Youngest Self-Made Billionaire in the World

This is when Sara got the idea of such an inner that would solve the problem of not only rolling up but also of bunching and folding. It was ‘eureka’ moment for Blakely and the hunt for the perfect inner was on. She started her scrupulous search for the best and most comfortable fabric and also digging up hosiery patent histories for 2 long years. All this while she continued working at Danka and had to hide her revolutionary idea. After numerous rejections, a phone call from a hosiery factory in Asheboro, North Carolina, shone a ray of hope for Sara. The manager of the firm said that his daughters were interested in the product and the rest is history.

As she had only 5 grand to support her endeavor, Blakely needed to save as much money as she could. Blakely saved $3,000 worth of legal fees by researching patents from a Barnes & Noble textbook. The genesis of the name of ‘Spanx’ is an interesting one too. After a streak of bad names, she came up with the name of ‘Spanks.’ The letter ‘x’ later replaced the last 2 letters of the product name. Blakely decided upon this name as “It made people laugh. No one ever forgot it.”