Socks to Riches

Kathy Ireland's metamorphosis from supermodel to supermogul started with a pair of socks. It was 1993, and the beauty best known for showing off string bikinis in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues had just been asked to flaunt foot warmers. Pregnant with her first child, Ireland contemplated her future and concluded that if it was going to involve socks, she would rather sell them than show them off.

"Modeling was a wonderful experience, but I wanted to build something that wasn't fleeting," says Ireland, now 43. "I knew my days there were numbered, and I wanted to move on to something else. Socks would be a great place to start."

They were. Kathy Ireland Worldwide, now a $1.4 billion lifestyle design company, recently sold its 100 millionth pair of socks.

But achieving this level of success took determination and hard work, and Ireland has never been afraid to face a challenge. When she was 11, she applied for a paper route in her hometown of Santa Barbara, California. "My dad showed me the newspaper ad, which said, 'Are you the boy for the job?' I wrote to the editor, 'I am not the boy for the job, but I am the girl for the job.'"

She started delivering papers on New Year's Day, when they were bulging with post-holiday ad circulars and sales supplements. "I was a scrawny kid. As I approached this one customer, he started yelling, 'This is a boy's job! What are you doing here?'"

Although discouraged, Ireland soon bounced back. "I needed to prove him wrong." And she did: "For three years in a row, I was nominated carrier of the year." That drive stood her in good stead through her turn as supermodel and, later, as she was launching her business.

Ireland and the team that managed her modeling career had long held the idea of leveraging her looks into something more lasting. "I felt that if women embraced our socks, we would be onto something, and it would be a good foundation for our brand," Ireland says. "At first, people said, 'You can't build a brand based on socks.' But just because it has never been done doesn't mean that it can't be done."

To turn the idea into reality took money -- and that was something Ireland was short of. She had tried earlier business ventures, but they had failed, making her a credit risk. Furthermore, she had to convince bankers that she was more than just a pretty face. "The modeling made people aware of me, but it made it more challenging for them to take my ideas seriously."

Kmart Comes Calling

Eventually, a member of her team provided a personal loan of $50,000. The experience taught Ireland a valuable lesson: "I'm always encouraging women, 'Build your relationship with bankers.'"

With the seed money, Ireland found a manufacturing partner, conducted family-based focus groups and researched and personally tested the product with her friends and family. Her husband, an emergency room physician, wore the socks to see how well they would stand up during his long hours on duty. He and Ireland donned them during backpacking trips to evaluate the products' blister propensity. The verdict: "These are great socks."

Ireland loaded up her bag with samples and hit the road. To save money, she booked red-eye flights and slept on planes and in airports. "I banged on a lot of doors and had a lot of doors slammed in my face," says Ireland. "In a sense, modeling was a really good education for a business career because in the world of modeling, you are constantly facing rejection, and that continues in business."

The first year, the company made $80,000 in retail sales, primarily to sporting goods stores. "We were ecstatic," Ireland says, "but we were still in the red. It's expensive to start your own business, and you never have overnight success. It builds and it grows."

The big growth spurt started when Kmart came calling. After seeing the socks practically walk out of the store, Kmart offered Ireland her own clothing line. The brand soon expanded from apparel to accessories, then to home furnishings. It now also includes kitchen and garden products, lamps and lighting extras -- and jewelry, in partnership with Elizabeth Taylor's House of Taylor Jewelry.

Today, Kathy Ireland products are sold in 19 countries and the company numbers 37 employees, many of them from the same dedicated team that Ireland started with in her modeling days. "I never had a family business, but today we have a business family."

Ireland is no figurehead, though; not only is she the chief executive but, as chief designer, she also ensures that every product and every piece of advice offered on the firm's website exemplifies the company's mission of "finding solutions for families, especially busy moms."

But the desire to start her own company, coupled with the kind of loyalty she had in her longstanding team members, wasn't enough to jump-start the business. "The aha moment, the moment when I knew we had something, was when our mission statement crystallized," says Ireland. She had just become a mom, and once she saw her little guy, Eric, face to face, it all started to gel. Things she had taken for granted -- taking a shower, going to a store -- no longer fit so easily into her day. The vision of finding solutions for busy moms really hit home.

From then on, the business took flight. Says Ireland, "I always knew I wanted to be a mom. Being able to be a mom of service to other moms -- that's my passion."