Sara Blakely first came up with the idea for Spanx when she was forced to wear pantyhose while working as a door-to-door saleswoman in Florida.
She liked the way the top of her pantyhose prevented visible panty lines, while making the stomach appear more toned, but didn’t want the seamed foot to show when she was wearing open-toed shoes.
The 25-year-old then decided to cut off the feet of her tights for a party, creating the first ever prototype for Spanx.
Blakely has previously recalled how she went around to hosiery mills and relentlessly begged them to produce her product, despite not having any financial backers.
She decided to invest $5,000 of her own money in Spanx, which was her entire life’s savings at the time.
Since she couldn’t afford a lawyer to write her a patent, she did it on her own with the help of a text book on patent law from Barnes & Noble.
But it was all worth it in the end, as after the first year the company – which is still owned entirely by Blakely – fetched $4million in sales and an impressive $10million the following year.
Forbes now estimates the Spanx founder’s net worth to be $1.01 billion.