Spanx CEO Jan Singer Talks Rebranding

“Nobody was talking about undergarments until Madonna wore a bra on the outside.” That’s Jan Singer, chief executive officer of Spanx, recalling Madonna’s iconic cone bra by Jean Paul Gaultier and suggesting it’s time to get the undergarment conversation going again. Why not put Spanx in the center of it? In the 15 years since Spanx was founded by Sara Blakely to help women rein in their bulges, the brand, while showing good growth with an estimated $300 million to $400 million in sales, has been perceived as a tummy-tucking commodity, and more often as the butt of a joke than a fashion statement. There’s also the sense that the shapewear company needs to get on firmer footing, amid rising competition from intimate, ath-leisure and active labels. But since joining the company in July, Singer, formerly Nike’s corporate vice president of global apparel, has begun reshaping the Atlanta-based firm and its identity. She has reorganized 80 percent of top management with a slew of hires; redirected the product teams to put as much weight on fashion and comfort as on function, and fomented what she called a “consumer-centric” company culture. In an interview on the game plan, Singer said she’s moving the Spanx brand

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