Here's What Went Down With Beloved Shirts After Shark Tank
Like a lot of people these days, Jeremiah Robison noticed that the world was far too serious. Wars, famine, genocide — it just seemed to Robison that trying to find fun was near impossible. So when he was tasked with making jerseys for his indoor soccer team back in 2012, Robison decided that he could break the mold and let his inner freak flag fly high when designing the team's uniforms. "That idea led me to explore this idea of printing they call sublimation," Robison told ABC 4 in 2016. "Instead of doing it on jerseys, I did actual fashions." From there, Beloved Shirts was born.
Although Beloved Shirts is indeed as "fun" as Robison wanted, and allows consumers to tap into their own timeless personal style, the brand got major traction when Katy Perry wore their pepperoni pizza onesie to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014. As Robison told ABC 4 of Perry rocking the onesie, "That took us to the next level."
But just because a celebrity wears one of your items once doesn't make you a success story, and Robison realized he and Beloved Shirts were going to need a little help. So, he took his pitch, a bunch of kitschy items, and his dream to Shark Tank.
Beloved Shirts walked away empty handed
Surrounded by pizza bedding and unicorns, Robison began his pitch. "The problem with the world today is that it's just too serious," he told the sharks. He then explained that to combat this, he came up with Beloved Shirts so people could express themselves in fun, original ways.
As he handed out samples to the sharks — clothing with their faces on them — he said he was seeking $175,000 for 5% of the company. As the sharks dug for more information, Robison explained that while he had made $2.3 million in the past two years, the company's biggest issue was turnaround time, because everything is made-to-order. He also explained that Beloved Shirts has over 22,000 SKUs on their website, meaning they have over 22,000 products (designs and range of sizes) for consumers to choose from when making a purchase; a problematic amount for a small company.
Mark Cuban declined first, voicing his concerns about the company's ability to stay in business past the initial hype. After all, trends should be avoided when deemed outdated. Both Robert Herjavec and Lori Greiner also passed, with the former explaining he had a conflict of business. Like Greiner, Kevin O'Leary didn't see Beloved Shirts as investment-worthy, but before bowing out he instructed Daymond John to make a deal with a high equity return. John offered $175,000 but wanted 25% of the company. Robison countered with 15%, John said he wouldn't go lower than 22.5%. There was no deal made.
What happened to Beloved Shirts after Shark Tank
Robison had been so sure that he was going to score a deal that he had made a pepperoni t-shirt that read, "You've got a deal!" Although that wasn't the case, Robison didn't seem to be holding any grudges. "It was an incredible experience," Robison told Yahoo Finance in 2016. "To be in the same room with these great business minds and feed off of that energy was huge. Pitching my business to them was such a rush."
In 2019, Robison told The Jimmy Rex Show that while there was definitely a spike in traffic on the site when the Shark Tank episode initially aired and immediately afterward, it wasn't as high as he thought it would be. "The biggest mistake I made with this was overestimating, you know, the impact — I actually invested in about $80k worth of hoodies for when the episode aired and we're still selling some of them." Robison was also quick to point out that, because Beloved Shirts' products are made-to-order, his overzealousness was "dumb."
Beloved Shirts is still in business
Yes, Beloved Shirts is still in business. According to Shark Tank Success, the company made $1 million, $2 million, and $3 million in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. The company also has almost 100k followers on their Instagram account, a platform that they mostly use to showcase new items and celebrities in their attire, like Eric Andre in March 2023 rocking a Newport Cigarettes jogging suit.
By the looks of the website, they've also expanded well beyond clothing and bedding. They've added masks (gotta go after that pandemic cash), phone holders, door mats, shower curtains — pretty much whatever you want, they've got, because who doesn't want an "Air Con" Nicholas Cage throw pillow?
It's also worth noting that despite Beloved Shirts' success, they still have some things to iron out. According to the Better Business Bureau, they have an F rating. They have pages of complaints regarding either issues with delivery or problems with products getting to where they're going — the most recent complaint was filed in January 2024. But, delivery issues aside, when something is made-to-order, the person doing the ordering does have a specific vision, so when the product they receive isn't exactly what they hoped for, unhappy customers are inevitable.
What's next for Beloved Shirts and its owner?
By all accounts, what's next appears to be growing the company. According to the website, there are new designs for consumers to choose from every week, so as long as pop culture exists (and it will exist forever) and people love kitsch (and people will love kitsch forever), Beloved Shirts should do pretty well for itself. "I'm really confident we are going to take this to the next level and be a globally recognized brand," Robison told ABC 4 in 2016.
While Beloved Shirts continues to grow, Robison, who called himself a "serial entrepreneur" on The Jimmy Rex Show in 2019, seems to have set his sights on other businesses as well. One of those companies is Flexliving, which is Robison's less expensive answer to those who don't want to spend a lot on LuluLemon products, and another is Golden Pickleball which designs luxury paddles for pickleball. Considering pickleball has been the fastest growing sport in the U.S. for the last few years and looks to continue garnering even more legions of fans in 2024, Robison couldn't have chosen a better sports-related market to get into. Basically, Robison is just getting started and, perhaps, he just might be the next Mark Cuban in the making.