How one woman’s search for a perfectly fitting pair of tights turned into a body-positive business idea

For too long, women have had to put up with tights that just don’t fit, Snag Tights founder Brie Read tells Martin Friel. But for some of her customers, it can make all the difference

Read’s curiosity led to a business opportunity (Snag Tights)

How many 12-staff businesses can say that, less than 18 months after launch, they turn over £1m a month, trading globally, in a market worth around $30bn a year? Not many, but this is the reality of Snag Tights, a company that manufactures and sells ladies’ tights. That’s right, tights are worth more than $30bn or so a year.

This came as a surprise to Brie Read, founder and CEO of Snag Tights, too. All she knew was that they didn’t work for her. After years of struggling to find a pair that fit and becoming convinced it was a problem peculiar to her, she gave up.

But she didn’t give up completely. She conducted some research among friends and found that they all reported similar problems. Broadening out her sample size with a Google survey of 3,000 women, she found that not only was she not alone, 90 per cent of women reported having the same experience.