Business

The day job…

My day job is managing director of Pure Fiction Media Ltd, publisher of the web’s leading network of dedicated hosiery retail web sites.

In 2000 a friend of a friend, who ran a traditional hosiery factory making authentic fully fashioned stockings on the original 1950s machines, asked me how much it would cost to build a web site for her company.

I built the site free of charge as a favour, and in return she gave me 900 pairs of slightly faulty fully fashioned stockings.

I built the Stockings HQ web site (https://www.stockingshq.com) in May 2000, based on 12 articles and a discussion forum. The community grew. And in August 2001 I put the 900 pairs of stockings up for sale, with no real expectations.

They sold out in a week.

Now with a web site, customer base, but no stock, I called lots of manufacturers. Some agreed to supply us. Others said no. Some didn’t return the call. But in September 2001 the first proper version of the Stockings HQ shop was launched, with seven brands and 40 products.

A lot has happened since then. We now have over 40 brands, over 700 products, 10 members of staff and a 7,000 sq ft warehouse in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire. Stockings HQ is home to a thriving community of enthusiasts and – we believe – is the world’s biggest dedicated stockings retail site.

In 2006 we acquired a competitor’s web site and rebranded it as Tights And More (http://www.tightsandmore.com), aimed at a younger, more fashion-led audience, with the emphasis on tights. Tights And More was relaunched with a new look in 2015, but with the original site dating back to 1998 we believe it’s the oldest hosiery web site in the country!

Pantyhose HQ was launched in 2013 as the American-language version of the site. It was re-branded with a brand new look as Pantyhose And More (https://www.pantyhoseandmore.com) in February 2017.

And also in February 2017 we were exceptionally pleased to unveil our German site: Strumpfhosen Und Mehr (https://www.strumpfhosenundmehr.de). Click the logos to visit the sites :-).