[3] The company offers innerwear and outerwear, including activewear, apparel, denim, shapewear, swimwear, intimates, leggings, and hosiery.

[5] Sara Blakely created Spanx in 2000 as a solution to the discomfort she experienced wearing pantyhose in hot weather and disliking the seamed foot that stuck out of an open-toe shoe.

Blakely moved to Atlanta, where she continued working for Danka from 9-5, set aside her $5000 in savings, and spent two years creating her product.

[8] After several hosiery factories turned down her product, Blakely brought her idea to Neiman Marcus, where she convinced the buying rep by modeling her white pants with and without Spanx.

[18] Blakely's product was sold in seven Neiman Marcus stores as a result of the meeting;[3] Bloomingdales, Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman soon followed.

[19] Following the establishment of the company, Blakely's then-boyfriend eventually became Spanx's chief operating officer (COO) and met Laurie Ann Goldman at the Saks Fifth Avenue in Atlanta in 2001, while she was on maternity leave from her employer at the time, Coca-Cola.

[20] Writing for Fortune magazine in February 2014, Colleen Leahey identified Goldman as a key aspect of the company's successful growth:

Goldman crafted a business model for the company based on lessons she learned during her 10-year stint at Coke: thinking big, starting small, and scaling fast.

We gain leverage or we lose leverage.”[20]In the first half of 2014, Blakely worked on building the company's first standalone retail stores in shopping malls along the East Coast of the U.S., and also introduced denim to an expanding Spanx product line for the "Fall" range in March.

Ribatt's appointment generated discussions about a potential footwear expansion by Spanx according to a statement Blakely made in October 2013 explaining her ambition to design the world's most comfortable high-heel shoe prior to retirement.