The Relaunched L’Eggs Compete in Today’s Shapewear Market?
The iconic pantyhose brand L’Eggs turns 55 this year, and with that anniversary is coming some big changes.
The biggest is its new ownership. Announced on Wednesday, L’Eggs has been purchased from its previous owner HanesBrands by Windsong Global, the owner of brands like JVN Hair. To revitalize the legacy brand, Windsong brought in Cami Tellez, the founder of the DTC underwear brand Parade which was sold to Ariela & Associates in 2023. Tellez, who left Parade in June, will serve as L’Eggs’ executive creative director and as an advisor to the company’s board.
For Tellez, the appointment was a chance to take a brand that was integral to the rise of professional hosiery for women and update it with modern shapewear silhouettes and technology. New products at L’Eggs will include 360 Contour Tights, a product that smooths and lifts parts of the body in the manner of shapewear and comes in an extended range of sizes up to 2XL.
“L’Eggs innovated on a lot of things in hosiery: graduated compression, run resistance, control top,” Tellez said. She added that L’Eggs conducted months of customer surveys, finding that 80% of women feel more confident wearing some form of shapewear. “We reengineered the tights from the ground up to craft shaping hose. I’ve been wearing it for six months now, and I feel it’s the best product on the market.”
The relaunch includes both an aesthetic revamp — including a new logo and new packaging inspired by ‘90s fashion photography from luxury houses like Valentino — and a new retail strategy. L’Eggs now has a direct-to-consumer online store, using Tellez’s experience in the DTC space, plus it’s launched on Target’s e-commerce site. Previously, L’Eggs was only available online through Walgreens’ and Hanes’ online stores. By the spring, L’Eggs will be sold in 1,800 Target stores, and the brand has future partnerships lined up with retailers including Kohl’s, Lulu’s and Amazon. It will continue to sell through existing retail partners including Walgreens.
“When we think about turning l’Eggs into an intergenerational brand including Gen Z, we obviously have to do it across all channels,” Tellez said.
Tellez said she envisions L’Eggs taking a page from the beauty playbook, specifically in the way beauty brands have approached the beauty aisle in food and drug stores.
“You can go into CVS right now and find incredible products that match what you see at high-end luxury beauty stores,” she said. “We want to bring high-end products to mass market locations.”
New products will be released seasonally, although the team is looking into options for more frequent releases to keep up with the fast pace of the modern trend cycle.
At its height in the 1980s, L’Eggs had revenue in the nine figures. Pantyhose experienced a significant drop in popularity beginning in the 1990s, but that trend is slowly reversing. Celebrity-driven trends like the red tights worn by Kylie Jenner and others are bringing tights back to the forefront of fashion.
The market for tights and hosiery has been growing in the last year, at a rate of around 4.5%, though Tellez said that’s higher for younger consumers. On TikTok, the hashtag for #redtights increased in views by 450% last year. But while demand for brands like L’Eggs is high, the tights arena has also become home to a number of big brands. Most notably, Skims has risen to be a dominant force in shapewear and intimates in the five years since it was founded, with over $750 million in annual revenue.
But Charlie Nichols, L’Eggs’ president, said he’s confident that the brand can maintain the strong foothold it still has in the market.
“L’eggs launched with one goal: to build a brand for the new American woman on the eve of her liberation,” he said in a statement. “L’eggs continues to deliver affordable and accessible solutions to the mass market, currently owning over a double-digit percentage of the sheer category.”
