Modern Picnic: What To Know About The Shark Tank Brand
Modern Picnic is one of the businesses competing on "Shark Tank" Season 15, Episode 13. Its core product is a functional lunch box designed to resemble a luxurious handbag. Instead of carrying lunch to work in a standard lunch box, its customers can opt instead for a stylish alternative, intended to appeal primarily to a demographic of women.
Products marketed to women have a history of performing well on ABC's investment reality series. For example, a company that sells affordable women's clothing called Red Dress Boutique grew after "Shark Tank" thanks to the involvement of Mark Cuban and a huge bump in sales following its episode's premiere.
Going into the "Shark Tank" studio, Modern Picnic's founder Ali Kaminetsky is looking to replicate the success of Red Dress Boutique and every other company targeting a largely female customer base. Here's everything fans of the show intrigued by Modern Picnic's upscale lunch bag need to know about the brand leading up to its big "Shark Tank" debut.
Ali Kaminetsky founded Modern Picnic to address an issue she encountered in her everyday life
The idea for a fashionable lunch bag first came to Ali Kaminetsky when she was 22 years old, but at that point, she had no idea how to get a business off the ground. During this time she was working as an assistant buyer for a retail business in New York City. She would typically bring her lunch to work and felt that there were no sufficiently fashion-forward lunch bags on the market. Plenty of lunch bags or boxes were marketed toward children or men, but there were none designed with women's fashion in mind.
In 2018, when she was 25 and had made connections in the retail world, she founded Modern Picnic to address this very need. "I would carry my lunch in paper, plastic, or old shopping bags which were neither cute nor sustainable. It was clear the traditional lunchbox we all know, and hate, needed a makeover and from there, Modern Picnic was born!" she told the New York City-based women's business blog Empire Coven.
It was the fact that she was looking for a product like Modern Picnic's signature lunch bag, then, that started her out on the path that culminated in her "Shark Tank" appearance.
Modern Picnic sells a wide range of luxury lunch bags
Between its advent in 2018 and its "Shark Tank" episode premiering in February 2024, Modern Picnic grew its line of products to feature a wide range of sizes, materials, and colors and address a variety of customer needs.
Modern Picnic's largest product is a tote bag, available in two colors and three fabrics. Each tote comes with a smaller pouch — which can alternatively be purchased à la carte — that can fit a water bottle and a few food storage containers. Also in that general size range are a backpack and a large handbag. The latter, nicknamed the Large Luncher, is available in plain, crocodile-patterned, and wicker designs, each of which comes in two or three colors.
The Luncher is the name of Modern Picnic's original flagship product, similar in size to a standard purse. It can fit a food container or two in addition to a drink and a set of utensils. It's available in the same range of colors as its larger counterpart. For smaller options, Modern Picnic sells a miniature handbag called the Mini Luncher, as well as a small, strapless bag called the Snacker. Also available are food containers that function akin to standard Tupperware, designed to appear more fashion-forward like the lunch bags with which they're intended to be paired.
Modern Picnic is staffed and run exclusively by women
Modern Picnic is staffed by a relatively small team of all women, consisting of experts in marketing; social media and graphic design; and operations and partnerships. "My favorite part about working for a small, female founded brand is watching our founder, Ali, push beyond the boundaries that most female founders face. I love working with like-minded female teammates that I can relate to!" said the company's head of social media and graphic design — only identified as Caeley — in a Modern Picnic blog post celebrating Women's History Month.
Also central to the brand's success is its ambassador program, which allows outside individuals to effectively become Modern Picnic salespeople. Unsurprisingly, given the company's target demographic, product ambassadors also appear to be exclusively female, with currently more than 600 in total. Even Modern Picnic's team of business advisors is comprised entirely of women.
Outside the company proper, Modern Picnic's products are manufactured at a female-owned factory. "We recently started working with an amazing woman overseas who owns her own factory which I absolutely love and admire, especially in such a male-dominated industry as manufacturing is," Ali Kaminetsky told The Avid Pen.
Modern Picnic promotes sustainability and partners periodically with charities
Each Modern Picnic bag is made of vegan materials rather than animal leather. Beyond just how its bags are made, sustainability is a core tenet of the company's raison d'être, as reusable bags can replace single-use plastics — a fact that's highlighted on the company website.
Furthermore, Modern Picnic promotes social causes outside of the realm of sustainability through periodic partnerships with charities. Every October, for instance, Modern Picnic sells a pink crocodile-patterned lunch bag and donates 20% of sales proceeds to a charity called The Pink Agenda to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Similarly, in June, the company offers customers limited-edition PRIDE designs, proceeds from which are donated to The Trevor Project. Other charities with which Modern Picnic has worked include I Am a Voter, City Harvest, and Dress For Success.
On the whole, then, Modern Picnic bags aren't just produced to look good but also make a difference in the world through a variety of sustainability and charity initiatives.