Sara Blakely wanted to wear white pants to a party, hated how her underwear looked underneath, and cut the feet off a pair of pantyhose to fix it. That one frustrated decision became Spanx.
She wrote her own patent because lawyers were too expensive, pitched Neiman Marcus by cornering a buyer in a bathroom stall, and landed on Oprah’s Favorite Things soon after — sales went off the charts. In 2012 she became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world, and in 2021 she sold a majority stake to Blackstone for $1.2 billion.
1. There is an absolutely insane origin story behind Spanx 👀
2. Meet Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx and the ultimate DIY queen
3. She was getting ready for a party one night and decided to wear white pants
4. Seems like a non-event? Well, it turned into a very frustrating experience
5. First, she wore regular underwear but it showed visible lines. So she got pantyhose to smooth them. These things
6. But that made her feet uncomfortable in open-toed shoes
7. In case you missed the memo: being a woman is HARD, okay? 🥲
8. Anyway, Sara really wanted to wear her white pants. So she did what any determined woman would do: cut the feet off the pantyhose
9. It worked! Perfectly! Ofcourse, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. WHY doesn’t this exist in the market?
10. Cue Spanx!
11. First, she needed a patent but lawyers were too price-y. So, true to her DIY spirit, she bought a book and wrote it herself
12. Then she took to demo-ing… in bathrooms! Yep, she legit got into Neiman Marcus by cornering a buyer into a stall for a pitch
13. Not soon after, Oprah called. Spanx ended up getting featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things
14. Sales went off. the. charts.
15. Investors soon came knocking as they do. But Sara said thank u, next to all of them
16. In 2012, she became the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world. In 2021, she finally sold a majority stake to Blackstone for a cool $1.2 billion!
