A football legend meets a fashion legend for 2023’s most viral campaign – and both speak to GQ about the buzz

Kim Kardashian, the queen of underwear empire Skims, was first introduced to Neymar Jr in Japan – and it was all down to her 7-year-old son. “I like to take each of my kids on solo trips that are deep-rooted in their passions; North in Paris ‘cause of the fashion, and my son Saint really wanted to go to soccer games, and in particular he wanted to see Neymar play in Japan,” she tells GQ over Zoom from her minimal home in Calabasas – a once-unknown area outside Los Angeles that has become the nucleus of celebrity culture thanks to the Kardashian base camp. “So we flew to Japan. And we’d seen him play in France once before, and briefly met, and I knew that he was at the peak of football. He is the best.”

And that’s how Neymar was selected to front her first-ever Skims menswear campaign, which dropped earlier this week following a hugely successful women’s underwear brand that was first launched in 2019. Guys kept asking her when she was releasing Skims for them. She knew it was coming. But, she didn’t just want to release it without spearheading a major campaign. “Neymar just has such a huge influence in sports and culture, and that is totally undeniable,” Kardashian says over Zoom. “Neymar is just what Skims men’s is all about. He is one of the greats. I think that he is so powerful in his field and I believe that Skims men’s is a really powerful brand. It’s empowering for women, and now will be the same for men.”

Kardashian didn’t need her son to tell her that Neymar is a football legend. Kardashian is a self-confessed soccer mum – and not just because she watches her son play from the side lines at the weekends. “I actually used to play loads of it when I was younger,” she laughs. “Saint takes it to another level, but I do really like it. I used to post pictures of myself in my uniform. I’ll always have a little play with them, even in the corridors of hotels we stay in.”

For 31-year-old Neymar, there was no hesitation in signing up to the first Skims campaign. Alongside San Francisco 49ers’ Nick Bosa and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Neymar strips down to a pair of Skims’ new cotton boxer briefs, as well as the brand’s new T-shirts. “When she asked if I was up to be part of it I agreed on the spot, because everything that revolves around Skims matches with me and my style,” Neymar told GQ from Brazil.

The new Skims menswear range has been a long time coming. Kardashian and her business partner Jens Grede dropped a uni𝑠e𝑥 ‘Boyfriend Collection’ launched in 2020, but this is the first time Skims has done a standalone men’s line. It consists of T-shirts, socks and boxer briefs, which come in sizes XS to 5XL. Kardashian has catered to just about everybody. “10 per cent of our Skims womenswear customer base is male, the demand was huge. And so it took us a minute to make sure that we perfected all of the fabrics and the designs,” Kardashian says. “It’s not like we think of something and then it automatically just happens, which I think people assume. It was definitely a few years in the making.”

Fashion has always been something Neymar has been interested in, too. “I’ve always liked nice clothes, ever since I was a child I wanted to dress well, but my family couldn’t afford them so it was only a dream,” he says, explaining that growing up in a working-class family just outside São Paulo didn’t lend itself to big fashion opportunities. “Of course, everything changed when I signed my first contract with Santos FC. My family’s financial situation started to improve and I had an opportunity to buy some of the pieces I wanted.” With his job, Neymar moved to Europe, as a centre for Paris Saint Germain. “That was surely the biggest change for me. I moved to Paris and started to attend fashion weeks. The way I dress represents my state of spirit. The way people see you has a connection with how you dress.”

Neymar’s turn to campaign man mirrors that of David Beckham: the man that, arguably, made football fashionable. “He is a huge fashion and style reference in the football universe. I’m a huge fan of him on the pitch, but also outside,” says Neymar. “Everything he does is always done so elegantly.”