# How do they make pantyhose?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 30, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449 "2000-11-30T21:50:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![furnishesq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/977dab/32.png) [@furnishesq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furnishesq)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/1 "2000-11-30T21:50:53Z")

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I always wondered how pantyhose are made. It would seem difficult. Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/2 "2000-11-30T22:15:27Z")

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I imagine that the same factory that turns out thumbscrews, racks, iron maidens, and hair shirts makes them.

They are knit, by machine, out of tiny fibers of nylon.

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**Author:** ![City\_Gent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@City\_Gent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/City_Gent)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/3 "2000-11-30T22:27:53Z")

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The nylon fibers are made by melting nylon in a heated tank, then letting it run out of tiny holes in the bottom of the tank. The little streams of molten nylon dry in the cool air, forming solidified threads, which are then taken up on a roller. So there’s a continuous thread of nylon running from the tank to the roller, molten at the top and solidified at the bottom.

It’s actually a rather fascinating, complicated process, but I’m going to force myself to stop at this point. I actually wrote my doctoral dissertation on this topic, so I get carried away sometimes.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [November 30, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/4 "2000-11-30T23:30:45Z")

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[happy sigh]  
I love the Internet.  
From the Shinko Fiber Co., Ltd. comes this fabulous and stimulating website. Their brands of pantyhose include the Delicious and the More Cool, plus 3 more whose logos were in Japanese and I couldn’t read them. They also sell a fabulously kinky-looking “suspender pantyhose”, billed as being the “sexy, airing, no sweaty pantyhose”.

I’m sure that after **Furnish** finishes his virtual tour of the pantyhose factory, he’ll find his every question answered.

[http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~kamura/html1i.html](http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~kamura/html1i.html)

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**Author:** ![furnishesq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/977dab/32.png) [@furnishesq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furnishesq)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/5 "2000-12-01T18:27:38Z")

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Wow, I had no idea you could get your doctorate in pantyhose! I guess that would make you “Dr. Pantyhose”!

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**Author:** ![City\_Gent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@City\_Gent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/City_Gent)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-make-pantyhose/43449/6 "2000-12-01T19:01:29Z")

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My doctorate is actually in mechanical engineering, but I do go by “Dr. Pantyhose” in my stage act.