, United States (USA) (American Colonies)
1940 - May 15 - Women's stockings made of nylon are first placed on sale across the United States. Almost five million pairs are bought on this day.

Women Crowd Stores as Nylons Go on Sale
Curious Line Counters Two and Three Deep To Buy and Inspect New Synthetic Hosiery
By KATHERINE BLANCK

Brooklyn women today joined their eager sisters throughout the land in greeting the event they have awaited for more than a year.

Nylon stockings are on the market!

Shopping crowds were increased considerably as women flocked to the stores where the new synthetic hose, made of yarn, chemical fibre, coal, air and water, went on sale.

As soon as the stores opened at 9:30 the Nylon stocking counters were doing business to a curious throng of women, two and three deep. Within a hour, however, the shoppers had hit a normal stride. There was none of the pushing and grabbing peculiar to a sales table. The revolution in the stocking trade started quietly.

Two to a Customer
Most of the stores, their supplies limited, would sell only two pairs to a customer. Prices in general were $1.15, $1.25 and $1.35. One store sold a two-thread gauge at $1.05 the pair. Special brands sold up to $1.50 and $1.65 per pair.

But don't give all your present supply of silk stockings to the maid or crochet them into a rug or sofa cushion then rush right down town, confident that your stocking problems are solved completely and triumphantly just like that!

This IS truly something girls, but it isn't all the wild fantastic yarns (we're not punning, either) that you've been hearing.

May Not Be Enough.
For one thing you're going to meet quite a lot of other women at the stocking counter with the same idea. And the sad truth is that there may not be enough Nylon stockings to go round.

Another little fond illusion that should be smacked right on the head now is that Nylon stockings are not run-proof or snag-proof. They will snag and they will run, but since the fibre is stronger and more elastic, with the same gentle care you give your silk stockings - and this comes from the manufacturers and the salespeople in the stores - they will wear longer, keep their shape better and launder easily. Furthermore, at the points of friction, heel and toe, Nylon stockings have proved longer-wearing.

Buyers in a Dither
The truth is that Nylon stockings have the trade and department store buyers in something of a dither. After all, merchandising usually runs along certain well-defined principles and here Nylon hosiery has upset them all.

For one thing here they have been something that everybody's been clamoring for, that they want and should push, and yet the supply is so limited that many buyers believe they will be sold out before the day is over. Figures on the supply for today's sale in Brooklyn are very mysterious and almost impossible to determine accurately.

100,000 Dozen Pairs
Trade papers have estimated that the total production to date of Nylon stockings, throughout the country, all of which will go on sale today all over the nation, is 100,000 dozen pairs, which is less than the average purchase of silk stockings throughout the nation in one day! One buyer estimated that there are not more than 30,000 dozen pairs of Nylon stockings in New York City.

The du Pont people, who developed the fibre and the yarn, are not manufacturing Nylon stockings. They started producing the yarn for general use last December and since then 46 of the country's leading stocking manufacturers have been weaving Nylon hoes with all the yarn they could get, but the production is still only 100,000 pairs. Nobody knows yet how fast they will produce more. It probably depends on consumer-reaction, which means whether the women who wear Nylon hose like them well enough to come back for more or not.

Stress Treatment
All the manufacturers and the stores themselves will insert directions for caring and laundering the stockings in each pair. They stress these points - if treated with care they will give unusually long wear; if put on and handled with the same care that one uses with sheer silk stockings, they will wear well; and wash them after each wearing with lukewarm water and a mild soap - squeeze the suds through, do not rub.

Nylon stockings, despite the fact that, they will snag and will run, have these advantages - they will not, with care, snag or run quite as easily as silk because the thread is stronger; they will keep their shape longer; they are entrancingly sheer, they cannot be distinguished from silk in appearance, and because they do not absorb moisture they are not given to spotting so unhappily as silk stockings. Dealers point out, too, that the wearing qualities of Nylon hose, as with silk hose, depends on the grade and the quality.

Nylon hose has this advantage, it was pointed out, because of the fact that they don't absorb much moisture - they may prove uncomfortable to those who suffer from foot perspiration and need absorbent foot-wear for comfort.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Brooklyn, New York
May 15, 1940

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