Spanx queen firms up the bottom line
By Andrew Ward
Published: November 29 2006 17:48 | Last updated: November 29 2006 17:48
Sara Blakely grew
up wanting to be a lawyer like her father. Instead, she ended up working at
Disney World, near her family’s
Florida
home, after flunking her Law School Admission Test – twice.
“I would see friends I hadn’t seen for a while and I’d be wearing these big
Mickey Mouse ears with my name on,” she recalls. “They’d say, ‘Sara, is that
you?’ And I’d reply, ‘yes, now get on the ride’.”
If the joke was on Ms Blakely then, a decade later she is having the last
laugh.
The 35-year-old went on to launch a line of womens’ underwear with $5,000 of
personal savings. Today, her company, Spanx, has annual retail sales exceeding
$100m and a band of superstar customers including Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth
Paltrow.
Spanx specialises in tight-fitting Spandex underwear, dubbed “magic
knickers” because of their ability to streamline lumpy flesh and hide panty
lines. “They just squeeze you in,” Ms Paltrow once explained. “That’s how Hollywood all the girls do
it.”
Ms Blakely’s success did not come immediately. After escaping Disney World,
she spent seven years selling copiers and fax machines for Danka, the office
equipment supplier. Her first sale – to the owner of an outdoor grocery stall
with no electricity connection – provided an early indication of her
entrepreneurial potential. “I bought him an extension cord and arranged for him
to share a neighbour’s outlet so he could use a fax machine for orders,” she
explains.
It was during this time that Ms Blakely chanced upon the idea that would
change her life. Anxious to look good at a cocktail party she went shopping for
“body-shaping” underwear that would be invisible through figure-hugging
trousers. “Everything I found was dreadful,” she says.
For the next year, Ms Blakely spent evenings and weekends designing a range
of user-friendly footless tights and girdles and researching how to make them.
Unable to find a female patent lawyer and dubious about a man’s ability to
grasp the concept, she bought a book about patents and wrote her own. When it
came to searching for a manufacturer, men were just as hard to avoid. “I was shocked
that only men seemed to make women’s undergarments,” she says, recalling dozens
of cold calls to textile mills across the
Disillusioned by the rejections, Ms Blakely considered abandoning the
project. Then, one day in 2000 she switched on
her hotel room television at a Danka sales convention and saw a discussion on The Oprah Winfrey Show on the inadequacies of
traditional hosiery. “I jumped up from the bed and thought, ‘that’s my sign’,” she recalls. “I called the mills and said, ‘I’m
coming in person. I believe in this and nothing is going to
stop me’.”
Two weeks later, a mill owner in
Persuading retailers to adopt Spanx was an easier task because most of their
buyers were women. Ms Blakely first met with a representative of Neiman Marcus,
the upscale department store, at its headquarters in Dallas. “I took her into the bathroom and did
my own modelling. She agreed to try it in seven stores.”
Ms Blakely pleaded with friends and relatives near all seven locations to
buy the product, promising to reimburse them. But her efforts to inflate sales proved unnecessary when she
received a phone call from a producer on The Oprah Winfrey
Show.
Ms Blakely had sent a complimentary set of Spanx underwear to Ms Winfrey to
acknowledge her role in their creation. Immediately impressed, the chat show
host named the product among her “favourite things of 2000” and sent a film
crew to profile Ms Blakely. Thousands of orders started rolling in as soon as
the segment was aired and Neiman Marcus and its rivals clamoured for stock.
“From that second, I never stopped working,” says Ms Blakely.
In the six years since, Spanx has grown from the spare room of Ms Blakely’s
Ms Blakely decided four years ago to hand
day-to-day control to a chief executive, and focus on product development and
brand promotion. “I was eager to delegate my weaknesses. I’m a creative person so I wasn’t suited to shipping and
fulfilment and inventory management.”
Like most things about Spanx, the search for a chief executive was
unconventional. Laurie Ann Goldman, previously a licensing director with
Coca-Cola, took the job after meeting Ms Blakely in the hosiery section of a
department store. “She was complaining that there wasn’t the right sized
fishnets,” recalls Ms Blakely. “I introduced myself and she ended up working
for us.”
