Sara Blakely waited a decade for someone to invent a more comfortable high heel. After no one stepped up to the task, the entrepreneur decided her feet couldn’t wait any longer. That same frustration with a stagnant industry is what inspired her to launch Spanx nearly 25 years ago. The Atlanta-based company, now a billion-dollar brand, was born out of her annoyance with having nothing flattering to wear underneath white pants.
“For me, everything starts with a problem,” said Blakely during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit today (Sep. 10). “A lot of people chase what’s the hot trend. I’m curious about industries that are dying or not doing well, and why.”
Back in 2000, the undergarment industry was in ” double-digit decline” due to a lack of functionality and comfort. Blakely’s answer was to reinvent girdles using the sleeker, more breathable material found in pantyhose. Spanx quickly became a household name, championed by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Today, Blakely remains the executive chairwoman at Spanx, which is now owned by Blackstone. (The private equity giant bought majority shares of Spanx in 2021 at a $1.2 billion valuation.) But much of her focus has shifted to Sneex, a high-heeled sneaker company she launched last August. The line, priced from $395 to $595, promises to solve the age-old pain points of heels with wider toe boxes, better weight distribution and more supportive soles.
Still, even with the success of Spanx behind her, building Sneex came with hurdles. Factories dropped the project three times, and the rejection stung more than it had during her first venture. “The first time around, the rejection felt more expected, and this time around it didn’t, so it’s more humbling,” she said.
Blakely had identified a clear problem—consumers abandoning high heels for comfort—but the solution proved elusive. Along with two Spanx veterans from the bra team, she spent years trying to design a heel that felt good without losing the look of a classic pump.
Four years in, she nearly scrapped the idea. The breakthrough came after a simple experiment. “I went home back to Atlanta and cut my high heel in half and my sneaker in half, and glued them together,” Blakely recalled. She spent the next three days walking around in the Frankenstein prototype that ultimately sparked Sneex.
“That’s the interesting thing about innovation,” said Blakely. “This is not what I set out to make, but I pivoted and let the goal of the world’s most comfortable high heel dictate what it was going to be.”