November 7, 2025

My Honest Sheertex Review & Why Do We Have to Have Planned Obsolescence

Nicole sustainable fashion 6 Comments

Today I share a sad tale of planned obsolescence and corporate greed. As the story goes*, back in the 1930’s when DuPont created the synthetic Nylon fibre, the chemists brought home nylon stockings to their wives and girlfriends to try them out. At the time, silk stockings were the norm, and while luxurious, they were fragile. This new nylon fabric promised to be more durable…and it was! In fact it was so durable that DuPont realized that if women were able to get nylon stockings like this, they wouldn’t have to buy stockings ever again…and that just wouldn’t be profitable, would it? So they told the chemists to alter the nylon to make it weaker quality; still strong enough to make a silky, stretchy, sheer stocking, but fragile enough that it would get runs and have to be replaced over time.

Fast forward almost 100 years later, and this has been the frustration of every single woman who has ever worn hosiery: stockings that are practically disposable and prone to getting runs at the most inopportune moment. Hosiery is the “paper towel of the garment world” to quote Hannah Louise Poston (although she was talking about acrylic knitwear, the principle still applies).

So, when I first heard about Sheertex stockings a few years ago, to say I was excited was an understatement. A stocking that promised you’d “never wear disposable tights again”?! Rip resistant and featuring a photo of a pair of scissors inside the stockings on the cover of the box!? Available not only in sheer nude and black, but also in polka dot?! I was sold!

And I wanted to love these tights SO MUCH. So why have I now decluttered my Sheertex tights? Well, let’s just say that my experience wasn’t as good as I had hoped for. And I am sharing this not because I think this company is bad and I want to ruin their reputation, but because I really want them to improve and make a better product to replace the world of disposable, paper towel, stockings we’re currently living in.

Because of the higher price tag (though it’s completely reasonable if they last many times longer than regular stockings) I bought mine secondhand, but new in the box off of Poshmark and was able to buy 3 pairs for the price of one, at $81.

I had looked at the their sizing chart and fell in between two sizes, but considering that I usually size up in hosiery for comfort, I sized up to the XL. This was unfortunately a mistake because they do seem to run a bit large. However, I was accidentally sent a size L in one of the pairs (the seller didn’t realize that they had mislabeled the listing) and as it turned out, the smaller size seemed like a better fit. The three styles I bought were: Classic Super Sheer Black, Classic Sheer Nude and Polka Dot Sheer Black.

First off I realized that the nude colour was very warm and orange and not a great match for my cool skin tone. I am not sure if they have various tints, but the colour of these didn’t match my skin tone and since the tights are slightly opaque, my legs looked visibly different in colour from my arms. I am used to sheer stockings being a lot more sheer and blending better with my skin showing through.

Next, when I first put on the nude size L, they seemed to fit perfectly, but as I wore them, they began to sag, so I kind of ended up with elephant ankles. Very reminiscent of the stockings from the 1920’s, which, strangely, has never been a vintage style goal of mine.

This was even worse for the XL tights, which, granted, is because they are a bit big. Both the sheer black stockings and the black polka dot stockings that I was so excited to wear, didn’t stretch well across the leg, so I ended up with black ankles and lighter calves. This can happen with all pantyhose, but because of the sagging of this fabric, after a while of wearing them, they began to go basically opaque black on the bottom part of the leg and ankle and slightly sheer on the calf. For the polka dot tights, in person you can hardly even see that they are polka dotted.

Compared to regular opaque tights, though, I’ve never had this sagging problem with tights that are a little bit big, so it’s something to do with this fabric composition. You can see above left when I first put them on, and then above right after wearing them for about 15 minutes.

I also found that the fabric is not as resilient as claimed. I have calloused feet, and always have, but unfortunately after one wear, there were small little runs in the fibres of the feet. Because of their claim that the tights were rip resistant, I wasn’t expecting that so quickly. On the nude tights, when they stretch out, white lines appear, almost like elastic shining through. I have worn this pair more than the black ones, and while I can’t remember exactly how many times, I would say around 10 times.

I was disappointed in the black stockings since they had these horizontal lines right out of the package. The colour also didn’t seem to be distributed well, so they looked a bit blotchy on the leg. You can also see some white vertical runs over the knee that appeared during one wear; I have only worn these black ones once because they just don’t look nice.

