Exclusive: Entrepreneur Emma Grede stands by comments on successful women
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Entrepreneur Emma Grede speaks during Axios' BFD on Nov. 18. Screenshot: Axios
Entrepreneur Emma Grede rejected the idea that women must adhere to certain expectations regarding work/life balance during a sit-down interview at Axios' BFD event on Tuesday.
The big picture: A clip of Grede speaking on the subject went viral earlier this year after she expressed her belief that people need to be willing to put in extra work, including night and weekend shifts, to be successful.
- Grede said that "a lot of people" disliked her comments, but that a male entrepreneur like Mark Cuban wouldn't go viral for talking about the sacrifices necessary for success.
- "So there is an element of behavior and expectation that is affixed to women, whether we like it or not," Grede said. "And when you behave counter to that, somehow you're a monstrous human being."
- Grede added that "isn't the truth, and that two things can be true at once. You can at once be sympathetic, empathetic fantastic leader, and be absolutely laser-focused on building something great and succeed at that."
Zoom out: Grede co-founded the inclusive fashion line Good American and is a founding partner of Skims, both launched in collaboration with the Kardashians.
The latest: Skims raised $225 million in new funding last week, valuing the shapewear brand at $5 billion, nearly double the market capitalization of its competitor Victoria's Secret.
- Grede said the large majority of the funding will go toward opening more physical Skims stores and that the brand is currently opening about one new store each month.
- This bucks the broader trend of over 7,000 physical retail shores shuttering in 2024.
Friction point: Good American has helped normalize inclusive sizing, but a 600% surge in Americans using GLP-1s is reshaping what body inclusivity means.
- Despite the rise in Americans using weight loss medications, Good American hasn't seen major shifts in size sales, Grede said.
- She added that Good American differs from other brands by focusing on "fringe" sizes that others often neglect, including clothes for traditionally plus-size or very tall individuals.
- "Good American has only ever done all the sizes all the time," Grede said. "So there's a consistency to our business and a consistency to the reliability from a customer perspective."
Zoom in: Grede said she believes tariffs are "here to stay," but neither Skims or Good American has raised prices to offset costs.
- "I don't see it as any different to any other business constraints that we had," she said, adding that the two companies have been somewhat able to "future-proof" for such challenges.
