Sara Blakely worked at an office supply company Danka where she went door to door selling fax machines. She was successful in her job, however was unhappy with her uniform and didn’t like the appearance of pantyhose with open toed shoes. She experimented at a party by cutting off the feet of her pantyhose when wearing them with slacks, and although they had minor issues with the legs rolling up, she loved her new idea. She continued to work at Danka, but also researched and developed her pantyhose idea. Blakely decided to present her idea to companies in North Carolina where there were many hosiery mills but was turned down by every representative who didn’t see the potential of her idea. She finally got a call from a mill operator who wanted to support her idea after encouragement from his daughters. She later developed a prototype and bought the “Spanx” trademark. Her product was sold in Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman soon after a successful meeting with a representative from Neiman Marcus where she changed into her product in front of a customer to prove its benefits. Blakely decided to send Oprah a basket of products, not knowing that in 2000, Oprah named Spanx one of her favorite things, leading to a rise in popularity and sales. Spanx earned $4 million in sales the first year, and $10 million the second year. Her next goal is to design the world’s most comfortable high heel shoe before she retires. Blakely founded the Sara Blakely Foundation in 2006 to help women through education and entrepreneurial training, funding scholarships for young women at Universities in South Africa. Blakely also gave $1 million to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls and joined the Giving Pledge, where the world’s richest people donate at least half their wealth to charity.