The story of Spanx

The story of Spanx

Women everywhere are conscious of their body shape. Those who use panty hose are worried that it shows through their clothes. Spanx is a pioneer in body shaping inner wear, especially footless panty hose and the brainchild of entrepreneur Sara Blakely. The story of evolution of Spanx is an interesting one.

Sara flunked Law school entrance tests twice so she took to sales- that of selling fax machines door to door in St. Petersburg in Florida. At the same time she was doing stand –up comedy in many cities. One night when she was to go onstage she was fed up with her panty hose showing through her pants, so she trimmed her panty hose. As she cut the feet off her panty hose she hit upon the idea of Spanx.

A quick consultation with friends who had done the same with their panty hose convinced her that she was on the right track- Spanx was an idea waiting to be born!  Sara braced herself, conducted research and took her own patent on footless panty hose. She came up with name ‘Spanx’. The name ‘Spanx’ came out from the KS sound of X. K sound being the successful letter of leading brand names Coca Cola and Kodak. According to Sarah, Spanx is edgy, fun, catchy and suggestive to the point of being naughty. In keeping with the spirit, Sarah came up with the slogan on Spanx packaging-‘we’ve got your butt covered.’

Next Sarah called department stores chains and hosiery mills. She perfected a prototype and armed with this she contacted the store Neiman Marcus where she exhibited the product herself. Within three weeks Spanx was on the shelf of Neiman Marcus. The product took off and soon made its appearance in other retail chains like Saks, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.

Sarah relied on public relations rather than advertising to push sales of Spanx. She decided to do most of the Public Relations herself with an assistant rather than hire an agency. This worked wonders. Producers and editors were floored with the idea of a business owner herself pushing the product rather than employing sales persons

She also had the brilliant idea of sending a package of Spanx to chat show host Oprah Winfrey saying that she inspired the idea of Spanx. Oprah loved the product and featured it on her show as  Product of the Year.

This started a media frenzy over the product. It got featured in Women’s fashion magazines like Vogue, in business magazines like Forbes and on T.V. programs like Good Morning America. Sarah’s product got celebrity endorsements from the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwen Stefani and Oprah Winfrey.

Today Spanx produces footless panty hose and other undergarments especially body shaping under garments to give that slim and shapely look to women. About 4.5 million Spanx power panties have been sold since 2000 and global retail sales of Spanx products are estimated at 0 million in 2008. Sarah Blakely has received the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur award of 2002 and appeared on Fox’s reality show,” The Rebel Billionaire: Branson’s quest for the Best”. Spanx is truly a success story!

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