knitwear division and second-in-command to Elberson, was named "Man of the Year" by the Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute. Harrold had organized the product rollout of L'eggs. By 1977, L'eggs had captured 15 percent of the total US hosiery market, becoming the biggest single brand in American hosiery. L'eggs carried 38 percent of hosiery sold in drug and food stores in the US in 1977. L'eggs were sold on consignment and distributed by a fleet of drivers, the majority of them women, who stocked the tall displays in every store, and kept track of sales figures to maintain an accurate weekly inventory using a central computer database. When the Sheer Energy line was introduced in fall 1973, L'eggs hired aerobic dancing pioneer Jacki Sorensen to devise an exercise regimen for the distributors. She traveled to 26 cities and taught 600 women. The price of L'eggs was set slightly higher than competing brands, because of the greater convenience of location. The freestanding displays occupied only about 2 feet of circular floor space (0.6 meters in diameter), and held 288 plastic eggs of different colors and styles. The customer could rotate any one of the eight circular shelves to browse the selection. A dual display was available for high-traffic stores, holding 576 packages of pantyhose. The display was eye-catching and immediately recognizable. Also memorable to customers was the L'eggs logo lettering which suggested baby chicks and egg shapes in the pair of "g" letters. The egg theme of the product package and the in-store presentation reinforced the feminine message. Market forces After Hanes showed the market promise of L'eggs packaging and distribution concepts, competition soon arose from established industry players and new challengers. L'eggs started selling their product in Safeway grocery stores in 1970, but in 1971 Safeway introduced a competing house brand of pantyhose. In 1972, L'eggs honored Safeway with the Golden Egg Award for helping to sell 10 million pairs of L'eggs pantyhose, even though Safeway was now a rival in the same product line. Safeway reported to their shareholders in 1973 that the Safeway pantyhose was far outselling L'eggs and all other pantyhose brands in their stores. French ballpoint pen company Bic entered the pantyhose market for the first time in 1974 with Fannyhose, an attempt to break into the L'eggs market segment. The product failed after a few years of struggling sales, costing Bic millions. Industry stalwart Kayser-Roth introduced in