FADE IN:
“It's important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.” — Sara Blakely
ONE
THE CUT
EXT. CLEARWATER, FLORIDA — DAY — 1998
A humid Florida afternoon. SARA BLAKELY (27) sits in her red Mazda Miata in a parking lot, preparing for another day of door-to-door fax machine sales. She wears cream-colored pants, a silk blouse, and an expression of quiet desperation.
She looks at herself in the rearview mirror.
SARA
(to herself)
Okay, Sara. Today you are going to sell three fax machines. Three. And tonight you are going to figure out what you actually want to do with your life. Because this is not it.
She gets out of the car. Straightens her pants. As she does, she notices the panty line visible through the cream fabric. She tugs at her pantyhose in frustration. They bunch at the thighs. They create lines. They do nothing a modern woman needs them to do.
That night, getting ready for a party.
INT. SARA'S APARTMENT — CLEARWATER — NIGHT — 1998
Sara stands in front of a full-length mirror, wearing the same cream pants. She holds a pair of control-top pantyhose and scissors. She stares at the pantyhose. Stares at the scissors.
She cuts the feet off.
She pulls on the footless pantyhose under her pants. She looks in the mirror. The control-top smooths everything. No panty line. The pants look incredible. She turns left. Right. She does a little spin.
SARA
Oh my God. This works. Why doesn't this exist?
She goes to the party. The pantyhose roll up her legs all night. She keeps pulling them down in the bathroom. But the idea won't leave her alone. Footless, control-top hosiery that doesn't exist yet. A product every woman needs that nobody has made.
She drives home at midnight with one thought: I am going to make this.
INT. SARA'S APARTMENT — KITCHEN TABLE — NIGHT — 1999
Sara sits surrounded by legal pads, patent books from the library, and printouts of every hosiery patent filed in the past twenty years. She has $5,000 in savings. No business experience. No contacts in fashion or manufacturing. No MBA.
She picks up the phone and calls a patent attorney. The first one.
ATTORNEY #1
(on phone)
You want to patent... footless pantyhose?
SARA
Yes. Control-top, body-shaping, footless hosiery. Nobody makes it. I checked every product on the market.
ATTORNEY #1
Ma'am, I don't think that's patentable. Good luck.
Click. She calls the next one. And the next one. Rejection after rejection. Finally, THE PATENT ATTORNEY calls her back.
PATENT ATTORNEY
(on phone)
Ms. Blakely, I'll be honest — I told my daughters about your idea. They said I'd be an idiot not to help you. So I'm calling back. Let's file this patent.
SARA
How much?
PATENT ATTORNEY
Three thousand. But I can work with you on payments.
Sara looks at her bank statement. $5,000. She's about to spend 60% of everything she has on a patent for underwear. She doesn't hesitate.
SARA
Done. Let's do it.
INT. HOSIERY MILL — NORTH CAROLINA — DAY — 1999
Sara drives to North Carolina to pitch hosiery manufacturers. Mill after mill. Factory after factory. She carries her prototype in a Ziploc bag. The meetings go like this:
MILL OWNER #1
So you want us to make pantyhose... without feet?
SARA
Control-top, body-shaping hosiery that ends at the ankle. Women will wear them under open-toed shoes, under pants, under everything. It's the shape without the panty line.
MILL OWNER #1
Why would anyone buy pantyhose without feet? That's a defect, not a product.
She gets rejected by every manufacturer in North Carolina. Every single one. She sits in her car in the parking lot of the last mill, forehead on the steering wheel. Then her phone rings.
THE MANUFACTURER
(on phone)
Ms. Blakely? This is the mill you visited last Tuesday. I showed your prototype to my daughters last night. They wore it and said it was the most comfortable thing they've ever put on. I'd like to make your product.
Sara screams in her car. Literally screams. Then composes herself.
SARA
That is wonderful news. When can we start?
Every manufacturer who agreed to work with Sara Blakely did so because the women in their lives told them to. The men didn't understand the product. The women did. Every time.
INT. SARA'S APARTMENT — NIGHT — 2000
Sara sits on the floor surrounded by red packaging prototypes. She has designed the packaging herself — bright red, cartoon illustration of a woman's legs, completely unlike anything in the hosiery aisle. She holds up a package.
