Why That Worked #27: Bombas—The Shark Tank Pitch That Got Everything Right (And What Businesses Can Learn From It)

Summary

Marketing Made Simple: Episode 27 Summary Title: Why That Worked #27: Bombas—The Shark Tank Pitch That Got Everything Right (And What Businesses Can Learn From It)
Release Date: July 9, 2025
Hosts: Donald Miller and Kyle Reed
Podcast: Why That Worked

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1. Introduction

In this episode of Why That Worked, hosts Donald Miller and Kyle Reed delve into one of the most successful pitches from the television show Shark Tank: Bombas. They analyze why Bombas' pitch resonated so effectively with both investors and consumers, extracting valuable lessons for businesses aiming to refine their own marketing strategies.

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2. The Bombas Pitch Breakdown

Donald Miller begins by highlighting Bombas’ approach to pitching their athletic leisure socks:

"Mass market athletic socks hasn't changed in decades. Same basic colors, same styles, same cardboard feel." (02:08)

This statement sets the stage by identifying a stagnant market segment ripe for innovation.

Kyle Reed adds:

"What put that in, like, what did they do there?" (02:15)

The hosts focus on Bombas’ ability to create a "story loop," generating curiosity and engagement from the outset.

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3. Strengths of the Bombas Pitch

a. Effective Use of Sound Bites

Donald emphasizes the importance of succinct, memorable phrases:

"If I said most healthy cereals taste like cardboard. Well, it doesn't actually taste like cardboard, but everybody knows what you're talking about." (02:48)

This technique makes complex ideas easily digestible and relatable.

b. Clear Differentiation

Bombas skillfully contrasts their product with existing options:

"Seven substantial improvements to the athletic sock." (04:38)

By quantifying their enhancements, Bombas positions itself as a superior alternative without overcomplicating the message.

c. Emotional Connection and Mission-Driven Approach

Bombas integrates a philanthropic angle:

"For every pair of socks we sell, we donate a pair." (05:46)

This not only appeals to consumers' sense of social responsibility but also strengthens brand loyalty.

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4. Weaknesses Identified in the Pitch

a. Lack of Detailed Explanation

Initially, Bombas mentions their "seven substantial improvements" without elaborating:

"They did not explain the seven things." (06:02)

This brevity can lead to missed opportunities to showcase product excellence.

b. Vague Future Plans

When questioned about their use of investment funds, Bombas provides a generic response:

"We're going to hire people." (14:28)

Donald critiques this by stating:

"They needed to come back with a superior sock at less than half the price of retail... and optimize for profit in 10 years." (15:17)

A more strategic and detailed plan would have bolstered investor confidence.

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5. Key Takeaways for Businesses

a. Master the Art of Sound Bites

Donald advises businesses to develop clear, repeatable sound bites that encapsulate their value proposition without overwhelming the audience.

b. Balance Detail with Engagement

While brevity is crucial, providing enough information to substantiate claims can prevent disengagement. Bombas improved their pitch mid-way by detailing their seven innovations:

"Peruvian Pima cotton... environment." (08:27)

c. Articulate Clear Business Strategies

Investors seek assurance that funds will be utilized effectively. A transparent and strategic plan demonstrates preparedness and fosters trust.

d. Leverage Emotional and Social Appeals

Integrating a mission-driven component can differentiate a brand and create deeper connections with consumers.

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6. Conclusion

Donald Miller and Kyle Reed conclude that Bombas' success on Shark Tank hinged on their ability to craft compelling sound bites and establish a strong emotional connection with both investors and consumers. However, the pitch also revealed areas for improvement, particularly in articulating detailed business strategies. For businesses aiming to emulate Bombas' success, the episode underscores the importance of clear communication, strategic planning, and building authentic connections with the audience.

