Bad Birdie
The downside of golf shirts, according to the entrepreneur behind Bad Birdie, an apparel company out of Los Angeles, CA, is that they're either striped or a solid color with very little creativity. They're old fashioned.
To bring some life into golf players games and onto the greens, Bad Birdie has designed a new range of "stylish" polos that feature all the usual features active apparel has these days including moisture wicking fabric, scent helpers, you know the story. And it also feature Florida camouflage. Oh... no... sorry, that's just the pattern. But, suffice it to say, a person wearing one of these could hide very effectively at a Busch Gardens.
Daymond is quick to ask why anyone would bother to play golf but the entrepreneur skips right past it by describing Bad Birdie shirts as "performance wear" that someone doesn't actually have to play golf to wear.
Bad Birdie was inspired two and a half years ago when the entrepreneur walked into a shop and saw a lot of shirts targeted at older golfers but nothing that he wanted to buy. So he created his own. In the first year, Bad Birdie had $72,000 in sales. In the second, this jumped to $412,000. In the year this deal aired up until filming, Bad Birdie had earned $760,000 in sales and projected $1,200,000 by the end of the year. And until the previous year, all of these sales were direct to consumer.
When starting out, each shirt cost $40 per item to manufacture but the entrepreneur has gotten those costs down to $25. Each shirt then retails for $72. He predicts that the next run will cost under $17 and that the following run might be as low as $12 which is important because Bad Birdie has started selling wholesale and earned $150,000 through that sales channel. In the next year, he sees that growing to $300,000
Bad Birdie drops about thirty designs a season, all created by the entrepreneur.
The entrepreneur is in the tank looking for investment because he keeps selling out of his inventory and, in order to produce larger runs for the next style drop, he keeps eating through his cash to fund it and is looking for an investor to relieve some of the pressure.
Making A Deal
Mark seems enthusiastic about the product but thinks that filling retail stores with it will kill the excitement of the seasonal style drops. The entrepreneur responds that he intends to keep retail sales to no more than 25% of the business.
Lori says that if the competition is as boring as the entrepreneur says then Bad Birdie shirts should definitely pop but that other sharks understand the world of golf better and, so, she's out.
To this point, Kevin says that there is a lot of competition in the gold shirt space but that he can't argue with the sales. On the condition that Bad Birdie drop its wholesale business, he makes an offer of $300,000 for 30% of the business.
Robert, on the other hand, doesn't see an issue with retail and brings up Butter Cloth,[1] saying that they have seen $3,500,000 in sales. But he likes Bad Birdie for it's direct targeting. He offers $300,000 in exchange for 25% equity and no strings attached as far as retail sales go, undercutting Mr. Wonderful's offer.
Mark states that he's always frightened of retail and is out. Daymond says retail is all about real estate and being paid in lousy time frames and is also out. Kevin calls retail the "siren on the rocks".
The entrepreneur then responds to Robert by suggesting a 20% equity stake in exchange for his investment. But Robert's not having it, stating that he knows what it takes to make it a success. The entrepreneur then tries to challenge Robert to a putting contest. Suggests that if Robert makes the put, they'll stick with 25% equity but that if he fails then he has to come down to 20%.
Maybe it was just the balls on the entrepreneur that made him agree it it but Robert got up to try and missed and so they agree on 20% after all. This being exactly double what the entrepreneur came in wanting to give away, the business' value was bit neatly in half.
Kevin gets up to the putting green and tries to make a bet with Robert if he makes it but Kevin whiffs hard. Daymond then gives it a go and is the only shark to only sink a put, unfortunately, no one by Robert noticed.
Notes
- ↑ Butter Cloth was a deal Robert made back in the fourth episode of Season Ten. If true that the business has earned $3,500,000 in sales in a little over a year, it's a nice return on a $250,000 investment.