SARA
(on the phone with a friend)
I need a name. Something fun. Something memorable. Something that makes people laugh. Kodak and Coca-Cola are the two most recognized brand names in the world, and they both have a strong “K” sound. I want a “K” sound.
She scribbles on a legal pad: SPANKS. She crosses out the “KS” and writes “X.” SPANX.
SARA
Spanx. SPANX. Oh my God. That's it. That's the name.
SARA (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
I had no money, no connections, no experience in fashion, and no idea what I was doing. But I had something more valuable than all of that: I had an idea that worked. I wore the product. I knew it worked. And when you know your product works, you can survive any rejection, because the rejections are just people who haven't tried it yet.
TWO
THE SELL
INT. NEIMAN MARCUS HEADQUARTERS — DALLAS, TEXAS — DAY — 2000
THE NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER sits behind a desk in a pristine office. Sara sits across from her, a Ziploc bag on the desk containing a Spanx prototype. Sara has cold-called her way into this meeting.
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
You have ten minutes. What am I looking at?
SARA
This is Spanx. It's footless, body-shaping hosiery that eliminates panty lines, smooths everything, and works under any outfit. I made it because I was a fax machine saleswoman who couldn't find underwear that looked good under cream-colored pants.
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
A fax machine saleswoman.
SARA
Yes. But here's what I'd like to do. I'd like you to come to the bathroom with me for two minutes.
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
(startled)
Excuse me?
SARA
I want to show you the before and after. Put these on under your pants. Two minutes. If you don't see a difference, I'll leave and never bother you again.
The buyer stares at her. Then at the Ziploc bag. Then back at Sara. Something about the audacity is compelling.
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
Fine. Two minutes.
They go to the bathroom. The buyer puts on the Spanx. She looks in the mirror. Her pants look completely different — smoother, cleaner, flawless.
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
(looking in the mirror)
Oh. Oh my.
SARA
Right?
NEIMAN MARCUS BUYER
Seven stores. We'll trial you in seven stores.
INT. NEIMAN MARCUS — HOSIERY DEPARTMENT — DAY — 2000
Spanx is on the shelf at Neiman Marcus. Bright red packaging that stands out like a fire truck in a sea of beige hosiery boxes. But the product is placed at the bottom, nearly invisible.
Sara drives to every single Neiman Marcus store that carries Spanx. At each one, she moves the product to eye level, talks to sales associates, and buys every friend and family member she can think of a pair to boost sales numbers.
SARA
(to a Neiman Marcus sales associate)
Hi! I'm Sara. I invented Spanx. If you recommend this to customers and they love it, I'll send you a gift basket. Deal?
SALES ASSOCIATE
You... invented a product and you're standing in the store selling it yourself?
SARA
Nobody else is going to do it. And nobody knows the product better than me.
INT. SARA'S APARTMENT — LIVING ROOM — DAY — NOVEMBER 2000
Oprah's Favorite Things — November 2000
Sara sits on her couch watching Oprah. It's the annual “Oprah's Favorite Things” episode. Oprah has been sent a pair of Spanx by someone on her team.
OPRAH
(on television)
One of my absolute favorite things this year is Spanx. I have been wearing these every single day. Ladies, this product will change your life. SPANX! S-P-A-N-X!
Sara's phone starts ringing. And does not stop. For days.
She sits on the floor, phone ringing off the hook, orders flooding in, and laughs until she cries.
After the Oprah endorsement, Spanx sold out across the country. Sara handled every order from her apartment. She was still selling fax machines during the day.
INT. SPANX OFFICES — ATLANTA — DAY — 2005
Spanx has real offices now. A team. Revenue is growing exponentially. Sara walks through the office in bare feet — she always works barefoot. On the wall: framed rejection letters from every manufacturer who turned her down.
EMPLOYEE
Sara, why do you frame the rejections?
SARA
Because my father taught me something when I was young. Every week at dinner, he'd ask me and my brother: “What did you fail at this week?” And if we didn't have an answer, he was disappointed. He wasn't celebrating failure — he was celebrating the attempt. Those rejection letters are proof that I tried. And trying is the only thing I can control.
INT. RESTAURANT — ATLANTA — NIGHT — 2007
Sara's first date with JESSE ITZLER. He's an entrepreneur, former rapper, part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks. He's energetic, slightly eccentric, and immediately fascinated by Sara.