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Notable Quotes:

• "If I said most healthy cereals taste like cardboard... everybody knows what you're talking about." — Donald Miller (02:48)

• "We spent two years on research and development and came up with seven substantial improvements to the athletic sock." — Bombas Representative (04:38)

• "We have spent $0 on advertising or customer acquisition. So all of those sales have come from people telling other people about our product." — Bombas Representative (14:42)

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Timestamps Reference:

• 02:08
• 02:15
• 02:48
• 04:38
• 05:46
• 06:02
• 14:28
• 15:17
• 08:27
• 14:42

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This episode provides valuable insights into crafting effective pitches and the critical elements that can make or break a business presentation. Whether you're preparing for a pitch or refining your marketing strategy, the lessons from Bombas' Shark Tank appearance are both relevant and actionable.

Transcript

[Bobby Richards]

Hey, hero makers, it's podcast producer Bobby Richards. I'm jumping in to share with you a new episode of our brand new podcast, why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI with Donald Miller back in the host seat. Now, since we launched Marketing Made simple, we've been so grateful to have everybody tune in each week to learn how to make your marketing easy and make it work. Which is exactly why we're sharing new episodes of the why that Worked podcast here. In the old Marketing Made simple feed, each episode of the new show is going to deliver actionable insights and key takeaways that are all designed so you can implement them to help make whatever you're working on work. If you want to catch new episodes early, you can watch or listen every Monday. To watch the show, just go subscribe to the StoryBrand YouTube channel. And to listen, go follow why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI wherever you enjoy your podcasts. All right, that's it from me. So grateful you're here and enjoy this week's episode of why that worked, presented by StoryBrand AI.

[Donald Miller]

Foreign.

[Bobby Richards]

You're listening to the why that Work podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you've ever wondered why certain brands, trends, or cultural phenomena find success while others don't, you're in the right place. Every week we unpack why something worked, then give you actionable insights that you can use in your own life. Now let's dive in with your hosts, Donald Miller and Kyle Reed.

[Kyle Reed]

You've probably seen the show Shark Tank and thought, why did that idea take off? Or would my pitch hold up? Well, today we're going to unpack a couple of Shark Tank's most successful product pitches and launches of all time.

[Donald Miller]

I'm ready to look at them and say, what worked?

[Kyle Reed]

That's right, worked. So the first one I pulled that we pulled together was Bombus. I think it'd be fun as we watch this because it's a longer pitch, but it'd be fun. I want to, like, find. Why don't we pause some moments and you kind of give a breakdown? I think I'd be fun.

[Donald Miller]

Okay.

[Kyle Reed]

All right, so here we go. This is Bombas Shark Tank pit.

[Unknown Speaker]

Bombas are athletic leisure socks engineered to look better, feel better, and with a mission to help those in need. The mass market athletic sock hasn't changed in decades. Same basic colors, same styles, same cardboard feel.

[Donald Miller]

Until now. All right. Mass market athletic socks hasn't changed in decades. Brilliant.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. What put that in, like, what did they do there?

[Donald Miller]

If I said to you sports cars really haven't changed in decades. What did I just say about the sports car I'm about to release?

[Kyle Reed]

It's different.

[Donald Miller]

It's frickin different.

[Kyle Reed]

It's gonna be awesome.

[Donald Miller]

And what does that do? It opens up a story loop. What's different about it? And honestly, what's better? So he's already positioned this as a better one. Now we're getting to where they. How they really made the money. And the money was. We introduced a better sock. Right, for you. It's for the customer. We introduced a better sock.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, so let me go back 10 seconds. I'd love to hear from the very beginning with that in mind. I want to hear the start again.

[Donald Miller]

All right, this is going to take us six hours to get through this. 10 minutes.

[Unknown Speaker]

Bombas are athletic leisure socks engineered to look better, feel better, and with a mission to help those in need. The mass market athletic sock hasn't changed in decades. Same basic colors, same styles, same cardboard feel.

