Emma Grede

Early Life and Background

Emma Findlay Grede (née Findlay) is a British businesswoman and fashion entrepreneur born in London, England, in 1982, and widely reported to have grown up in Plaistow, East London, in a working-class environment.[9][13] She was raised by a single mother of Jamaican and Trinidadian heritage, alongside several sisters, an upbringing that exposed her early to both economic constraints and the resilience of Black Caribbean diaspora communities in the United Kingdom.[9][13]

Grede has described leaving school at around sixteen and entering the workforce, including work in retail, before finding her way into the fashion and events industry.[8][13] Despite leaving formal schooling early, she later studied Business Management and Marketing at the London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts London, between 1997 and 2001.[15] This combination of lived experience, self-reliance, and specialized business education laid the foundations for her later career in fashion marketing, talent management, and brand-building.

Her East London background shaped both her professional sensibilities and her advocacy. Growing up outside the traditional centers of British fashion and finance, she witnessed how women of color and working-class consumers were often excluded from the fashion industry’s imagination. These early observations would later inform her insistence on size inclusivity, diverse casting, and accessible brand narratives in her ventures.

Career Beginnings and Development

After finishing her studies at London College of Fashion, Grede began her career at Quintessentially, a luxury concierge service, gaining exposure to high-end clients and lifestyle branding.[9] She then moved to Inca Productions, one of Europe’s leading fashion show and event production companies, where she honed skills in staging runway shows and coordinating complex, multi-brand events.[9][15] This period gave her insight into the logistical and creative dimensions of fashion, as well as direct contact with designers and corporate marketing teams.

In 2006, Grede joined Saturday Group, a multimedia fashion marketing agency connected to a network of industry creatives.[15] Building on this experience, she founded ITB Worldwide (Independent Talent Brand Group) in 2008, at age 24.[9][15] ITB was created as a talent management and marketing firm that specialized in linking brands with celebrities and influential figures, an emerging field in the late 2000s as social media began to reshape promotional strategies.

As founder and later chief executive of ITB, Grede worked with high-profile designers and fashion houses, including Vivienne Westwood, Christopher Kane, Dior, and Alexander Wang, managing partnerships and campaigns that integrated talent and brand storytelling.[15] Her success in this arena positioned her as a behind-the-scenes architect connecting fashion, celebrity culture, and consumer markets.

By 2010, she officially became CEO of ITB.[15] The company’s growth culminated in its acquisition by Rogers & Cowan, an established entertainment marketing and public relations firm, in 2018.[15] This acquisition marked a transition point: Grede had built and exited a significant talent-strategy business, freeing her to focus on new ventures where she could put inclusive design and consumer experience at the center.

Major Ventures and Accomplishments

Good American

Grede’s most widely recognized entrepreneurial milestone is the co-founding of Good American, a denim and apparel brand launched with Khloé Kardashian. The company formally debuted on 18 October 2016, positioning itself as a premium label that would promote a "healthy body ideal" and offer a full, inclusive size range.[9][1]

From its inception, Good American focused on sizes that extended well beyond the conventional 0–12 range, often carrying sizes up to at least 24 or beyond, and committed to inclusive casting and marketing imagery.[8][9] The brand’s launch was widely reported as generating about $1 million in sales on its first day, a performance hailed in fashion and business media as the largest or most successful denim launch in apparel history.[1][9] Although not certified as an official world record, the figure became emblematic of the commercial power of inclusive design and celebrity-backed marketing.

Grede serves as co-founder and CEO of Good American, overseeing product development, brand positioning, and expansion into categories such as activewear and ready-to-wear.[1][8] Under her leadership, the company has been repeatedly cited as a case study in aligning business growth with values of body diversity and representation. In industry profiles, including Fashionista and Business of Fashion, Good American’s success is linked directly to her insistence on meaningful size ranges and fit-testing across varied body types.[1][9][15]

SKIMS

Following the success of Good American, Grede became a founding partner and chief product officer of SKIMS, the shapewear, underwear, and loungewear brand co-founded by Kim Kardashian and her husband Jens Grede, launched in 2019.[1][4][5] SKIMS entered a crowded shapewear market but distinguished itself through inclusive sizing, skin-tone diversity, and high-profile digital campaigns.

