The Rise, Fall and Riots of Nylons: First Sold 84 Years Ago This Month

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Long, silk stockings. The new thing was nylons! It was 1940 and nylons went on sale for the first time in history this month (May 15, 1940) in Wilmington, Delaware. It was here that the chemical company DuPont was founded and one of its scientists created a synthetic material that took the world by storm. DuPont patented nylon in 1938, and two years later it was close to cashing in on the invention—big time. On the first day of sales in Wilmington, 780,000 pairs of nylons were sold on the first day. Four million pairs were collected in two days, and in the first year? Sales totaled 64 million pairs of nylons.

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Newspapers across the country have been reporting on the discovery of nylon for months. A subsequent story in the Calgary Herald called nylon “the most interesting of the new discoveries.”

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There has been widespread buzz about nylon being the new fabric of choice for women's hosiery. At DuPont, employees have been successfully wearing prototype nylon stockings for months. The marketplace eagerly awaited their turn to try out the nylon stockings.

When nylons became available, demand far outstripped the available product. Newspapers across the continent covered this latest fashion trend, including the Calgary Herald and The Albertan.

Alberta made a play to become the home of a Canadian nylon plant, but the plant was eventually transferred to Kingston, Ont.

As nylons began to be distributed, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 greatly affected the availability of goods and materials. As silk and wool provided a variety of war supplies, consumers were warned that silk stockings would be unavailable halfway through the next year. Woolen socks would also be difficult to obtain. The article below, which appeared in Calgary, noted that nylon hose would be available in the city for two years and would be at a premium of $2.50 per pair.

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Nylon stockings arrived in Calgary in 1941 — a little earlier than expected and at a more affordable price than expected. So far, manufacturers' initial claims that nylons don't work have been debunked. Nylons, like any other socks, can run and snag. Despite being priced at $1.65 a pair, the nylons were sold across town. Stores have been asked to limit sales to two pairs per customer due to reduced demand for socks.

An August 1941 news report stated that nylon stockings accounted for 20 percent of the hosiery market in their first year of existence; this number is expected to double in the coming months; and within a few years nylons were predicted to make up the vast majority of socks sold in North America. News of nylons spread across the ocean to Europe, and overseas demand was so high that some unsavory types began smuggling stockings to make a little money.

However, DuPont needed to use its nylon for war efforts—making parachutes, shoes, ropes, and other items—so the availability of nylon stockings dwindled. Demand increased after the war when nylon production picked up again. It even led to nylon riots as consumers scrambled to buy the in-demand socks.

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The wonders of nylon were not limited to women's stockings. The synthetic fiber has been used to make everything from sports equipment to household items, as you can see in the ad below for the “first new nylon toothbrush.”

Nylon is also starting to appear as the fabric of choice in other clothing items.

The glory days of nylon stockings lasted for about thirty years, but as nylon stockings became extinct, a new invention led to the demise of nylons – pantyhose! Easy-to-wear and easy-to-wear pantyhose became popular in the 1960s, and by 1970 pantyhose had outgrown nylons. The recent barefoot trend has greatly reduced pantyhose sales, and nylons remain the most novel of all. But in their time, nylons were fashionable and a must have in every woman's wardrobe. Nylons, you could say it was good to run.

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