{"id":6256,"date":"2025-12-23T15:15:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=6256"},"modified":"2025-12-23T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T15:15:01","slug":"6-unhinged-things-spanx-founder-sara-blakely-did-that-ultimately-shaped-her-1-2-billion-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=6256","title":{"rendered":"6 &#8216;unhinged&#8217; things Spanx founder Sara Blakely did that ultimately shaped her $1.2 billion empire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2213329005-e1748963492234.jpg?w=2048\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sara Blakely ideated Spanx while she was a fax machine salesperson in the late 1990s. She was getting dressed for a party and wanted to wear her white pants that had hung in her closet for months\u2014but she didn\u2019t have the right undergarment to wear with them.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>She wanted a \u201csmooth look\u201d without the bulk of a classic girdle, so she cut off the feet of her control-top pantyhose\u2014and Spanx was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted my clothes to fit better, and so my own butt was the inspiration,\u201d Blakely said during <em>Fortune<\/em>\u2019s 2014 Most Powerful Women Summit. \u201cI might be the only woman in the world grateful to my cellulite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That moment is eventually what would make her a billionaire, but her success story didn\u2019t happen overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In an Instagram post, Blakely shared six \u201cunhinged\u201d things she did while starting Spanx, where she served as CEO until 2021. Her company\u2014which she launched with just $5,000 in savings\u2014is worth $1.2 billion today. Blakely became a billionaire in 2012, and was named the youngest self-made female billionaire by <em>Forbes <\/em>that year. <em>Forbes <\/em>estimates her current net worth at $1.2 billion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DKQfVhDx46f\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\"background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15);margin:1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:calc(100% - 2px)\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Spanx license plate<\/h2>\n<p>Blakely said she bought a Spanx license plate as a means of advertising, according to her Instagram post. She said women started following her home asking her for free Spanx, which can now cost up to $148 depending on the product.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, Spanx relies heavily on celebrity endorsements and influencer marketing. It wasn\u2019t until 2024 that the brand launched its first global brand campaign, \u201cWe Live In Spanx,\u201d which featured track star Allyson Felix, social-media star Nadia Caterina Munno, and women\u2019s rights advocate and model Charli Howard.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SPANX Spring 2024 Campaign :30s\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aM9AbEPqHwI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reality star<\/h2>\n<p>Against the advice of her parents, boyfriend, and lawyer, Blakely signed up for a reality TV show, <em>The Rebel Billionaire: Branson\u2019s Quest for the Best. <\/em>From 2004-2005, Blakely starred on the show hosted by British entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Richard Branson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She finished second, but still won $750,000, and used that money to start her own philanthropic organization. The Sara Blakely Foundation has donated more than $5 million in scholarships and grants to aspiring female entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c20 years ago, I started Spanx with $5,000 in savings and I see this as a time to pay it forward. Small business is the backbone of our culture,\u201d Blakely wrote in a 2020 LinkedIn post. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to be a small business owner, and I want to provide some relief to these entrepreneurs during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Writing to Oprah<\/h2>\n<p>Blakely says she mailed her Spanx prototype and a handwritten note to media mogul Oprah Winfrey, telling her how much Winfrey had inspired her and asked her to try her invention.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, Oprah praised Blakely\u2019s invention, and even named it as her favorite product of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpanx really changed the way I wore clothes,\u201d Oprah said on her show in 2006. \u201cWhen Sara first came on The Oprah Show to tell us about her idea for Spanx, I knew it was brilliant. We\u2019d all been cutting off our pantyhose for years! So from the moment I wore my first pair, they became a staple in my wardrobe.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Paying her friends<\/h2>\n<p>Blakely also admitted she paid all of her friends to go into Neiman Marcus department stores and buy her product so \u201cit wouldn\u2019t tank.\u201d The product launched at Neiman Marcus in 2000. Blakely said she had just 10 minutes to first pitch Neiman Marcus and she had to buy her own flight from Atlanta to Dallas to visit the company\u2019s buying office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe buying rep immediately said \u2018Oh I get it. It\u2019s brilliant\u2014and I\u2019m gonna put it in seven stores,\u201d Blakley said during the <em>Fortune <\/em>MPW interview. \u201cIt was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shipping with no tracking<\/h2>\n<p>While Spanx was still in startup mode, Blakely said she shipped out orders in regular envelopes with \u201cabsolutely no tracking numbers.\u201d Now, Spanx has its own sophisticated e-commerce site and is sold across many department stores in more than 50 countries.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sneaking into stores<\/h2>\n<p>Blakely also admitted she would sneak into stores where Spanx were being sold and would move the products from the back corner to right by the cash registers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou gotta do what you gotta do,\u201d Blakely wrote.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More from Most Powerful Women:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>#unhinged #Spanx #founder #Sara #Blakely #ultimately #shaped #billion #empire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sara Blakely ideated Spanx whi&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[579,5524,923,5526,625,2706,5520,351,5523,5525,5522,5441,5521],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}