[Donald Miller]

Stop. Real quick. Cardboard feel.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Excellent.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Now, have you. Have you ever put on a pair of socks and had it feel like cardboard?

[Kyle Reed]

No.

[Donald Miller]

No, no. Okay. So that you can learn something from this. It doesn't have to actually be accurate. What he's. You know, I've put on socks that don't feel very good or worse. You walk like a mile in them and suddenly have, you know, cuts on the bottom, whatever. That carpet burn.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, those. Those old white socks.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I know what cardboard feel means, but that is those two words, cardboard feel, are very strategic. So now thing, right. We're better than something. And that something is specific. It's cardboard feel. And most people listening to us, they don't have a cardboard feel thing.

[Kyle Reed]

It reminds me of the episode we did about the slate truck where they. The cup. The manual or the electronic cup holder that holds your. Like, it's like, I've never seen that. But it immediately.

[Donald Miller]

And it makes you. And by the way, nobody except for us would sit there and go, I've never had a shoe, a sock. You know, what is this guy? He's like lying. He's exaggerating. Cardboard. I've never put on a sock that feels like cardboard. Nobody's gonna say that.

[Kyle Reed]

But when he said it, I immediately go, yeah, my socks. I need new socks. You know, so it did a lot of work.

[Donald Miller]

If you said most healthy cereals taste like cardboard. Well, it doesn't actually taste like cardboard, but everybody knows what you're talking about.

[Kyle Reed]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So now we're against something. Okay. And it said it in two words, really, really good there.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep.

[Unknown Speaker]

We spent two years on research and development and came up with seven substantial improvements to the athletic stop.

[Donald Miller]

Seven substantial improvements. Like numbering it and saying that many improvements. Just says, okay, this thing has to be in a category all of its own. This is a. They are presenting this as a much superior sock. But they didn't say superior sock. They said seven substantial improvements. Really good.

[Kyle Reed]

Which is another. They opened up another story loop there.

[Donald Miller]

Right, right. What are they?

[Kyle Reed]

Because what are they? I want to know now.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, within.

[Kyle Reed]

Probably within 30 seconds.

[Donald Miller]

Well, within 10 seconds, they went from cardboard feel to the best to God made. These are the socks God wears. Right.

[Kyle Reed]

Good to go.

[Donald Miller]

They must stay the socks that God wears. Yeah. I mean, you know, but. Okay, so that's another lesson for everybody here. The contrast was fast. The contrast from cardboard feel sock to the best and most comfortable sock in the history of the world was 10 seconds. And so now we've got a gap in between their product and everything else that you've tried. Really good pitch right here.

[Unknown Speaker]

We learned that socks are the number one most requested clothing item at homeless shelters. That really stuck with us. So for every pair of socks we sell, we donate a pair. So we hope you'll join us to.

[Donald Miller]

Make better socks for a better world. Okay, stop for a second. They did not explain the seven things.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. They moved to that.

[Donald Miller]

Which says something you don't actually have to. Right. Here's a discipline that none of us have. Nobody listening to me has this discipline. They didn't get into the weeds. They didn't get into the weeds. This reminds me of Jeb Bush running for president. We've got to have a better education system. And then he just goes into. There's 12 things. And let me explain to them the nuance. Stop. There's 12 things that we need to do in our education system that is really going to revolutionize this country and prepare us to compete. Not only compete, but beat China. Doesn't have to say what they are.

[Kyle Reed]

And also sets him up. That Jeb example. But it feels like it sets them up as experts.

[Donald Miller]

Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

Because they've got it. I'm trusting you that you've done what you said you're going to do.

[Donald Miller]

Some coach said, I'm not going to let you talk about what the seven are.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

And they fought that coach.

[Kyle Reed]

I guarantee they want to talk about it. Every feature, every reason.

[Donald Miller]

Because it's their baby.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Yeah. And you lose in this situation they're pitching, I think people would tune out immediately. You know to what they're being said.