Blessed with long blonde hair, a giant smile and gregarious personality, Ms
Blakely remains the public face of Spanx while Ms Goldman takes care of details
behind the scenes.
Her biggest publicity coup came in 2004, when she was selected to take part
in The Rebel Billionaire, a US reality TV show hosted by Sir
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group.
Ms Blakely finished as runner-up and was awarded $750,000 by Sir Richard to
pursue her ambition to set up a charitable foundation. The Virgin founder was
at Ms Blakely’s side in Atlanta in October when
she launched The Sarah Blakely Foundation, which aims to promote education and entrepreneurship among women, starting with a project in South Africa.
In spite of her venture into philanthropy, Ms Blakely has no plans to disengage from Spanx altogether. She still owns 100 per cent of the company, which has been profitable and self-financing from the outset. “Everything has grown out of that original $5,000,” she says.
“When I started Spanx, my friends asked what my exit strategy was,” she
recalls. “I told them my only strategy was to exit a room looking good in cream
pants.”
SARA BLAKELY’S ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS
■Start young:
“When my Mum told me to tidy my bedroom I would take all my half-used Barbie
lipsticks, put price tags on them and go door-to-door in our neighbourhood.”
■Be secretive: “I
didn’t tell family or friends my idea for a year. When I revealed it, they came
up with all sorts of reasons why it wouldn’t work. If I’d listened to that from
day one I’d have given up.”
■Think like a consumer: “Mill owners were fixated
on hosiery being seen on the leg. They didn’t understand that girls might
want to hide it. I told them: ‘I’m a woman. Trust me’.”
■Use word of mouth: “Once women tried our
products they got hooked and told their friends. Spanx makes women look a size
smaller, so who wouldn’t want to tell their girlfriends?”
■Know when to let go: “Entrepreneurs are good at
starting something from nothing but they’re not always the best person to take
the company to the next level.”
Copyright
The Financial Times Limited 2006
I am very interested to purchase your spanx bodyshape underware. Where can I get it in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Posted by: noorliza | May 12, 2008 at 02:08 PM
I am very interested to purchase your spanx bodyshape underware. Where can I get it in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Posted by: noorliza | May 12, 2008 at 02:08 PM
I am very interested to purchase your spanx bodyshape underware. Where can I get it in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia?
Posted by: noorliza | May 12, 2008 at 02:07 PM
im a single mom of 3 and i want to start my own line
1. i dont know how to sew, should i take a class, or pay others to make my product
2. how do i find someone to give me what i want without them stealing my idea(cause they have more money)
3. i was going to just use my income tax return to start my line. Is that smart?
4. Who can i go to for advice, when i have questions?
5. I work Full time, 6.60hr, go to school, and take care of 3 children, i would be scraficing tons to get this started, and im am really really nervous.
Posted by: Kezia | January 09, 2008 at 12:06 AM
I am shopping for Spanx, I think it is a great idea and willing to pay the price for what I want. BUT I see there is no product that goes below your knees (without being hosiery) and has a high waist. I also see that your sizes go to 16-18. I am a larger woman, WE larger women have the body that wiggles and jiggles more than the thin women, we need this product so much more, but there is nothing for me. And if you have a roll around your waist you would like to minimize, don't you think you also have extra flab in your thighs? and no one wants to see a line where it stops on your thigh. Slimming from under the bust to your calf would be a great way to go plus an 18-20 and larger are definitely needed. You are missing out on MOST of the women in the world.
Posted by: Lynette Shorey | December 06, 2007 at 11:36 PM
We are a SriLankan company and would like to introduce your product into the SriLankan market which is always looking at improving in styles and also i firmly believe that this will be a huge success. please be good enough as to send us your contact E'mail address.
We are a small company and would be Honoured to be your Exclusive agent in srilanak and also grow with you from success to success.
Wishing you all the very best at all times
Nilkamal
Posted by: Nilkamal Dassenaike | September 22, 2007 at 01:25 PM
If anybody knows the name of hosiery mill that makes the Spanx product line, or any other mill that Spanx contracted to, I would love to know. The mill has to be in Charlotte NC, but you got me which one it is. Please e-mail me.
Posted by: shari | June 26, 2007 at 04:07 AM