For years, Kim Kardashian promoted various waist trainers on Instagram. She got paid to promote them, probably six-figures or more. But a few months ago, Kim introduced her shapewear line, SKIMS (formerly Kimono). Most of the shapewear just looks like Spanx in various nude and beige colors. I have no idea about the quality (some of it actually looks half-decent), but SKIMS is selling well. Like, extremely well. And Kim has introduced a new product with SKIMS: her very own branded waist-trainer. For the uninitiated, waist trainers are just the 2010s version of corsets. Some have boning, some are just fabric, but they’re really just old-school corsets. And much like OG corsets, waist trainers do next to nothing. In fact, if they do anything at all, it’s “be sucky and medically questionable.” This is not the first time we’ve discussed this, but consider this an annual PSA:
Kim Kardashian has promoted several questionable trends over the years, from heeled flip-flops to bike shorts — but her latest launch could be downright hazardous to your health. On Monday, the 38-year-old shapewear mogul debuted her new SKIMS waist trainer, which proceeded to sell out in every size (from XXS to 4X) in under 24 hours. “They just make me feel really snatched,” Kardashian explained in a recent Instagram video plugging the $68 style, inspired by the girdles she’s worn and loved for years. But although the star’s curve-enhancing contraption claims to “instantly erase inches,” buyers shouldn’t look to them as a long-term solution for whittling their waists.
“While they seem like a quick and easy fix, waist trainers don’t actually burn fat or make you lose weight, and there can be a lot of harmful side effects,” Dena Barsoum, MD, board-certified physiatrist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Hospital for Special Surgery, told Page Six Style. “There’s a reason our bodies have the shape that they do. Waist trainers compress everything in the abdomen; not just your muscles and skin, but your intestines, stomach, liver, spleen and kidneys, and all of those need space to function.”
As a result, she said, wearers could experience indigestion and heartburn — or worse, cracked ribs and pinched nerves. And while Kardashian praised waist trainers as the perfect gift for her pregnant friends, Dr. Barsoum said there are far better ways for new moms to bounce back after giving birth.
“It’s understandable that women are anxious to get back to their pre-baby physique, but between a healthy, balanced diet and exercise, you can shed those pounds in a healthy way — safely, over time — that will allow you to keep that weight off. Whereas with waist trainers, they’re not causing you to lose weight, they’re just pushing things in different directions.”
Yep. I thought Instagram was supposed to crack down on these kinds of crackpot sponsorships? Maybe Kim got in through the backdoor (heh) because it’s her OWN product and not really a sponsorship. She’s not at Goop-level for the promotion of sh-tty pseudoscience, but she’s coming close. Sometimes I want to shake Kim and yell “you’re a 38 year old mother of four, stop promoting corsets!!” Jesus.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Instagram.
These people are so toxic…
Gah……everywhere you look there is a kaTRASHian/jenner. Enough already!!
+1
…I just had a baby and if someone hands me a waist trainer as a gift, that person is excommunicated from my life.
My midwife gave me one in the hospital. It actually helped with the pain of a c-section.
is the belly bandit a waist trainer? that one is good after child birth because things are a little loose and also you want your uterus to go back to it’s normal size. I liked the feeling at that time. would never risk organ issues to wear one tightly for no reason though
It sounds like waist trainers are different, because I too was given a belly band to be able to walk out of the hospital with my postpartum diastasis rectus and umbilical hernia. And then my physical therapist told me to wear one, either the one from the hospital or one I got at target.
Waist trainers and postpartum bands are slightly different. It’s not meant to nip you in several inches at the waist and taper out to give curves, they can help support your muscles post surgery, your back, and give support to help contract your uterus (which will happen naturally anyway) … not compress you until you can’t breath.. if you can’t breath it’s too tight for postpartum.
Those are different.Thats a compression garment.They help for healing.Kim is endorsing a corset and the sad part is the fact her waste is smaller is because she had a surgery to get it that way and people believe her.
They’re the same thing, the only difference is the branding.
It can be relaxing…
In many countries these are given post partum. My SIL was horrified I didn’t have one and got me one. She puts thicker waists down to lack of girdles post birth.
I had never heard such a thing in my life
Then my friend started doing drag and he used a waist trainer ( to no effect )
NOOOOOO REALLY?!?!?!?! Whoever woud have thought…
It’s a Skam.
It is a skam. And anyone who defends them or buys their krap is being complicit to their korruption.
@Jules there are millions of young impressionable girls in KK’s marketing demographic. This is ToxiK
@AB, good point. I honestly do not know who their fans are. But young girls are being korrupted by them and the cycle of manipulation kontinues.
I am considering trying out some of the bras she’s selling that don’t have underwire. Kim has huge breasts that, even if fake, at least look natural, so yeah I do kind of trust her brand when it comes to underwear. If you are bigger than a DD finding bras is a lifelong struggle. I found an underwire-free bra recently and I’m hooked.
@Ann, I’m a DDD, maybe a link to this bra?