I wore the polka dot tights once, and you can see that they also had these small horizontal lines, and white vertical lines, although they aren’t as noticeable as the plain black stockings were.

Because several of the issues seemed to stem from that the tights were too large, I decided to try a pair in a smaller size when I saw some for sale for $30 each at Winners. Now I know that Winners gets all the “rejects”, but they were still new in the box, so I figured they were overstock, and decided to give them a try. Even though I wasn’t sure about the colour of the nude, I thought that maybe if they were more stretched out, they’d look more sheer.

However, the size medium turned out to be too short and so they slid down. Anyone who has worn stockings that started sliding down off your body, knows that that is not a very secure feeling! After waddling around for about 10 minutes trying to keep them from sliding down as I was getting ready, I finally changed into a different pair.

So, at the end of the day I had 2 pairs of too large tights which didn’t really look sheer and had lines in them, 1 pair of nude tights that didn’t have the lines, but were a bad colour for me and prone to wrinkling around the ankles, and 2 pairs of medium tights that were too small and slid down. One of the medium pairs was still unopened so at least I was able to re-sell them on Poshmark. I gave away the nude ones that weren’t a good colour, but were in good condition still. And I’m considering trying to alter the polka dot ones by cutting the feet off and trying to make them shorter, which would hopefully make them more sheer…I’ve got nothing to lose. As for the black ones, I don’t think anyone would even want them with those black lines, so I’ll just toss them into my textile bin to upcycle into something else, or use for plant ties.

So, how do Sheertex compare to other pantyhose? Well, compared to the regular 20 denier stockings, much more long-lasting and durable! As they claimed, the Sheertex got some small snags, but they didn’t rip or get runs. However, the problem with them is that I’ve never had regular pantyhose sag like the Sheertex ones did. It just wasn’t very comfortable or nice looking.

And this longevity problem is not a Sheertex problem alone. I also had high hopes for Swedish Stockings which I tried out several years ago. Made of recycled fibres, I was very excited to give them a try, but they started getting runs after a couple of wears, just like other brands of pantyhose, which meant that their recycled composition only offered a small detour on their inevitable final resting place in the the landfill. (Actually I think I might have used them as textile stuffing for this pouf I made, but it was still very much a downcycle, not an upcycle) I still have all of their opaque tights, and they are holding up well. It’s just the sheer stockings that have a problem.

Last winter, after this failed experiment with Sheertex, I wore Silks Energizers compression stockings in 70 denier, which I have worn in the past. I don’t wear sheer pantyhose that much, I’d estimate only a couple of times per week, as opaque stockings are much more durable and long lasting. I wore them about 30 times over the winter, and by the end of the season they had holes in the feet, but I was able to get through the entire season on that one pair of nude stockings. I’m not saying they were the best stockings ever invented, but that wasn’t too bad for a pair of stockings that were more sheer, secure with a control top, didn’t get snags across the leg, and cost significantly less at $15 each. Maybe not the paper towel of the industry, but the Swedish dishcloth of the industry?

But now it appears that Silks has discontinued their 70 denier stockings!  So what is a dress-wearing girl to do?

I have no solutions or conclusions to this sad tale and it does not end “happily ever after”. In the meantime I’ve purchased a few pairs of Silks Classics 20 denier that I shall endeavour to treat with the utmost care in order to get as many wears as possible out of them…and keep searching for that perfectly durable, elusive, sheer stocking that one day may be made! Of course we live in a world where “moth and rust destroy”; that is inevitable. I would just like to have something that would at least last one season without runs. Maybe a sheer, yet durable fibre is just not out there and we’re not meant to wear sheer stockings….

Do you have any recommendations for where to find sheer stockings that are able to last longer than the current disposable ones that dominate the market? I’m thinking of looking for dance tights, or seeing if anyone else makes a good pair of 70 denier. Let me know if you have any ideas or brands you love.

I’ve also thought about those fleece lined tights that look like you’re wearing sheer tights, but they’re actually just printed- has anyone tried those?

And maybe your experience with Sheertex has been better than mine? Did I just get unlucky? Have they worked out well for you?  And if so, how long have they lasted for you?

*Source: I heard this story from Nicols Fox, whose father worked for DuPont, as relayed in the documentary “The Lightbulb Conspiracy” about planned obsolescence.