Knix Makes Its Boldest Retail Move Yet With a Nationwide Target Launch
After more than a decade of building one of the most recognized intimate apparel brands in North America, Knix is stepping firmly into a new chapter. The 13-year-old period underwear and women's apparel brand has announced the launch of KT by Knix — its children's sub-brand designed for teens and pre-teens — in over 350 Target stores across the United States. It marks the company's first-ever nationwide wholesale deal and, by a significant margin, its largest retail partnership to date.
For a brand that built its empire almost entirely through direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels, this move signals a deliberate and strategic pivot toward omnichannel retail. And the timing, backed by impressive financial momentum, suggests Knix is more than ready for the challenge.
From DTC Darling to Wholesale Powerhouse
Knix's story is, in many ways, a textbook example of how a digitally native brand can scale through community, authenticity, and product innovation. Founded in 2013, the Toronto-based company carved out a loyal customer base by offering leakproof underwear and body-positive innerwear at a time when the mainstream market largely ignored those needs.
That strategy paid off in a big way. Knix has now surpassed $1 billion in cumulative DTC sales, a milestone that underscores just how effectively the brand connected with consumers outside traditional retail environments. But what's particularly striking heading into 2025 is the company's wholesale trajectory: Knix is reporting a 90% year-over-year increase in wholesale sales across North America.
That kind of growth doesn't happen by accident. It reflects a brand that has successfully crossed the threshold from internet favorite to household name — and is now using wholesale as a lever to accelerate that recognition even further.
What Is KT by Knix?
KT by Knix is Knix's dedicated sub-brand for younger consumers, specifically targeting the teen and pre-teen demographic. The line brings the same core philosophy of comfort, functionality, and body inclusivity that Knix is known for in adult innerwear, but tailored to the needs of younger people navigating their bodies for the first time.
Period underwear and leakproof apparel for younger consumers is a category that has seen rising demand in recent years, as parents and young people alike seek out practical, stigma-free solutions for menstrual health. KT by Knix was built to fill exactly that gap, offering products that prioritize dignity, comfort, and confidence at a formative stage of life.
Placing this sub-brand inside Target is a strategically sound move. Target's broad demographic reach, family-focused shopping environment, and strong private label and wellness reputation make it a natural home for a product line aimed at teens and their parents.
Why Target? Understanding the Retail Partnership
Target isn't just a big-box retailer — it's a cultural touchpoint. The chain has long had a reputation for elevating brands and giving trend-forward, mission-driven companies a platform to reach millions of everyday shoppers. For Knix, partnering with Target means instant visibility in hundreds of communities across the United States, many of which may have never encountered the brand online.
Prior to this deal, Knix's U.S. wholesale presence was limited to premium retailers like Bloomingdale's and Revolve, with additional presence in Canadian retailers Holt Renfrew and Sporting Life. Those are strong partners for brand prestige, but they serve a narrower audience. Target, by contrast, opens the door to a much wider and more diverse consumer base — including the exact parents and young teens who are the target audience for KT by Knix.
Launching in over 350 locations at once also demonstrates that both Knix and Target have serious confidence in the product's retail readiness and consumer demand.
The Broader Trend: DTC Brands Going Wholesale
Knix's expansion is part of a larger pattern reshaping the retail landscape. Over the past several years, many digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs) that once prided themselves on cutting out the retail middleman have been quietly — and sometimes not so quietly — returning to wholesale partnerships.
The reasons are straightforward:
- Rising digital advertising costs have made customer acquisition through online channels increasingly expensive, eroding the margin advantages that DTC models once promised.
- Physical retail provides discovery that online channels struggle to replicate, especially for new product categories where consumers benefit from seeing, touching, and trying items in person.
- Wholesale can amplify brand awareness at a scale that even the most sophisticated digital marketing campaigns find difficult to match.
For Knix, which already has the DTC foundation locked in, wholesale is an additive growth channel rather than a fallback. The brand isn't abandoning its direct relationship with consumers — it's extending its reach to customers who shop differently.
What This Means for the Future of Knix
With $1 billion in DTC sales already under its belt and wholesale revenue growing at 90% year-over-year, Knix is entering a phase of accelerated scale. The Target partnership is not just a distribution win — it's a statement of intent. It signals that Knix is thinking beyond its original customer base and building a multi-generational brand, one that can serve consumers from their earliest experiences with body-conscious apparel all the way through adulthood.
KT by Knix, in particular, has long-term brand-building potential that extends well beyond the immediate sales opportunity. Young consumers who discover and trust Knix products as teens are likely to carry that loyalty into adulthood — a powerful flywheel for any consumer brand.
A Brand on the Rise
Whether or not the other Knicks won a championship this year, Knix is certainly having a landmark season of its own. By combining a proven DTC engine with an increasingly aggressive and well-executed wholesale strategy, the brand is positioning itself as one of the most compelling growth stories in the intimate apparel and wellness space.
The launch of KT by Knix in over 350 Target stores is more than a retail expansion — it's a declaration that Knix is ready to grow up right alongside the customers it's spent the last 13 years serving. For consumers, investors, and retail watchers alike, it's a development well worth paying attention to.