[Donald Miller]

I do, too. Yeah, it got boring. And you're not allowed to get boring.

[Kyle Reed]

So how does a business, when they're making an elevator pitch, you're recommending, highlighting those features. But do they talk about one or do they not?

[Donald Miller]

Well, I think when I talk about storybrand, I talk about, you need sound bites. You need sound bites that are repeatable, that people can remember in order to understand what you're offering, what problem you solve. I don't get into the fact that they're survival sound bites. And the brain is hardwired to survive. And these things have to be associated somehow with your brain's desire to keep you on the planet and help you move ahead. I don't get into that. It's just not necessary to get into that. And people get. Now they're thinking about, like, oh, we're like monkeys and we're trying to survive in the jungle. I don't need to think about that. I need them thinking, I need sound bites. And so you don't want to get them. The whole idea is like, you don't want to say anything that's going to confuse anybody or distract from the point.

[Kyle Reed]

They clearly did something right.

[Donald Miller]

Well, and homeless people have some really good socks.

[Kyle Reed]

They have great socks.

[Unknown Speaker]

We'd like to take a quick moment while you're trying them on to take you through our seven substantial improvements. We started with Peruvian Pima cotton. This is a natural fiber that wicks moisture, breathes, stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Up by the toes. We got rid of that annoying seam that's always causing irritation, creating our environment.

[Donald Miller]

Stop. This is so. This is. First of all, let's do acknowledge what we said before. They didn't get into the weeds. Now they're getting into the weeds now.

[Kyle Reed]

They are, but they have a moment, too. I think it's a good move.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Not only that, but while these guys are putting on their socks, they're talking. And so it's not really getting boring. There's sort of a tactile demonstration that's happening here. Also, that first point. You notice how succinct that was?

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

And it's scripted, man. These are sound bites stacked on top.

[Kyle Reed]

Of each other that are rehearsed and even nailing. It's funny, I was thinking how much Peruvian material I have in my wardrobe. I don't think I have any. But when he said, I was like, ooh, that kind of sounds nice. But I like that they went to.

[Donald Miller]

Then the next move Rather than like Arkansas or.

[Kyle Reed]

Or cashmere. They nail it, though, with the seam. They remove that seam. So now. So they went from like, kind of.

[Donald Miller]

Like, oh, there's no seam right there.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, that's. That was. The second point was I said, we've removed that annoyance.

[Donald Miller]

You'll never make a sock puppet now. But okay.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, it hurts some markets, but not these guys.

[Unknown Speaker]

In the midfoot area, we created our proprietary honeycomb arch support system and added our ultra comfortable performance foam footbed. And back by the heel, we created a Y shaped stitch to create a natural cuff around your heel and added a blister tab for the ankle socks.

[Donald Miller]

See, they're naming things.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes.

[Donald Miller]

Like, the performance footbed is not an actual thing.

[Kyle Reed]

No, but it's a great, great word. Great descriptor.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, it's. Okay, let's make it thicker right here. Yeah, but we can't just. The difference between him saying it's kind of thicker on the bottom versus performance footbed. Yes.

[Kyle Reed]

I love that.

[Donald Miller]

All right. Honeycomb. What do you call it?

[Kyle Reed]

Well, it's the. Sorry, I'm caught up now on those words you just said. It's that exaggerated use of words that's a little bit more descriptive, a little bit more exaggerated out that I think does so much work there. Versus, like you said, we just added an extra padding to.

[Donald Miller]

You're figuring out a way to unpack ideas in somebody's brain with succinct short sound bites. A performance footbed means I'm going to be able to run faster. Right. It's not thicker footbed, you know, or thicker bottom.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

It doesn't elicit the fact that I'm.

[Kyle Reed]

Going to run faster, but so many people do that.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. So.

[Kyle Reed]

But what's in it for me? What's inside on their. Oh, they. Performance foot bed.

