When it comes to late actress Suzanne Somers — who passed a day before her 77th birthday — while she didn’t have an expansive career, she did have a memorable one that included iconic roles like playing Chrissy Snow in ABC’s Three’s Company. But if we were to sit down to contemplate what made up a significant portion of her net worth. a big chunk of it came from the ongoing success of ThighMaster.
A few years after she was fired from Three’s Company for asking for equal pay, Somers started appearing in infomercials for the ThighMaster — an exercise product to strengthen and tone thighs — in the early 1990s. But she didn’t just star in the ads — she also came up with the idea of how to advertise the product and invested in it.
At the time, she and her husband, Alan Hamel, were two of ThighMasters’ co-owners and had other partners. But the product became an instant sensation thanks to Somers, and as per her 2022 revelation on the Hollywood Raw podcast, their partners “got drunk on money when it all started selling.”
“They overspent to the point where they could no longer afford to be in their side of the business. We bought them out. We have 100 percent.”
How much did Suzanne Somers earn from ThighMaster?
Though Somers no longer advertised or promoted the exercise equipment (which now has different versions, including a “gold” version priced at $49.99), it continues to be a success that earned the Step by Step star approximately $300 million in sales until 2022. So, what did she consider was the key to her success?
“Anybody can do it. People are always calling me and wanting to know ‘How do I this?’ You can’t decide to make money. You have to have a passion about whatever you’re selling. It has to be a fit. I can’t sell baseball bats. But I wanted to keep my legs looking great for those Manolo Blahnik shoes. So there was a weird, kind of strange, passion there.”
It remains to be seen how Somers’ sudden passing would affect the ownership dynamics when it comes to Thighmaster.
Published: Oct 15, 2023 05:27 pm