Kim Kardashian’s Skims brand is being sued by a small New York designer over the shapewear brand’s use of the name “Fits Everybody.”
The “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star’s fashion empire is being targeted over the Fitz Everybody collection, with a much smaller clothing brand, Fitz Everybody to AT, claiming it already has the rights to the name, according to documents obtained by Page Six on Friday.
In a 43-page trademark infringement lawsuit filed March 31 in the Southern District of New York on behalf of Dennis Cesare, Fits Everybody and AT allege that Skims pushed through with the release of the Fits Everybody collection “after receiving repeated and clear notices” of its rights.
The lawsuit also alleges that Kardashian’s hugely popular lingerie brand identified “trademarks owned by small, self-funded, women-owned businesses,” recognizing that “small business owners likely lack the resources to fight back.”
Cesare is seeking an order prohibiting Skims from continuing to use the name and damages, including legal costs and profits.
Lawyers for the small business accused Skims of making a “calculating decision” to use the name anyway and “relying on its overwhelming financial resources, celebrity connections and marketing machine to simply kill Fits Everybody To AT” and “wipe it out of existence” in a written statement.
“Defendants believe it has the potential to outshine and persist beyond simple legal challenges from small business owners,” the document reads.
Reality TV icon Cesare launched the $5 billion Skims brand in 2019, but Cesare’s brand has been selling apparel and swimwear under the name “Fits Everybody To AT” for nearly a decade.
One of the petitioners’ concerns is that Skims’ use of “Fits Everybody” is likely to cause “confusion” and could “overwhelm” a small business’ “brand identity.”
The document also states that smaller brands have become “virtually invisible” in search engine results due to similar names.
“The published complaint tells the story of our client, a small, self-funded business founded and operated by its sole owner and operator, Dennis Cesare,” Jessica Matthews, Cesare’s attorney, told the Daily Mail in a statement.
The statement also said Cesare “built the brand from the ground up years before Skims entered the market.”
“What followed, as alleged, was a textbook case of reverse confusion, with a much larger celebrity-backed company adopting a confusingly similar name and quickly saturating the market through its size, advertising, and co-founder Kim Kardashian’s cultural influence,” the statement continued.
They further claimed that “we asked them to stop using her mark almost two years ago” and “they refused.” Cesare has two active federal trademarks: 2016 and 2024.
“The USPTO has since refused to register our trademark twice, citing our client’s trademark,” Matthews told the magazine.
Skims’ application was rejected by the USPTO in December based on what the trademark authority called “likelihood of confusion.”
Kardashian’s company filed for a three-month extension of the six-month response deadline in March, and Cesare filed a federal lawsuit late last month.
“Trademark law doesn’t care how big you are or how many followers you have,” Matthews’ statement to the outlet concluded. “It matters who uses the mark first. Our client was first and had no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect her brand and small business.”
The complaint alleges that after being notified of the alleged infringement, Skims continued to promote and expand its “best-selling” Fitz Everybody collection, generating a mind-boggling $700 million to $900 million in revenue.
Representatives for Kardashian and Cesare did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment on Friday.