[Donald Miller]

What's in it for me? What's in it for me? What's in it for the customer?

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, that's good. Yeah. The honeycomb thing kind of tripped me up a little bit because that was a quick one. But yet their whole brand is.

[Donald Miller]

Everything in me wants to try on one of these socks.

[Kyle Reed]

Well, Bobby has.

[Donald Miller]

Bobby, are they good? Are they good? Are they come over? Are they comfy? They are. Don, how does the performance footbed feel?

[Bobby Richards]

It's very cushiony.

[Kyle Reed]

Don, does it feel honey?

[Unknown Speaker]

It really is.

[Bobby Richards]

I mean, I love my bombas.

[Donald Miller]

Sorry, guys. I love my bombas. This is fantastic. I don't think.

[Bobby Richards]

Here's the thing, too. I was gonna say the b. I don't think is Incorporated in the design anymore.

[Kyle Reed]

But anyway, that was their. Okay, carry on, carry on. Specialty sports socks are everywhere.

[Donald Miller]

How are you different?

[Unknown Speaker]

Our primary difference is that.

[Donald Miller]

Hey, stop. He had an answer.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep. Soundbite.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, he had an. He had an answer to the question, how are you different? Right. And you need a scripted answer to that question. Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

We tested socks from everything down to your cheap mass market multi packs, all the way up to your 18 to $22 niche athletic running socks, which is what you're talking about. We found out the major things that made those socks feel so much better and brought them down to a $9 price point.

[Donald Miller]

Wow. So, okay, what's his differences? His difference is those $22 socks have this, this and that. We do the exact same thing. We brought it down to a $9 price point. So our differentiator is we're affordable.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, that's really good.

[Donald Miller]

Also a nine dollar pair of socks, this is probably what, ten years ago?

[Kyle Reed]

2014.

[Donald Miller]

So yeah, ten years ago.

[Kyle Reed]

Ten years ago.

[Donald Miller]

All right, so this is ten years ago. A $9 sock is probably a $15 pair of socks. That's not cheap. No, but you notice what he did. $22, $9. Now they, they look affordable.

[Kyle Reed]

Correct. He anchored it so well.

[Donald Miller]

Anchored it.

[Kyle Reed]

That's really good.

[Bobby Richards]

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[Kyle Reed]

I have a question philosophically about this.

[Donald Miller]

Idea of giving something away every time you sell. You have to double your sales to.

[Kyle Reed]

Give me the equivalent returns that I.

[Donald Miller]

Get from a company that's not doing the same thing.

[Unknown Speaker]

Or you're saying double because of the goodwill that you're putting out there.

[Kyle Reed]

What's your whole.

[Unknown Speaker]

We sell exclusively online.

[Donald Miller]

Okay, let's stop there for a second. Just a business strategy. Exclusively online is a great way to get a brand going. Yeah, we did this with that cereal brand. What was that cereal brand?

[Kyle Reed]

Magic Spoon.

[Donald Miller]

Magic Spoon. They were exclusively online and then they figured out how to wholesale. These days you don't have to go through Amazon right now. You don't have to go through Walmart, you don't have to go through Target. You can get your brand started online. Just focus on messaging, marketing, customer service, making everybody happy. Focus on that and then distribute. That's just a little business strategy. Less about messaging.

[Unknown Speaker]

In the $450,000 that we've done today, we have spent $0 on advertising or customer acquisition. So all of those sales have come from people telling other people about our product. That's the concern. Word of mouth is not a scalable strategy.

[Kyle Reed]

Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

So word of mouth was our proof of concept.

[Donald Miller]

Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

That is what took us.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, so what's the next step?

[Unknown Speaker]

So the next step is we're taking this money and hiring people, the customer acquisition specialists, who is going to raise our base daily sales from 500 to 3 to $5,000 a day to build our baseline push partnership globally. Hotel room.

[Kyle Reed]

That's not a good answer for me. I don't think you've done a good.

