Sara Blakely turned her irritation at women’s hosiery into a multi-billion-dollar business through a little luck, a lot of hard work, and not being afraid to change the status quo.
Born in 1971 in Clearwater Florida, Blakely attended Florida State University and gained a degree in communications. Although she wanted to go to law school, she was eventually dettered after failing the entrance exam twice.
This wasn’t as much of a tragedy for Blakely as it might have been. From an early age, her father emphasised not to fear failure. Blakely was encouraged to try things and take chances, even if she failed miserably at them. She credits this for her later tenacity when everyone was telling her that her idea had no merit.
In 1993 Blakely went to work for an office supply company, selling fax machines door-to-door. Her uniform included pantyhose, which meant that she had to wear closed-toe shoes in the Florida heat. While she like the way the tights shaped her silhouette, the inability to wear sandals was frustrating.
Then in 1998, when she wanted to attend a party wearing white pants, she cut the feet out of a pair of tights, allowing for both sandals and a flattering shape under her trousers. She realised that other women might like the same option, but as the uncuffed bottoms of her tights rolled up, she realised that the product would need to be properly designed.
Blakely had done well as a fax machine saleswoman, and was transferred to Atlanta at about the same time as she began research and development on her hosiery idea. She had no backers and only $5000 in savings to launch her company.
Because of these limited funds, she was unwilling to spend thousands on a patent lawyer to lodge a patent for her idea – particularly as she found there were no female patent lawyers in the entire state of Georgia. Blakely had already discovered men were very dismissive of her idea.
So with the help of a textbook about trademarks and patents, plus the local university library, Blakely wrote her own patent.
When she wanted to develop the prototype, Blakely drove to North Carolina, where the bulk or US hosiery mills are located, and began pitching her idea. But she found the same problem – the men who ran the mills wouldn’t take the idea seriously. Two weeks after the trip, one of the mill owners called Blakely and said he would be willing to make her product.
And the reason for his change of heart? He mentioned the idea to his two daughters who told him that it was genius and they would buy the product if it was sold.
As the prototype for what would be called Spanx was developed, Blakely found that women’s hosiery was manufactured without any real thought to the women who would wear the product – every size of tights used the same waist measurement to save costs, and rather than being measured on actual women, sizes were tested entirely on mannequins.
Blakely tested her prototypes on her mother and friends, getting their feedback on fit and comfort levels. She eventually got her first batch of the finished product delivered in August 2000.
She continued to go out of her way to break the mould. Noting that all the packaging for hose was beige and grey, she made her packaging bright red. Instead of the universal stylised silhouette, she used images of different women. Blakely did this development and research alongside her office supply job.
Still, Blakely didn’t have the money for marketing and advertising. So she pitched the product to department stores using herself as a model – in one case literally changing into her Spanx in front of a buyer. That meeting resulted in Neiman Marcus selling the product in seven of their department stores.
Blakely then made a genius move – she sent a basket of her product to the Oprah Winfrey Show, along with a letter explaining her story and her idea.
Oprah featured Spanx as a “Favourite Product” in November, and the Harpo TV company wanted to film Blakely in her office. There was just one problem – Blakely’s “office” was actually the bathroom of her apartment, and her staff was just her boyfriend. Undaunted, she rounded up some friends, borrowed an office and faked a workforce.
To reach the female population of the US, there is no better vehicle than Oprah. Stores immediately sold out of Spanx, and sales reached US $4 million in the first year and $10 million in the second.
By 2012 Blakely was the youngest female self-made billionaire. She retained complete ownership of her company and never had any external investors.
Over the years Spanx has expanded its range to 200 products, including bras, underwear, and jeans.
In 2006 Blakely launched the eponymous Sara Blakely Foundation, to help women through education and entrepreneurial training.
Blakely has said she wants to create the world’s most comfortable high heels before she retires.
Words of advice for entrepreneurs from Sara Blakely
- Don’t let the first no (or five) stop you.
- Don’t quit your day job straight away.
- Don’t seek validation from others – if your idea seems to weird, people will only discourage you.
- Hire people to cover your weaknesses as soon as you can afford to.
- Never stop evolving.