Billionaire Sara Blakely is the 46-year-old founder and CEO of Spanx, the lifestyle brand of bodywear, body shapers, or whatever you personally call those undergarments that keep everything in and and looking smooth. On October 29, Blakely is the guest Shark on Shark Tank, sitting right next to fellow billionaire, owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban. (Fun fact: Blakely is a minority owner of the NBA Atlanta Hawks, too.) She also has something in common with Queen of QVC Lori Greiner. In 2001, Blakely signed a contract with QVC, and within six minutes of operation, she sold 8,000 pairs of Spanx.
Sixteen years later and Blakely hasn’t stopping selling or coming up with innovative products in the bodywear industry. In 2010, Blakely expanded the line to include Spanx for men including compression t-shirts. No wonder the Harvard Business Review compared Blakely’s Spanx business with Under Armour, saying they both created categories with new fabrics. Blakely’s latest creation is Arm Tights. It’s a seamless lightweight shaper crop top made of nylon/spandex. As a consummates sales guru, why doesn’t Blakely use the Shark Tank platform and wear her arm tights? Blakely was on QVC just this week selling Spanx Arm Tights. Can you imagine how many Arm Tights she would have sold after Shark Tank?! Blakely’s arm tights come in a variety of designs and sizes and sell on average for $34. Shark Tank airs Sundays at 9pm on ABC.
