Spandex is the name of the the Dupont developed stretch fiber. Joe Shiversand a team of scientist at DuPont developed the fiber and introduced it in 1958. The trade name for the fiber is Lycra, it was originally called Special K. Spandex must be used as a blend with some other fiber, it cannot stand alone. The fiber found its first niche in pantyhose in 1970 and in 1972 controltops made use of Lycra/Spandex's elastic quality.