Whatever Happened To Hold Your Haunches After Shark Tank?
Plenty of businesspeople have gone on "Shark Tank" to pitch products or companies involving women's wear, like the BootayBag subscription underwear service or the Red Dress Boutique affordable clothing company. In April 2014, entrepreneurs Erin Bickley and Jenny Greer of Macon, Georgia hoped to follow in those companies' footsteps when they went into the tank during Season 5 to pitch Hold Your Haunches.
Bickley and Greer came up with Hold Your Haunches after they searched exhaustively for shapewear that accentuated their figures, and specifically their, well, haunches. Greer describes Hold Your Haunches as "a fashion trouser with a fully integrated shapewear liner." It offers slimming and smoothing support for women of all ages. One of their retail partners said that putting on a pair is like putting on tights and leggings at the same time.
Their initial ask was for $75,000 in exchange for a 20% equity stake in their company. Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec immediately bowed out, claiming a lack of familiarity with women's wear, while Kevin O'Leary complained that shapewear amounts to false advertising. That left Lori Greiner and Barbara Corcoran, who told their male counterparts that they were being a tad sexist and very shortsighted. Greiner and Corcoran teamed up to offer $75,000 for a 40% equity stake, plus a $100,000 line of credit.
Bickley and Greer accepted, and it turned out that the three male sharks majorly whiffed.
Hold Your Haunches enjoyed the fabled Shark Tank bump
First off, like many of the deals made on "Shark Tank," Erin Bickley and Jenny Greer's deal with Lori Greiner and Barbara Corcoran changed after the cameras stopped rolling. In this case, Bickley and Greer told The Macon Telegraph that they actually settled on a smaller investment for a smaller equity stake, but didn't specify how much.
It turned out that the cash wasn't as important as the exposure. In January 2015, "Shark Tank" gave an update on Hold Your Haunches, which was filmed about six months after their episode aired. During the update, Bickley and Greer explained that in the year prior to "Shark Tank" they'd done about $165,000 in sales. In those first six months post-"Shark Tank," they moved $1.5 million worth of pants. This allowed Hold Your Haunches to transfer their operation out of Erin Bickley's playroom and into an actual office with a warehouse. Their growth continued in 2015, with the company pulling in almost $2 million in sales.
Unfortunately, it does not appear the success lasted
While Hold Your Haunches enjoyed a burst of post-"Shark Tank" success, it would appear that the company is no longer in business today. As of the time of writing, their products are listed as unavailable on Amazon, and their official website has gone offline. Furthermore, the main social media pages for the company have either stopped posting or appear to have been reverted back to private use.
Although Erin Bickley and Jenny Greer's LinkedIn pages suggest that Hold Your Haunches is still active, the lack of updates, unavailable merchandise, and shuttered social media profiles suggest that despite its initial success, the company eventually ceased operations. Unfortunately, not all "Shark Tank" success stories are made to last.