As founding partner, Grede has been credited with overseeing product innovation, supply-chain strategy, and the brand’s expansion into categories such as loungewear and menswear.[5][13] Business coverage and profiles note that SKIMS has grown into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, with valuations reflecting its rapid global expansion and strong demand.[5][13] Grede’s role sits at the intersection of design, operations, and strategic brand management, reinforcing her reputation as an operator, not merely a front-facing figure.

Safely and Other Consumer Ventures

In 2021, Grede co-founded Safely, a line of plant-based home-care and cleaning products, alongside Kris Jenner and Chrissy Teigen.[1][3][8] Safely markets itself as offering effective household cleaners with non-toxic formulations and elevated branding, targeting consumers who want both performance and aesthetic appeal.

Grede has also been described as a co-founder of the sports apparel brand Off Season, further extending her portfolio into athleisure and performance wear.[5] In 2023, she became a founding investor in Khy, Kylie Jenner’s clothing line, cementing her role as a serial entrepreneur and investor within the broader Kardashian–Jenner fashion ecosystem.[3]

"Shark Tank" and Investing

On 8 October 2021, Grede appeared as a guest investor on the Season 13 premiere of ABC’s entrepreneurial reality show Shark Tank, marking her first broadcast episode as a "Guest Shark".[2][7] With this appearance, she became the show’s first Black female investor, a milestone reported across entertainment and business media.[2][8][10][13]

Her participation brought her experience in inclusive fashion and consumer products to a mainstream audience, allowing her to evaluate pitches and negotiate deals in real time. The Shark Tank role underscored her identity as an investor and mentor to founders, rather than only as a brand-builder. It also expanded the representation of Black women in televised investment spaces, which historically have been dominated by white male investors.

Media, Speaking, and Thought Leadership

Grede’s growing prominence has led to a wide range of media appearances and speaking engagements. She has been profiled by outlets including Elle, Time, The CEO Magazine, and The Times, often focusing on her journey from East London to the helm of multimillion-dollar companies.[5][6][11][12] She serves as a speaker and presenter at fashion and business events, such as Fashion Tech Forum, where her biography highlights her emphasis on inclusive sizing and women’s economic empowerment.[9]

In addition, Grede has hosted or appeared on podcasts and interview series exploring entrepreneurship, leadership, and personal development. Her LinkedIn profile notes her role as host of Aspire with Emma Grede, a platform through which she discusses career-building, ambition, and strategic self-investment.[16] Her work increasingly includes authorship and public commentary on how women can navigate corporate structures, including the forthcoming or recent book Start With Yourself, referenced in public speaking and promotional materials.[16][12]

Boards, Philanthropy, and Advocacy

Beyond her commercial ventures, Grede has taken on significant roles in philanthropy and advocacy, often centered on women and girls. She is a member of the global board of directors of Women for Women International, a non-profit that supports women survivors of war through social and economic empowerment programs.[8][9][15] She also serves as a board member for Baby2Baby, a children’s charity that provides diapers, clothing, and basic necessities to children living in poverty.[8][15]

On 27 April 2023, the Obama Foundation announced Grede as a member of the Girls Opportunity Alliance (GOA) Advisory Board, recognizing her as a "British businesswoman, serial entrepreneur, and philanthropist" and highlighting her work as founding partner of SKIMS and co-founder and CEO of Good American.[2] In this role, she contributes to global initiatives aimed at expanding educational access and leadership development for adolescent girls, aligning her business influence with systemic social impact.

Grede is also chairwoman of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an initiative that calls on major retailers to commit 15% of their shelf space to products from Black-owned businesses.[8] This role reflects her belief that representation must extend beyond marketing images to ownership and economic participation. Through public statements and board work, she has argued that corporate commitments to diversity must be backed by quantifiable metrics and procurement policies.