[Unknown Speaker]

Job of telling me what it's going.

[Kyle Reed]

To look like and what the key advantage is going forward.

[Donald Miller]

I don't know that they're doing a great job right here. I think they needed to come back to, you know, with a superior sock at less than half the price of retail. And a 54% profit margin affords us to actually shrink to a 10% profit margin over the next 10 years and explode through advertising.

[Kyle Reed]

Yep, exactly.

[Donald Miller]

And that's what they should have said. And then now you're going, okay, we're going to do a 10 year growth with a 10% profit margin and then we're going to optimize for profit it 10 years from now and we're going to rake in the money. That's the plan. So you're betting on something that you're going to get a small return on. Your money will be paid back. Your $200,000 for 5% will be back in your hand probably within five years. You'll double your money within 10 years and that's when you actually start making your. That's what you needed to say also too.

[Kyle Reed]

If they don't lead with we're hiring more people. But they lead with we're using this money to scale up our manufacturing so.

[Donald Miller]

We'Re hiring more people. Everybody knows labor cost is the burden on an Organization.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. It's almost like if they came in with more of, like. What we're missing is X Manufacturing. Damon, John, your connections. That would have been a different answer. Versus. Yeah, versus. We're going to hire more people.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. When I heard you just now say that you wanted to use the money to hire in people, I hate when I hear that. You are two smart guys, and I feel you should be doing everything to run everything that you can right now, the two of you. So I really don't like that strategy.

[Kyle Reed]

Emma, that's the QVC also. She's the product. She made her money in qvc.

[Donald Miller]

Well, also, we're going to hire more people. You know, when we talk about the airplane, the. I use a metaphor of an airplane for running a business. The body, the fuselage. The body of the airplane is where everybody sits. It's got to be the most efficient part of it. And if you add 10 seats to that airplane, your wings have to be bigger. You're gonna have to burn more fuel. It dramatically affects everything else. So you get as few people in the fuselage of that airplane as possible so you can be as efficient. And as soon as they said hire, I was the same way. I was like, you're gonna do what? Yeah, well, even if you're gonna do it, don't say it.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes. What? Also makes them lose a little credibility as far as they know what they're doing.

[Donald Miller]

That's right. We're gonna hire some people who know what they're doing.

[Kyle Reed]

Yes, exactly.

[Donald Miller]

All right, now, listen. They're, like, worth 10 times what we are, of course, criticizing them.

[Unknown Speaker]

We need the additional equity to go out and raise capital without giving away 40% of the company. What are you raising the capital for? We're raising the capital to hire and spend on marketing and, you know, build out our team inventory and product as well. Inventory and product finance.

[Donald Miller]

I invested in a company recently, a recycling business. The proposal came in. $25,000. You can own. It was 10% of the company. The company didn't exist. Like, the guy's just starting it out. And he came back and he said, okay, well, you know, $5,000 a month. That gives me five months of salary to get going. And I just said, no. I said, turn in receipts on recycling bins, bumper stickers to put on the recycling bins, postcards to send to neighborhoods. I will give you $25,000 to the receipts of things that grow the business.

[Kyle Reed]

Not to pay for it.

[Donald Miller]

I will give you nothing to live on. You know what that did? It creates A hungry person building a business. And just everybody needs. Everybody listening, needs to hear that. Because you start. Because then the guy goes, I got five months from out of money. Let me figure out what I'm gonna do next. No, if you want to feed your family, you got to get a bumper sticker on a recycling. You know, his business is doing incredible today, by the way. He would have done it anyway. He's not that guy. But that is a thing that you want to think about. Like, if you're investing of just, like, invest in the thing that actually makes money and make sure the owner's hungry.

[Kyle Reed]

And you gotta. I think the other thing I'm telling you, you got to have an answer for when someone is saying, here's what I'm going to give you money for.

[Donald Miller]

Right.

