DuPont researchers Wallace Carothers and Julian Hill could not have imagined the most popular use for the fibrous material they discovered during  research on an artificial silk. They saw their new cloth was silky at room temperature, yet easily stretchable without tearing. The obvious use was in replacing fishing lines  and toothpaste bristles, before DuPont hit upon the idea of setting nylon up as a replacement to the tear-prone silk stocking in the women’s hosiery department.

On this day, May 15, 1940, Nylon stockings went on sale at Gimbels Department Stores all over the country, for $1.35 apiece, the equivalent of $21 today, which made them more expensive than silk. Nevertheless, some 64 million pairs sold with the first year alone.

Nylon stockings’ lasting influence came ironically from the lack of their sales. During WW II nylon producers redirected to the war effort, making parachutes and tents for the soldiers. Nylon hose were so scarce that women reportedly took to coloring their legs to create the illusion of stockings. At war’s end women rushed back to the stores in staggering numbers, causing a near riot at one San Francisco location when a run on hose by a crowd of 10,000 forced a temporary halt to sales.