In the world of women’s hosiery, few might have predicted that a plastic egg would revolutionize the market. But that is precisely what happened in the early 70s, when Hanes decided to market an affordable line of women’s hosiery and make them available in places as unexpected as grocery and drug stores. Soon, supermarket aisles everywhere looked as if they had become overrun by giant herds of Silly Putty - and hosiery became as easy to acquire as a carton of eggs.

When the Sheer Energy line debuted in 1973, it was the packaging that caught everyone’s eye – a simple plastic pull-apart egg from which the hosiery was hatched. Gimmicky? Sure. Did it spread the Leggs brand name like wildfire? You bet it did.

In recent years, many other lines of Leggs have been added, including Day Sheer, Sheer Elegance and Active Support. And in an attempt to be environmentally conscious, the product is no longer sold packaged within the iconic plastic egg. Today, a paperboard egg-shaped package has been substituted to help save the earth. But for anyone that wore pantyhose through the 70s and 80s, those plastic eggs will not be soon forgotten – a simple yet highly effective packaging concept that looked like an enormous hunk of Silly Putty and changed the way women would buy hosiery forever.