“I started thinking about joy. Everything in our society is so purposeful. Let’s bring joy back to the experience.” – Sara Blakely
This week we are celebrating inventor and entrepreneur Sara Blakely! Much like Joy, Sara saw a need and made her solution into a billion-dollar company!
Sara grew up in Clearwater, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University with a degree in communications. Originally, she planned to become an attorney, but after taking the LSATs, she decided to accept a job at Walt Disney World. During her three months in Orlando, Sara also worked as a stand-up comedian.
After working for Disney, Sara became a door-to-door seller of fax machines, becoming so successful that she became a national sales trainer at just 25! The success came with a downside, however; wearing pantyhose in the hot and humid Florida climate was not fun. She did not like the seamed foot showing when wearing open-toed shoes, but she did like that the control-tops on pantyhose eliminated panty lines and made her body appear firmer. She did try to cut off the feet of her pantyhose while wearing them under slacks, and though the pantyhose continuously rolled up, the control-top had the desired effect.
At 27, Sara moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and began to save $5,000 over the course of two years. Then at the age of 29, she drove up to North Carolina, the home of America’s hosiery mills, and brought to them the idea that would become Spanx. During this trip, she was turned away by every mill representative. She also realized that the hosiery manufacturing industry was overseen solely by men who were not using the products they produced. But two weeks later, once she was back in Atlanta, she received a call from a mill operator based in Asheboro, North Carolina, who supported her idea due to encouragement from his three daughters.
Once the prototype was finished, Sara met with a representative from the Neiman Marcus Group. During this meeting she changed into a pair of Spanx to demonstrate the benefits of her invention. Spanx was then sold in seven Neiman Marcus stores, with Bloomingdale’s, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman following behind.
Sara initially handled all aspects of the business, including marketing, logistics and product positioning, preferring for Spanx to be sold alongside shoes in retail outlets, rather than in hosiery sections. She asked almost anyone she knew to seek out Spanx at specific department stores, after which she would send them a check as a thank-you.
In 2000, Oprah Winfrey named Spanx one of her “Favorite Things,” after receiving a basket of products from Sara. Spanx’s popularity and sales began to rise. Spanx made $4 million in sales in its first year and $10 million in sales in its second year. Then in 2001, Sara signed a contract with QVC.
In 2005, Sara placed second in the reality TV series The Rebel Billionaire, during which she met Richard Branson, who became a big supporter of her entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors. In 2006, when she launched the Sara Blakely Foundation to help women through education and entrepreneurial training, Branson gave her a $750,000 check.
By 2012, Sara was on the cover of Forbes magazine as the youngest self-made female billionaire. She was also named in Time magazine’s “Time 100” list of the 100 most influential people in the world. And in 2014, Forbes listed her as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world.
Throughout her success, Sara has been committed to giving back. Her foundation has funded countless scholarships for young women. In 2013, Sara joined the “Giving Pledge,” vowing to donate at least half of her wealth to charity. In 2021, after The Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake in Spanx and Sara’s net worth now was approximately $1.3 billion, she gave each of her 750 employees $10,000 in cash and let them purchase two first-class plane tickets to any destination they desired.
Sara has shown what trusting in yourself and your ideas can lead to. In 2013, she stated that, before she retires, her goal is to design the world’s most comfortable high heel. Well, in 2024, Sara launched Sneex. Sara has continued to use her innovation to solve problems in women’s lives, and we hope she continues to do so for a long time.
