Creating tights that last—
more expensive than you'd think

Katherine Homuth's goal has always been to design tights that stand the test of time. After all, why should humans be able to land on the moon but pantyhose aren't able to last more than a day before ripping? Following countless rounds of experimenting with different materials and breaking many sewing machines in the process, Homuth discovered one tiny yet mighty miracle fiber which is now woven into every single Sheertex product to make them as resilient as they are. The only problem is that miracle fiber is very expensive.

Sheertex's premium products—such as the Classic Sheer Tights, which have sold over 500,000 pairs since 2019—are woven with Sheertex's trademark resilient knit, with a wide and comfy waistband, high-end stitching, and are available in seven different sizes. They also have an average price tag of about $100 USD. In the early days of the company, it cost around $100 to make a single pair of pantyhose due to material and labor costs. However, over the last few years, strides have been made in the production process which have helped to lower those costs, allowing for further innovation in tech-enabled automation processes which led to new, more affordable products.

"We always dreamed of making our technology accessible to everyone so that no one has to buy a pair of disposable tights ever again. But we knew that in order to make that happen, we'd have to make our tights really affordable," says Homuth.

"We always dreamed of making our technology accessible to everyone so that no one has to buy a pair of disposable tights ever again."

Essential Sheer Tights: The leap of faith

Everyone who wears tights wants tights that don't rip, but the fact of the matter is that Sheertex's typical products sit at a far higher price point than regular tights, something which new customers or skeptics aren't always willing to pay. That's why in January 2022, Sheertex took a leap of faith by releasing their most affordable product yet: Essential Sheer Tights. At $29 USD, the new product is sold for as much as it costs to produce, allowing for an accessible entrypoint into the primarily premium brand.

"What we've done is removed some of our very special fiber from the parts of the product where it isn't entirely required," Homuth explains. "From the thigh up, we've used a combination of nylon and lycra, and our magic fiber is used from the thigh down." In essence, it's resilient in all the places that traditional tights would be most likely to catch a snag. Stripped of any excess frills, the Essential is accompanied by clean, minimal white packaging—all in an effort to bring customers the best possible product at the lowest possible price.

Why now?

"We launched these as soon as we were able to lower our cost to produce enough to be able to offer Essentials quite literally at cost," Homuth explains. The company isn't making money off of the Essential; the entire goal is to make the product as widely accessible to as many people as possible.

"We had to ask ourselves, 'How do we try to get more people to try Sheertex?' Because that's how we'll eliminate disposable hosiery," says Homuth. The Essential is the easiest way for someone who's curious about Sheertex to ease themselves into the brand, start believing in the products, and start understanding what Sheertex is all about. "And then, of course, we hope they grow with us over time," says Homuth.

Lowering production costs

Towards full automation

While a pair of Sheertex may look like a traditional pair of pantyhose, they're anything but, and therefore require special automated equipment to accommodate the unique knit. "If we were to walk into another pantyhose factory and run our tights through their machines, they would break because of how different and untraditional our material is," explains Dave Cox, Head of Automation at Sheertex. To avoid this, they have a team of engineers dedicated to determining exactly how to customize and adjust traditional off-the-shelf machines to suit Sheertex's distinct material.