Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely is the founder of the hosiery and shapewear company Spanx. She is a billionaire and was named the world's youngest female self-made billionaires in 2012 at age forty-one.

Blakely was born on February 27, 1971 to parents Ellen and John Blakely in Clearwater, Florida. She graduated from Clearwater High School and attended Florida State University, where she majored in communications. Blakely was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority during her time at FSU. Blakely initially planned on becoming an attorney after college, but failed the LSAT twice. She instead took a job at Walt Disney World and performed occasional stand-up comic gigs. Her next job, preceding the development of Spanx, was a door-to-door sales job selling fax machines. She quickly succeeded and became the company's national sales trainer.

The concept of Spanx resulted from Blakely's dislike of common hosiery designs at the time. She took issue with the appearance of the seam on the toes and how it looked in open-toed shoes, but liked how the control top portion of the pantyhose made her lower body appear smoother and firmer. She experimented with her preferred concept by cutting the feet off her pantyhose and wearing them as leggings under her pants. Impressed by the results, she decided to begin researching the production of a similar product for a new business.

Blakely, while still working her sales job, moved from Florida to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue her business idea using her savings of $5,000. She researched every existing hosiery patent at the time, explored different materials, and cold-called hosiery mills. When cold-calling didn't work, Blakely took to showing up in person. Two weeks after visiting a hosiery mill in Asheboro, North Carolina, Blakely received a phone call from the male manager she had met with there. He was persuaded to call her after he mentioned her product to his daughters, who greatly praised the idea.

Blakely wrote her own patent for Spanx to save thousands of dollars in legal fees and filed it herself for $150. She first decided on the name Spanks, before changing it to Spanx on the sentiment of made-up brand names selling better. Spanx was officially established in 2000. Blakely designed the initial bright red product packaging using a friend's personal computer. After finalizing her design, Blakely turned her attention to getting Spanx on store shelves. She soon met with buyers from Neiman Marcus, which agreed to sell Spanx in stores. Spanx later began selling in Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, and Bergdorf Goodman.

Blakely packaging early Spanx orders in her apartment, 2000.

Blakely originally handled all business aspects of Spanx, from shipping to sales positioning to marketing. She kept her idea under wraps in fear of her family finding out and dissuading her from taking a risk. Blakely didn't disclose any information about Spanx to her friends or family for approximately one year after launching the company. Speaking on the muted reception she received from them even after disclosing her modest success thus far, Blakely said, "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.”

Spanx sales increased heavily after Blakely sent a sampling of Spanx products to talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who featured it on her segment "Oprah's Favorite Things" on The Oprah Winfrey Show in November 2000. This popularity boost for Spanx allowed Blakely to finally quit her sales job. Blakely had to quickly create a simple website for Spanx before Oprah's episode aired after the producers forewarned her of increased web traffic. She uploaded Spanx for sale online by scanning a color photocopy of the product packaging onto the website, which cost $18 a month to host. Spanx earned $4 million in sales its first year in business and $10 million in its second. Over the years, Spanx has grown to selling various forms of shapewear, leggings, activewear, undergarments (for men and women), clothing, and maternity wear.

Blakely has prided herself on Spanx's success despite not coming from a fashion design or retail background and having never taken a business class, issued public stock, paid for advertisements, or taken outside funding. However, she did state in 2018 on the topic of going public with Spanx, "If it feels like that’s the right time and my gut tells me that it’s something to do, then I might entertain it. But I don’t have any plans for it right now."

Blackstone Group acquired a majority stake in Spanx in October 2021 at a valuation of $1.2 billion, while Blakely maintained a significant equity stake. The deal was finalized November 18, 2021. As a result of the deal, Blakely awarded each of Spanx's approximately 750 employees with $10,000 cash and two first-class plane tickets to any destination.

Blakely, husband Jesse Itzler, and their four children in 2019.

Blakely was engaged to Lawton Ursrey in November 2006. Blakely met Jesse Itzler that same year, who was also seeing someone. They met at Itzler's celebrity poker tournament and immediately hit it off. They married in 2008. They have four children together, three sons and one daughter. Blakely is active on social media and often posts about her personal and daily family life. Blakely has a brother named Ford; also an entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of Zingle (now acquired by Medallia.)

Blakely has made several appearances on television. She was a contestant on The Rebel Billionaire in 2004, hosted by Richard Branson, in which she placed second. Branson said, “The only reason I didn’t give her the top prize was because she was already successful. She didn’t need a leg up.” He instead awarded her with a $750,000 check which she used to start her charity, the Sara Blakely Foundation. Blakely has also appeared as a judge on several episodes of ABC's American Inventor, and as a guest investor on several episodes of Shark Tank. Blakely appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2007 and donated $1 million to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

Blakely was named youngest self-made female billionaire by Forbes in 2012. She also made it to #90 on its Power Women 2016 list, #1941 on its Billionaires 2019 list, and #39 on America's Self-Made Women 2021. Her net worth as of July 2023 is an estimated $1.1 billion.

Blakely was the first female billionaire to commit to The Giving Pledge, a pledge created by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates in which billionaires commit to giving away at least half their wealth to charitable causes. Blakely has stated, "Money is fun to make, fun to spend, and fun to give away."

Blakely started the Sara Blakely Foundation in 2006 with the money awarded from Richard Branson after her appearance on The Rebel Billionaire. The foundation supports women's education and entrepreneurship. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Blakely pledged to donate $5 million total to women-owned small businesses in the form of $5000 grants to 1000 businesses and entrepreneurs.