JESSE
Wait — you're the Spanx woman? You built a billion-dollar company from a pair of cut-up pantyhose?
SARA
It's not a billion-dollar company yet. And yes, I literally cut the feet off my pantyhose in my apartment.
JESSE
That's the most entrepreneurial thing I've ever heard. I sold my first rap song out of the trunk of my car, and I thought that was scrappy. You win.
SARA
(laughing)
It's not a competition.
JESSE
Everything is a competition. That's what makes it fun.
SARA (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
I never took a dollar of outside investment. Not one dollar. I built Spanx with $5,000, and I owned 100% of the company for over twenty years. Every expert told me I needed investors, I needed venture capital, I needed a board. I didn't need any of it. I needed a good product and the willingness to sell it myself, door to door, bathroom to bathroom, until the world caught on.
THREE
THE BILLIONAIRE
INT. SPANX HEADQUARTERS — ATLANTA — DAY — 2012
Forbes names Sara Blakely the youngest self-made female billionaire in the world
Sara sits at her desk. On the screen: the Forbes article. Her face on the cover. She stares at it for a long time.
She picks up the phone and calls her father.
SARA
(on phone)
Dad? Forbes just called me a billionaire.
SARA'S FATHER
(on phone)
That's wonderful, honey. But tell me — what did you fail at this week?
Sara laughs. Some things never change.
INT. SPANX ALL-HANDS MEETING — ATLANTA — DAY — 2021
Sara stands in front of her entire company. She has just sold a majority stake in Spanx to Blackstone for $1.2 billion, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. She owns the rest.
SARA
I have an announcement. We just closed a deal with Blackstone that values Spanx at $1.2 billion. And here's what I want to tell you: every single employee is getting a first-class plane ticket to anywhere in the world and $10,000 in spending money. Every single one of you.
The room explodes. People are crying, hugging, screaming. Sara stands at the podium, beaming.
EMPLOYEE
(shouting)
Sara, why?
SARA
Because you built this with me. I cut the pantyhose. But you're the ones who turned it into a company. This is our success. Not mine. Ours.
Sara Blakely gifted every Spanx employee two first-class airline tickets to anywhere in the world and $10,000 in spending money. The total cost was estimated at $10 million.
INT. SARA'S HOME — ATLANTA — NIGHT — 2022
Sara and Jesse sit on the back porch. Four kids are inside, already asleep. The house is big but lived-in — toys on the stairs, crayon drawings on the fridge.
JESSE
You know what I love about your story?
SARA
What?
JESSE
You never had a plan B. Most people have plan A and plan B. You only ever had plan A. Cut the pantyhose. Sell the pantyhose. Build the company. No backup. No safety net.
SARA
Plan B is a distraction from plan A. If you have a fallback, you fall back. I couldn't afford to fall back. I had $5,000.
INT. GIRLS' SCHOOL — ATLANTA — DAY — 2023
Sara speaks to a room full of young women — middle school and high school students. She holds up a pair of scissors and a pair of pantyhose.
SARA
Twenty-five years ago, I was selling fax machines door to door. I had no money, no connections, and no idea how to start a business. I had this —
She holds up the scissors and cuts the feet off the pantyhose. The students gasp, then laugh.
SARA
— and $5,000 in savings. That's it. And here's what I want you to know: the world is going to tell you no. A lot. People are going to tell you your idea is dumb, your product is weird, your dream is unrealistic. Let them. Then go do it anyway. Because every no is just a person who hasn't tried your product yet.
INT. SARA'S CLOSET — MORNING
Sara gets dressed for the day. She puts on cream-colored pants. She reaches for a pair of Spanx — the exact product she invented twenty-five years ago. She pulls them on. Looks in the mirror.
She smiles. Adjusts her blouse. Steps into her shoes.
On the dresser: a framed photo of the original Ziploc bag that held the first prototype. Next to it: the Forbes cover. Next to that: a pair of scissors.
She walks out the door. Same woman. Same product. Same unstoppable forward motion.
FADE TO BLACK.
Sara Blakely built Spanx from $5,000 in savings to a company valued at $1.2 billion with zero outside investment and zero debt. She was the youngest self-made female billionaire on the Forbes list. She wrote the Spanx patent herself to save money, using a textbook from Barnes & Noble. She still wears Spanx every day. She has pledged to give away half her wealth through the Giving Pledge.
THE END