Ellie Brown and Becca Nelson are sisters who have created evREwares – a product they hope the Shark Tank investors will love. They say their product is about taking fun seriously.
Key Takeaways: evREwares Shark Tank Update
- Product: Reusable fabric sticker accessories.
- Investment Ask: $100,000 for 30% equity.
- Shark Response: Mark Cuban bought the entire company for $200,000, believing the sisters lacked the necessary business acumen to scale it themselves.
- Post-Show Success: Mark Cuban’s buyout ended the sisters’ involvement, with Cuban aiming to revamp and reposition the brand.
What Exactly Is evREwares? A Quick Overview
Their product is a ‘wearable fabric sticker accessory’ – starting with the Sticky Tie. The Sticky Tie sticks onto an ordinary t-shirt, to, the sisters say, make it extraordinary. They can also be re-worn over and over.
Ellie and Becca are asking the sharks to invest $100,000 in their product, in return for 30% of the company.
However, their sales records didn’t exactly start a feeding frenzy in the Shark Tank. Though they’ve made $600k in sales since 2011, $300k of that was in 2014, and this year, they’re only on track to make around $50k. They say this is a deliberate slowdown and pullback, because sales were slowing, not enough to make the stores pull the product, but enough that they felt it was time to take a step back and regroup before going forward.
The product is selling for between $4.99 and $11.99, and they believe they can get production costs down to 50 cents each, though they’re paying for a patented special material in order to maintain the product’s status as an item that can be reused, and can be wiped clean of spills.
- Lori Greiner, saying that the problem is the market, because people don’t want to buy at reusable-prices, bowed out.
- Kevin O’Leary called the whole deal ‘a howling dog from hell,’ and also bowed out.
- Barbara Corcoran told the sisters, “You love designing, but your eye is not on the business. I’m out.”
- Robert Herjavec scoffed, “Reusable, rewearable, nobody cares. I’m out.”
- Mark Cuban asked if the team was doing well in online sales, “Because your name sucks.” However, he made them an offer. He said he’d give them $200,000 for the whole business, rather than investing.
He explained, “You have no idea what you’re doing,” and maintained that he could manage the business correctly, and make it work. While Becca and Ellie discussed the possibility between themselves, Kevin berated Mark, saying he should just take the idea and set up his own business instead.
The sisters came forward crying, reminiscing about the work they’d put into the company, clearly almost ready to let it go, but reluctant.
“It’s your baby, and I respect that,” Mark told the two, and, as they agreed it was time to let the baby go, he promised to take good care of it, and circled the two in a hug.
Final deal: Ellie Brown and Becca Nelson sold evREwares to Mark Cuban for $200,000.
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