What question did Sara Blakely ask that started her business journey? “Why doesn’t this exist for women?” She had a beautiful pair of cream pants hanging in her closet unworn because she didn’t know what to wear underneath them.
“Traditional shapers were so thick and left lines or bulges on the thigh and underwear left panty lines. I had this… I spent all my hard-earned money on this one pair of cream pants that hung there, and I decided to cut the feet out of control top pantyhose one day, and I threw them on, under my white pants, and went to the party. I looked fabulous, I felt great, I had no panty lines, I looked thinner and smoother, but they rolled up my legs all night.” She asked herself, “Why doesn’t this exist for women?”
Sara was selling fax machines door to door and had only $5,000 in her bank account but she set out to make her newfound invention. Visiting the mills of North Carolina all she heard was “No,” or “You must be crazy?” from the men at the mills until one day she got a call back from someone she had visited. The mill owner said that he had spoken with his two daughters and they thought her idea was brilliant. He was going to help her.
She built her prototype and began testing it on the women in her life, her mother, her grandmother, and her neighbors. Sara came up with a name, trademarked it herself, came up with packaging and the rest is history. Read her whole story here. https://www.inc.com/sara-blakely/how-sara-blakley-started-spanx.html