[Kyle Reed]

It's really important how you.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, they didn't seem to have that, because they didn't.

[Kyle Reed]

Your. The investment you made. Yeah, that was a bad answer. Like, well, it gives me five months of living expenses. I'll figure it out. Yeah, that's a horrible answer.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, you'll figure out where you're getting your next investment.

[Kyle Reed]

Exactly. No, it's $5,000 a month to buy more bins, more XYZ, to grow this, literally receipts. Yes. Yeah.

[Donald Miller]

Like, you know, call me when you want to buy something, and I'll pay for it.

[Kyle Reed]

I'll pay for it.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

But I need to see, like, the.

[Donald Miller]

Next thing you know, he's called me and he said, I need. We got so much business. I need a trailer.

[Kyle Reed]

We love that expense.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. I'm like, bill me.

[Kyle Reed]

Let's go.

[Donald Miller]

You got a trailer, brother.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. That's good.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, yeah, he's doing awesome.

[Unknown Speaker]

$200,000 for 17 and a half percent.

[Donald Miller]

That's it.

[Unknown Speaker]

All right, you have a deal.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah.

[Kyle Reed]

Nice.

[Donald Miller]

All right, so, okay, what are the numbers now?

[Kyle Reed]

So over 1.3 billion in lifetime sales. Holy smokes.

[Donald Miller]

So Daymond John got a great deal on that. I think probably what happened was they spent a ton of money on radio advertising and inventory. I think the homeless shelter thing was a massive differentiator. There's no question that ended up being a positive thing. I would just say be really careful with that. If you're going, hey, you can buy a pair of socks, and we're going to give away a pair of socks. That's not what sells it. You can buy a pair of socks, and there's seven things that make it better. You know, the performance, footbed, all that kind of stuff.

[Kyle Reed]

I think that would have Yeah, I.

[Donald Miller]

Think without that, it doesn't work.

[Kyle Reed]

Okay, so wrap us up here. Why did this work?

[Donald Miller]

Sound bites. I would say they got 50% of their sound bites dialed in so well that it made this pitch work. And 50%, you could tell when they started winging it. What are you gonna do with the money? How do you not know what you're gonna do with the money? And we're going to hire people.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. So start out strong with the sound bites performance.

[Donald Miller]

And by the way, the valuation they got, the investment they got, it wasn't what they wanted. So what happens if they dial in the other 50%? What if they actually say, we're going to do a massive radio campaign targeted at conservatives listening to conservative talk radio because they tend to be evangelical and they tend to not know how to change the world, and they don't want to do it through the government, and they're going to do it through buying socks.

[Kyle Reed]

There you go.

[Donald Miller]

Now we go. Okay, now we're on to something. These guys have thought through this.

[Kyle Reed]

The sound bite saved them.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah, that's a great way to say it.

[Kyle Reed]

It saved them.

[Donald Miller]

The sound bites got them an investor.

[Kyle Reed]

This has been fun.

[Unknown Speaker]

This is our whole show.

[Kyle Reed]

You know what?

[Donald Miller]

Why that? Shark Tank.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah, yeah. Don't. Don't tempt Don with a new idea for a show name because it could change. You know what would be fun? I think people should leave us comments of other, like, their favorite Shark Tank episodes.

[Donald Miller]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious. Great episode.

[Kyle Reed]

Yeah. Thanks for joining us, everyone. Be sure to leave us a comment on your favorite Shark Tank pitches. We'd love to see them and products.

[Bobby Richards]

Thanks for listening to the why that Worked podcast presented by StoryBrand AI. If you like the show, follow wherever you get your podcasts. And if you're Enjoying this on YouTube, hit that subscribe button and leave a comment letting us know what you think and what you want the guys to talk about in a future episode. Curious about how StoryBrand AI can help you create clear, effective messaging? Well, you can try it out right now and create a free customized tagline for your business. Just go to storybrand AI. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.