I’m pretty sure it’s just a cheap Hanes bra. I’d check for you but I’m wearing it lol I’m an American G and it’s an XXL very unfancy sports bra. I still get some minor spillage but it’s comfortable and looks good under a v-neck.
have you tried uk brands? I’m 36K and cannot buy in America…thank GOD for the A Bra That Fits movement!
*is waiting for that bolt of lightning to strike me down* but i will admit that for once kim looks great in the beige baggy cargo and vest combo. she looks extremely relaxed and at ease with her kids who are so cute. gorgeous for once
Eh – waist trainers or some iteration of them have been around for centuries. Women used them in China for their “sitting the month” after childbirth (and still do). Latina women use them (my friend used them after both of her pregnancies). African women use them as well. I dont think they are necessary for someone who hasnt just had a baby but I know a LOT of women who used them after and it helped. So yeah. There’s my 2 cents.
Waist trainers “train” your waist to be smaller by pushing organs around… actual bands post delivery are more like spanx. There’s no boning. They’re there to support and aid recovery. Trainers are just about cinching in the waist as much as physically possible.
Hence why I made sure to say “some iteration”. Not all waist trainers are made the same. Some have no boning and function like very heavy duty spanx
K, I do have to point out–no, corsets weren’t “unnecessary” in the time period they were worn. Yes, plenty of people were strait-laced into them, because that was a fashion trend for the time, not the prevailing norm. The corset, on it’s own, was support wear for your chest area. Think bras and girdles, for example. And not everyone was strait-lacing themselves into it in the image we think of today. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that this was only for specific types of corsets, and the ones you wear for every day wear weren’t conducive to this.
Waist trainers, though, are entirely unnecessary and only serve a cosmetic purpose and are therefore useless.
I don’t know. Obviously they’re not good for you long term, but is there any real difference between wearing these and wearing spanx? IF you’re treating it as an undergarment / shapewear, it’s not really an issue in my book. I suppose the problems really just start with people not wearing them properly, wearing them too tight, or for too long.
Christ, I had an indent on my wrist for a while from wearing a fitbit haha.
Yep, I am completely with you. Of course these don’t burn calories and I kind of doubt that anyone would proclaim they would… Hopefully (although doubtful) they come with some kind of instruction that says not to wear for more than X hours or something.
Good lord. Her children are going to grow up with little or no self confidence after seeing all the things their family has done to alter their faces and bodies.
Yup, and they will fall down the endless rabbit hole of cosmetic surgeries and denial as to what they have surgically altered to dispel the public that it was done out of diet/exercise/make up, etc…
I have never seen the draw that Kardashians have had on society, yet it is due to the fact that I don’t think that they bring anything authentic or valuable to me and lack talent.
She goes to the doctor to get the fat sucked out of her stomach. What’s the point of her wearing a waist trainer/body shaper if her plastic surgeon is already sculpting out her figure?
And Colombians have been doing these types of body shapers for decades. Kim’s late and her stuff is probably overpriced.
I have a small waist in proportion to my hips and chest, but after having a kid, I’ve always had these little love handles that protrude slightly right over my hips that annoy me, so if i wear a form fitting dress for a night out on the town, I want to smooth that out. That’s the only time I wear any sort of body shaper. I refuse to stuff myself into one of these on a regular basis.
We all know how she got her tiny waist and it wasn’t from exercise/diet or waist trainers.
Just here to say her children are beautiful.
They certainly are.
“Sold out quickly” – how many were produced? And who in the heck needs a waist trainer if you wear an XXS?
Oldest trick in the book. You only produce a small amount of the product just so you can brag about it being sold out.
Yes, this is their trend for everything. Let’s make five lip kits and watch them sell out in 5 minutes so we can then post 5 nudie selfies.
Has anyone tried kaoirfitness?
And they are dangerous.
I am currently recovering from DIEP flap surgery after breast cancer reconstruction (basically they take skin and tissue from your abdomen in a tummy tuck and rebuild it into the affected breast.) I have to wear a binder for 6 weeks so the abdominal muscles don’t pooch out. I wish they’d given me one after my hysterectomy 25 years ago…I had the mother of all pooches. However to wear something that deliberately cinches you in, not just support your abdomen, is silly and dangerous.
What bothers me about this is the fact that her waist is so tiny because of all the plastic surgery she’s had (and the embiggening of her butt making her waist look smaller by comparison). She’s basically claiming that if you wear this corset thing you’ll get the same results. And most grown women know that’s nonsense, but her younger followers might believe it.
I have a pretty straight-up-and-down body but love vintage clothing. If I ever wanted to wear true vintage from the 40s, 50s, or 60s, I’d have to wear a waist cincher in order to fit into the clothes because my waist is about four inches too big for anything that fits my chest and hips. I find it terribly uncomfortable so I mostly avoid wearing true vintage.
I wish I could understand how anyone believes this crap, even if they’re young. I’m 27 so I was older during the rise of the Kardashians/Jenners but I have a hard time believing I, or any of my friends, would have bought into/bought this crap. That’s not to say we didn’t have body image issues. We just weren’t so dumb that we would actually believe something like a waist trainer would yield those results. People need to educate their kids.