About Daymond John - Shark Tank -
Early life
John was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn , but spent his childhood in the Queens neighborhood of Hollis [ 2 ] He was raised an only child by his mother and attended Bayside High School . [ 3 ] In high school, he participated in a co-op program that allowed him to work a full-time job and attend school on an alternating weekly basis, which he credits with instilling an entrepreneurial spirit. [ 4 ] After graduating high school, he started a commuter van service. [ 2 ]
FUBU
FUBU 's origins date to 1992. At the time, wool hats with cut-off tops were popular, and John noticed them being sold for $20, which he considered overpriced. [ 5 ] He went home and sewed around 80 hats with his next-door neighbor, Carl Brown. [ 6 ] They sold their homemade hats for $10 each in front of the New York Coliseum , and made $800 in a single day. [ 3 ]
Sensing potential, Daymond and his mother mortgaged their house for $100,000 to generate start-up capital. [ 3 ] In addition to Brown, he recruited longtime friends J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin into the business, and began sewing the FUBU logo onto hockey jerseys, sweatshirts, and t-shirts. [ 3 ] To make ends meet, John held a full-time job at Red Lobster , working on the FUBU business in between shifts. [ 7 ] In 1993, he convinced LL Cool J , an old neighborhood friend, to wear a FUBU t-shirt for a promotional campaign. [ 8 ] Later, while filming a 30-second advertising spot for The Gap , LL Cool J wore a FUBU hat in the commercial and incorporated the line "for us, by us" in his rapping. [ 7 ] [ 9 ]
FUBU gained nationwide exposure when John and his partners traveled to Magic, a trade show in Las Vegas in 1994. [ 10 ] Despite not being able to afford a booth, FUBU received over $300,000 worth of orders. [ 10 ] FUBU continued growing, signing contracts with Macy’s , J.C. Penney , and the National Basketball Association and a distribution deal with Samsung Electronics . [ 8 ] By 1998, FUBU returned $350 million in revenues. [ 6 ] Currently, FUBU has amassed over six billion dollars in global sales. [ 11 ] [ 12 ]
Shark Tank
In 2009, John joined the cast of " Shark Tank ", [ 10 ] a show in which John and four other business executives listen to business pitches from everyday people, and decide whether or not to invest money in their projects. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]
Assuming every on-camera deal happened, John has invested $700,000 in Shark Tank projects as of October 15, 2009.
