What We Know About Skims' $148 Advent Calendar Refunds

Skims is offering full refunds or store credit to every customer who bought its $148 (£110) accessories advent calendar, after the contents drew widespread mockery on social media, the BBC reports. A company spokesperson told outlets that "for some, the calendar didn't meet expectations" and said Skims has "personally contacted every customer" with the refund-or-credit offer, according to the BBC.

The shapewear and clothing brand, co-founded by Kim Kardashian in 2019, was valued at $5 billion in 2025 after raising new funding, per the BBC's reporting. Kardashian's stake has made her a billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, as cited by the BBC. Against that backdrop, a $148 seasonal item has generated an outsized volume of online criticism in the days since it went on sale.

What's inside the $148 calendar that sparked complaints?

The calendar promised "twelve days of fun surprises," but the day-by-day contents leaned heavily on small branded extras rather than full-size products, per the BBC's breakdown: a tartan teddy bear keychain (day one), hair ties (days two, three and ten), Skims logo hair clips (days four, six and eight), a Skims logo squishy ornament (day five), beige elastic hair bands (day seven), a Skims logo comb keychain (day nine), a Skims keychain (day eleven) and a furry compact mirror keychain (day twelve).

No single item in the lineup is a garment or a shapewear piece — the products most associated with the Skims brand. That gap between price and perceived value is what drove the online reaction, rather than any defect in the items themselves.

What has Skims said about the refunds?

Skims' public response has been narrow and specific: refund or credit, offered directly to buyers, without a broader statement on pricing or sourcing. The spokesperson's line — "for some, the calendar didn't meet expectations" — frames the issue as a mismatch in buyer expectations rather than a product fault, the BBC notes. The company has not detailed how many calendars were sold or what the refund program will cost it. The BBC says it has separately contacted Skims for comment beyond the statement already given to other outlets.

How big is Skims, and why does a $148 item matter to a $5 billion brand?

Skims' most recent funding round valued the company at $5 billion in 2025, the BBC reports, a figure that places a single advent calendar far outside the products that typically move the business's top line. The financial exposure from refunding one accessory item is unlikely to register against that valuation. The reputational exposure is a separate question: advent calendars have become a recurring December flashpoint for premium brands, where the ratio of price to contents gets tested publicly and immediately by buyers posting unboxings.

For Skims, a brand built on shapewear and loungewear carrying real price premiums, a seasonal accessory product that reads as filler — hair ties, keychains, a comb — cuts against the value proposition the core product line is designed to protect. That is the commercial logic behind moving quickly to refund rather than defend the calendar's contents.

What are shoppers saying online?

The criticism has concentrated on comparisons between the calendar's contents and household clutter. A TikTok account called spicychathouse compared the items to things "my cat collects from around my house," according to the BBC. Another account described the contents as looking like "a bunch of stuff that Kim Kardashian was emptying out of her bedside table." Several accounts posted videos of themselves cleaning out their own sofas and joking that they had recreated the Skims calendar by accident, the BBC reports.

The pattern is consistent across the complaints cited by the BBC: not that the items were broken or missing, but that a $148 price point implied something closer to the brand's signature products than to stocking-stuffer accessories. Skims' refund-and-credit response addresses that complaint directly by letting buyers either get their money back or redirect it toward the shapewear and clothing lines the company is known for.

The BBC's original reporting, including the full day-by-day contents list and the TikTok reaction, is available here.