Awards, Honors, and Recognition

While specific award dates are not always documented, Grede’s influence has been recognized through numerous honors and lists. She is included in the BoF 500, Business of Fashion’s annual index of people shaping the global fashion industry, recognized alongside her co-founder Khloé Kardashian for Good American.[15] Media outlets such as Time and Elle have profiled her as a key figure in reshaping fashion toward inclusivity.[5][6][7]

Her role as the first Black woman investor on Shark Tank has been highlighted as a historic first in both entrepreneurial media and speaking biographies, positioning her as a trailblazer in television investing.[8][13] Additionally, she is frequently cited in business rankings and wealth analyses, with Grokipedia and other sources noting her substantial net worth derived from stakes in SKIMS, Good American, Safely, and related ventures.[13]

Personal Life

Emma Grede is married to Jens Grede, a Swedish fashion entrepreneur and co-founder of Frame, a luxury denim brand, and Skims, where he serves as chief executive.[1][3][4][6] According to biographical notes, the couple married in 2008, with IMDb listing the wedding date as 28 July 2008

The couple moved from Britain to Bel Air, Los Angeles, around 2017, a relocation that placed them at the center of the Kardashian–Jenner media and business network.[1][4][6][12] They have four children, named Grey, Lola, and twins Lake and Rafferty.[4][12][14] In interviews, Grede has spoken about balancing motherhood with the demands of running multiple companies and serving on high-profile boards, often emphasizing deliberate time management and the importance of modeling ambition and work ethic for her children.

Legacy and Historical Impact

Emma Grede’s historical significance lies in her role at the intersection of fashion, media, investment, and advocacy for inclusivity. Through Good American, she helped redefine commercial expectations around size-inclusive fashion, demonstrating that offering extensive size ranges and diverse imagery could yield outstanding financial performance, as evidenced by the brand’s reported $1 million in first-day sales.[1][8][9]

As founding partner of SKIMS, she contributed to the mainstreaming of shapewear and loungewear designed for a broad spectrum of body types and skin tones, aligning product innovation with changing cultural attitudes toward body image and comfort.[1][4][5] Her work collectively pushed large segments of the fashion and consumer-goods industries to confront long-standing gaps in representation.

Grede’s status as the first Black female investor on Shark Tank marked a visible breakthrough in televised entrepreneurship.[2][8][13] In an era when access to capital remains unequally distributed, her presence in the investor’s chair symbolizes both representational progress and the emergence of Black women as capital allocators and ecosystem builders, not only as founders seeking funding.

Through board roles with Women for Women International, Baby2Baby, and the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance, as well as leadership in the Fifteen Percent Pledge, Grede has linked her commercial success to broader efforts to expand economic opportunity for women, Black entrepreneurs, and children in poverty.[2][8][9][15] This combination of profit-driven enterprise and measurable social commitments reflects a contemporary model of women’s leadership that insists on integrating equity into business strategy.

Her story also contributes to the historical record of Black British women in global business. Emerging from East London rather than traditional elite pathways, she exemplifies how talent, risk-taking, and strategic use of celebrity partnerships can propel women of color into positions of significant economic influence. For future historians of fashion and entrepreneurship, Grede’s trajectory offers a rich case study in how women reshape markets and institutions while negotiating their own visibility and power.

Later Life and Ongoing Work

As of the mid-2020s, Emma Grede continues to play active roles in her companies and philanthropic commitments. Based in Los Angeles, she remains co-founder and CEO of Good American, founding partner and chief product officer at SKIMS, co-founder of Safely, and investor in emerging brands like Khy.[1][3][5][13] She also serves on the board of the Obama Foundation and other non-profits, while chairing the Fifteen Percent Pledge.[2][8]

In 2026, Forbes published a significant profile on her leadership philosophy, emphasizing her evolution from rule-changer to strategist who encourages women to master institutional rules as a path to enduring power.[8] That narrative suggests that her next phase will involve not only building brands but also shaping the frameworks through which future generations of women entrepreneurs secure capital, negotiate deals, and influence policy.

Grede remains alive and professionally active, with no public record of retirement. Her ongoing work, including media hosting and writing, continues to expand her influence beyond fashion into broader discussions of ambition, self-investment, and structural change. For an editorial almanac of women’s history, her career illustrates how early-21st-century women can harness consumer culture and celebrity networks to achieve both economic success and social impact, while illuminating the evolving challenges and strategies for women navigating global capitalism.