How open conversations about uncomfortable tights led to a new business - Pioneering People podcast

In this episode of the new series of Pioneering People, host Morven McIntyre is joined by SNAG Tights founder Brie Reid.  

The size inclusive tights brand started with Brie’s bad experiences with tights, when she had to take her tights off on George Street in Edinburgh.

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“At that point I thought I either use this as one of those embarrassing things people do and beat myself up about it or I talk to people about it,” Brie says.

“I started talking to all my friends about it. Just really hearing all these horrific stories about tights made me think that it wasn’t just me that this had happened to -  it was everyone. It was one of those conversations that made me realise I had to do something about it.”

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Off the back of these open conversations, Brie decided to conduct a demographically representative survey that found that 90% of women were unhappy with their tights.

The design process involved real people trying on the tights at every step of the process.

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Brie, whose career origins were in marketing, also shares her non-conventional way of approaching business on the podcast, including the fact that SNAG did not have an office for employees, even before the pandemic. 

Brie says: “Our whole philosophy around it has been, let’s put the customer first and let’s do things that the customer likes doing, let’s engage with them in the spaces they want to engage with.”

She explains that her business is about so much more than tights: “A pair of tights allows you to wear skirts and dresses in a way that you can’t if you don’t have a pair of tights that fit.  Suddenly, it opens up your wardrobe and lets people express themselves in a better way and that’s really kind of key.

"I like to think that we play a part in people’s self acceptance journey.”

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