, especially when it comes to the female nipple being a particular source of contention and protest. In fact, visible nipples have been in vogue before, according to Sex and the City's Samantha Jones and famously, Florence Pugh. Faux nipples were even included in an old iteration of the Victoria’s Secret bombshell bra, although it’s no longer made or available to purchase.

So why is Skims’s version causing so much commotion? Bright suspects it’s because people are now ready to have a conversation about the double standards that exist when it comes to men and women’s bodies. “Young women don’t want to conform to oppressive norms set by society,” she says, like the idea that “you are too sexy or you are showing too much skin.”

Bianca Fox, a 36-year-old OnlyFans creator living in London, says the commotion is also a natural response to much of Kardashian’s marketing.

“I recognize the hype Kim Kardashian can generate, particularly when it comes to anything controversial as people love to hate her,” Fox tells Yahoo Life. “I really like that this bra has opened up such a fascinating discussion, I think that’s really healthy and something I support.”

Carolyn Mair, a cognitive psychologist and author of The Psychology of Fashion, affirms that there are many reasons for people to have either a positive or negative reaction to the nipple bra. “Seeing the shape of nipples through clothing might be appealing for some people, but it is highly subjective and varies among individuals and cultures depending on personal preferences and sociocultural norms and contexts,” she tells Yahoo Life. “It could be that people are putting more emphasis on trying to be explicitly sexually attractive post-pandemic or because they are feeling lonely. But in my opinion, it’s more about following a trend that has been created by a celebrity with a huge fan base.”

And if freeing the nipple is that trend, Mikhael and others who have lost their own to cancer are excited to have an opportunity to take part.

“It’s no different than people using prosthetics when it comes to makeup for movies. It’s no different than putting hoops in your ears. Now people’s accessories are going to be their hard nipples showing through their top or whatever it is,” she says. “Nipples do need to be talked about, and this will make it more normalized.”