Spanx

“Very few people bought Spanx because they loved Sarah Blakely. She's lovable and terrific, but that's not why people bought the product. They bought it because it was really effective. So the, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter whether Allison is interes…”

“I went to Neiman's and Saks and asked, you know, what do women wear under these white pants? And the sales ladies would always say, well, we don't really know, or they'd point me in the direction of the shapewear that did exist, and it was really thick and dre…”

“You know, Spanx has never advertised until this year, and we're 16 years old, so this has been a word of mouth brand.”

“With no background in fashion, fabrication, or business, she grew it to a billion-dollar company that reinvented underwear without ever taking outside investment.”

“I meet women all the time that have been cutting the feet out of their pantyhose for years trying to solve undergarment issues for themselves, and they're always like, why didn't I do Spanx? And I really just think it's because I had been looking for this and …”

“You know, I've identified where my best thinking happens, and it's in the car, and I live really close to Spanx, so I've created what my friends call my fake commute, and I get up an hour early before I'm supposed to go to Spanx, and I drive around aimlessly i…”

“I went to Neiman's and Sachs and asked, you know, what do women wear under these white pants? And the sales ladies would always say, well, we don't really know, or they'd Point me in the direction of the shapewear that did exist, and it was really thick and dr…”

“I immediately went and researched patents at the Georgia Tech Library, and I Wrote my own patent. I got a book on patents and trademarks at Barnes & Noble on Peachtree.”

“SKIMS was able to come and really come after Sarah Blakely's Spanx in a very, very fast period of time. And I think that's really because it's driven from a narrative. People like to buy into stories and then the stories lead to the product.”

“And this was the case for Sarah Blakely, who bootstrapped the billion dollar business Spanx from her own initial 5000 dollar investment.”

“And I think, I really believe, Guy, that had I heard that in the minute that I had the idea and cut the feet out of my pantyhose, I really think I would Not have started Spanx.”

“I was buying my own product. So I was sending checks to all of my friends around the country to go buy Spanx.”

“I quit my job on October 16th, and Oprah called me in the beginning of November. And chose Spanx as her favorite product of the year.”

“I actually took a color copy of the packaging I'd created on my friend's computer and scanned it, and that was the home page of my website for a year and a half.”

“Suddenly, women were coming into the store and not wanting Lululemon for athletics. They were coming in looking For it to shape their bodies. But the sewing technique and the fabric wasn't meant for it. So, what they were doing is buying two to four sizes smal…”

“Regular underwear left a panty line, The thong wasn't a great solution. It also left marks that you could see, and then the shapewear was so, it was like the girdles were so thick and overdone, and I saw an opportunity for something right in the middle that wo…”

“I had set aside 5000 dollars in savings from selling fax machines door to door, and that's what I started Spanx with.”

“I believe that ideas are the most vulnerable in their infancy, and it's instinct to turn to your right or left in that moment and tell a friend or tell your husband. And you know, when you do that, instantly ego's invited into the mix, and then you end up spen…”

“I feel like if I had heard that the night that I cut the feet out of my pantyhose, I'd probably still be selling fax machines.”

“And so I asked her if she would sketch me in the prototype for the patent, and that is the picture in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

“I'd read that made-up words do better for products than real words do, and they're easier to trademark”

“Oh my gosh, that is the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make. That is when the work begins.”

“First of all, I paid people basically friends to go buy the product and create a buzz about it because I was like, you know, I gotta have these things move off the shelf or the buyer's not gonna give me any more chance.”

“Well, I went to Target, and I bought stands, you know, for envelopes. And I ran around the store and put them at every cash register, and everybody thought somebody else approved it, so they kept them there for a while.”

“I mean, I've never advertised. Spanx is 15 years old, and we've never done any formal ad campaign or anything, and so it's a very word of mouth brand.”

“And I sold 8000 pair of Spanx in five minutes.”

“Yes.”

“The shapewear was so, it was like the girdles were so thick and overdone, and I saw an opportunity for something right in the middle that would just create the perfect canvas undergarment for women.”

“And so when I cut the feet out of my own control top pantyhose so I could wear those cream pants, the light bulb went off, And then I started pursuing the idea.”

“I had set aside 5000 dollars in savings from selling fax machines door to door, and that's what I started Spanx with”

“The manufacturing plants didn't get it at all, and I found it very interesting that all I was meeting with were men, and then it kind of became clear to me why they'd probably been so uncomfortable for so long, because the people that were making them weren't …”

“I was basically coming in and disrupting an entire industry who'd been looking at something in one way, and they were on a decline year after year.”

“I believe that ideas are the most vulnerable in their infancy, and it's instinct to turn to your right or left in that moment and tell a friend or tell your husband. And you know, when you do that, instantly ego's invited into the mix, and then you end up spen…”

“I went to Barnes and Noble on Peachtree in Atlanta and bought a book called Patents and Trademarks, and I wrote the patent, and then my mom's an artist, and so I asked her if she would sketch me in the prototype for the patent, and that is the picture in the U…”

“Yes, for 750 dollars, I'll do it over a weekend, and I'll write the claims portion of your patent.”

“I'd read that made-up words do better for products than real words do, and they're easier to trademark, and even though it didn't actually have the K in it had still the K sound,”

“And she said, I'm going to place an order, and I'm going to put it in seven stores and see how it goes.”

“Oh my gosh, that is the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make. That is when the work begins.”

“I paid people, basically friends, to go buy the product and create a buzz about it because I was like, you know, I gotta have these things move off the shelf or the buyer's not gonna give me any more chance.”

“Well, I went to Target, and I bought stands, you know, for envelopes, and I ran around the store and put them at every cash register, and everybody thought somebody else approved it, so they kept them there for a while.”

“Spanx is 15 years old, and we've never done any formal ad campaign or anything, and so it's a very word of mouth brand.”

“And they gave me five minutes of air time, And I sold 8000 pair of Spanx in five minutes.”