Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely: Career Highlights

Sara Blakely initially planned to become an attorney but reconsidered after scoring low on the Law School Admission Test. She worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for three months and occasionally worked as a stand-up comedian. Sara accepted a job with office supply company Danka, where she sold fax machines door-to-door and was promoted to national sales trainer at the age of 25.

Sara disliked the appearance of seamed pantyhose while wearing open-toed shoes and experimented by cutting off the feet of her pantyhose, achieving the desired result. She relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, and spent two years and $5,000 savings researching and developing her hosiery idea.

Sara traveled to North Carolina to present her idea to hosiery mills but was initially turned away. However, she received support from a mill operator in Asheboro, North Carolina, who was encouraged by his daughters. Sara completed the creation of the initial product prototype over a year, finalized her patent application, and submitted it to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Sara purchased the "Spanx" trademark on the USPTO website for $150 and arranged a meeting with a representative of the Neiman Marcus Group, demonstrating the benefits of her product. Spanx was sold in seven Neiman Marcus stores, followed by Bloomingdales, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman. Sara sent a basket of products to Oprah Winfrey's television program, which led to a significant rise in popularity and sales.

Sara resigned from Danka and focused on Spanx full-time, achieving $4 million in sales in the first year and $10 million in sales in the second year.

She signed a contract with QVC, the home shopping channel, in 2001, and landed on the cover of Forbes magazine in 2012 as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world.

Sara expressed her ambition to design the world's most comfortable high-heel shoe before retirement and was part of a group led by Tony Ressler that purchased the Atlanta Hawks for $850 million in 2015. Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake of Spanx, Inc. in October 2021, valuing the company at US$1.2 billion. Sara retained the position of Executive Chairwoman and gave each of her 750 employees $10,000 in cash and two first-class plane tickets to any destination they desired to travel to celebrate the transaction.