The lifestyle of the rich and famous and brilliant.
Sara Blakely came up with a brilliant idea. Is she a billionaire?
Sorry kimk, Sara was first with her shapewear..it was not a new idea. But it was a good idea though from kimk! SKIMS is the latest big thing.
Sara Treleaven Blakely is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the founder of Spanx, a popular shapewear brand. Move over Skims, Spanx was first. The brand sells undergarments, leggings, swimwear and maternity wear in over 50 countries. Despite having no experience in fashion, retail, or business leadership, Sara Blakely founded the company Spanx in 2000, having accidentally thought up the idea while attempting to look her best in a pair of white trousers. She founded a solution for a problem. In 2012, Sara was one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and she appeared on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the youngest self-made billionaire.She is brilliant and rich now.
So yes she is a billionaire.
She came up with a brilliant idea for women. Blakely came up with the idea for Spanx in the late 1990s when she was just 27 years old and working as a salesperson, selling fax machines door to door. The job required her to wear tights and she quickly became infuriated by the seam of the garment. Around this time, she was invited to a party and wanted to look her best in a white pair of trousers. She took a pair of scissors and cut the feet off of a pair of tights. She loved the way the new undergarment made her look and spent the next two years and and with an investment of 5000 dollar travelling to numerous clothing manufacturing for research. Before her 30th birthday, Blakely made the very first prototype for what would soon after become Spanx.
The SPANX success story was not an overnight story. The brand was built over a long time, step by step.
When she launched SPANX, Sara Blakely didn’t have entrepreneurial experience or tens of thousands of dollars in the bank. She worked hard on it and did it with some good intuition. She used celebrity word of mouth and PR for brand awareness. Back in the days we did not had social media so it was different.
And the rest is history.
Other brands like Spanx? Maidenform, SKIMS and Commando but of course also Amazon sells shapewear nowadays.
