source: BBC

Kim Kardashian’s Skims is offering customers refunds for its $148 (£110) advent calendar which has been widely criticised on social media.

The accessories advent calendar promised “twelve days of fun surprises” but has been mocked online for the quality of its contents, such as hair clips and keychains, with some comparing them to something you would find down the back of a sofa.

A spokesperson for Skims has told a number of media outlets “for some, the calendar didn’t meet expectations” and the company has “personally contacted every customer” to offer a full refund or credit to put towards other products”.

The BBC has contacted Skims for comment.

The shapewear and clothing business was co-founded by Kardashian in 2019 and has made the reality TV star a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine.

Skims was valued at $5bn in 2025 when it raised millions of dollars in new funding.

One account on TikTok called spicychathouse compared the contents of the calendar to things “my cat collects from around my house”. Another account said it looked like “a bunch of stuff that Kim Kardashian was emptying out of her bedside table”.

A number of accounts showed people cleaning out their own sofas and claiming they had accidentally created the Skims advent calendar.

“It is really interesting to see this kind of backlash,” said Kate Vlietstra, senior director of food and drink at market research analyst Mintel.

“It is something we have been seeing a bit more in recent years, particularly with the trend for unboxing on social media,” she said,

“It means that, inevitably, if people are not feeling they’re getting the value that they have hoped for from the advent calendar…they’ve purchased, then yes, there is going to be a backlash.”

Advent calendars remain popular, according to Helen Wing, head of innovation at market research company Ipsos though she said that “the buzz around them has reduced a little bit”.

She said according to Ipsos research, people are willing to pay a bit more for an advent calendar but the contents have to justify the price tag.

Using a £285 advent calendar sold by Liberty as an example, Wing said the upmarket department story is “very open about the value of the contents”.

“They will say there is over £1,000 worth of content,” she said. “If you’ve got that reassurance when you’re making the purchase, particularly if it is for a gift, then it is important to have some faith that the contents are actually going to be worth the money that you’re paying.”