ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ judges bite on Baylor alum’s sock subscription service
In 2000, Matt McClard graduated from Baylor with a degree in graphic design. Twelve years later, he was selling socks with a group of Dallas dads. And three years after that, he and the group were leaving ABC’s Shark Tank with a $250,000 investment offer.
[Click here to watch the episode; the Foot Cardigan segment begins around the 1:50 mark.]
It’s been quite the roller coaster for McClard and his business partners. In 2012, McClard in Dallas was working for now co-owner Bryan Deluca when DeLuca asked him to develop a website for a side project he was working on with two other men. Eventually, the four quit their day jobs, and what was just a side project became the full-fledged business Foot Cardigan.
Their concept was strange, but clever and simple: ship a random, eclectic, one-of-a-kind pair of socks to consumers’ doorsteps once a month for $9 a month. Playing off of the 2012 presidential race, they sold blue and red Obama and Romney socks, netting a huge boost in subscribers.
Today, Foot Cardigan has 8,000 subscribers in 75 countries and projected year-end sales of $1.5 million — and that’s before being on Shark Tank. Since being on the show and landing a $250,000 investment from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Troy Carter (who has managed such artists as Lady Gaga and John Legend), the company has been absolutely flooded with orders.
“We want to take over the entire sock drawer,” McClard told the Waco Tribune-Herald. “That’s our goal.”
Sic ’em, Foot Cardigan!
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