Playtex

Playtex is a brand of women's products with the slogan "Making Your Life Better Everyday". Playtex manufactures baby items, feminine hygiene, and lingerie.The name comes from "perforated latex" which sandwiched between cloth gave the underware its elastic and body shaping character.

The brand originally specialized in underwear and in particular bras and girdles. Playtex is particularly noted for:

*A focus on comfortable girdles:
**The "18 hour girdle" and its coordinating range.
**The "I can't believe it's a girdle" range.
*Innovation in bra design:
**The introduction of the "cross your heart" design, now with many imitators.

International Playtex, Inc. was a division of Norton Simon, Inc. and then in 1983, Esmark purchased Norton Simon and then Beatrice Foods in 1984 purchased Esmark. In December 1986, a group of Company executives, together with Drexel Burnham Lambert, bought International Playtex, Inc. in a leveraged buyout and named the newly private organization Playtex Holdings. Playtex included such brands as MaxFactor, Playtex Living Gloves, Playtex Products, Almay and Jhirmack. In 1992, the Playtex women's apparel brands were sold to Sara Lee.

Playtex Products, Inc., a subsidiary of Energizer Holdings, continues to use the Playtex brand name on feminine hygiene, infant care, and rubber gloves, while owning other brands not using the Playtex name, such as the Banana Boat and Hawaiian Tropic brands of sunscreen and Wet Ones premoistened disposable wipes. In 2006, Sara Lee spun off its clothing sector into HanesBrands Inc., which now runs the Playtex apparel business, as well as other clothing brands such as Hanes and Champion.

In the 1960s, Playtex had a contract with NASA to produce their space suits.

External links

* [http://www.playtex.com/ Playtex official site]
* [http://www.playtexfits.com/ Playtex fits] Bra campaign site.
* [http://www.hanesbrands.com HanesBrands Inc.]