You may or may not have seen through our website and socials but JAM was recently on Shark Tank Australia! If you missed the episode that aired on Channel 10 on October 30th, not to worry, you can still catch our episode and others on 10Play. The link to episode 3 (our episode) can be found here, https://10play.com.au/shark-tank/episodes/season-6/episode-3/tpv241027vtdhr and for those looking to just watch JAM, we’re the last business of the episode (saving the best for last?)
Filming Shark Tank was a real pinch-me moment for us founders as we often talk about not expecting to find ourselves in the position we’re in. Going from being Occupational Therapy students to fashion brand owners has leant itself to some very unexpected experiences, such as being on the Australian Fashion Week runway, being featured in publications such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar, to now being on Shark Tank! As with everything in our business journey, when the opportunity arose to apply to be on the show we thought to ourselves, why not? What have we got to lose?
We submitted what we thought was a pretty cringey video introducing ourselves and JAM, and were lucky enough to get a call back from a producer later that same day. A bit of back and forth and due diligence later and we were confirmed as being on the show. Now the real stress started! What had we just signed ourselves up for?! We knew that we had to prepare and memorise our 2-3 minute introductory pitch for the sharks, but as well as that we had to prepare ourselves for 45 minutes worth of grilling from the sharks as potential investors. We had a month or two to practise, which involved us filming ourselves presenting, bingeing all the Shark Tank episodes we could, and having daily meltdowns to each other about hypothetical disasters. Before we knew it the time had arrived for us to fly up to Sydney and go to the studio for filming day.
We found out that we were on the first day of two weeks of filming for the show, which we felt was a positive for us as the sharks would be energetic and excited at the start. They film 4-5 businesses a day, so it’s a huge production and must be absolutely exhausting for everyone involved. We were only on-set for maybe 3-4 hours and we felt like we had run a marathon by the end of it. We were lucky to have some familiar faces with us on the day, our amazing models Digby and Juttima. We have worked with Digby before as a talented artist with disability who provided JAM with the artwork for our Digby Jacket and Digby Totes. Juttima was one of our stunning models for our Australian Fashion Week runway in 2022 and we have always kept in touch since. Both of them very generously agreed to join us in our pitch, to show-off a selection of JAM’s products and so the sharks could chat to people from the disability community about Adaptive Clothing and JAM. We captured some BTS content and photos for PR before getting mic’d up and sent into the tank!
The filming process was obviously an extremely nerve-wracking experience, however all of the staff behind the scenes and all of the sharks were extremely friendly and instantly made us feel comfortable and welcome. As expected, the sharks did grill us for about 45 minutes or so about all things to do with our business. From where our clothes are manufactured, to costs involved and what we see as the future for JAM. There is so much discussed on the day that can’t be shown in the episode, with it being edited down to just a 5-10 minute slot. At the end of the questioning, we were fortunate enough to receive an offer from the incredible Maxine Horne. We were so grateful to receive an offer, and for the sharks to show genuine interest and understanding of why JAM’s products are so needed. As soon as we received Maxine’s offer it was like a huge wave of relief washed over us and we knew that all of the preparation in the months leading up had been worth it (and none of the hypothetical disasters came true!). After a quick hug of congratulations you’re then back out of the tank and into more BTS filming. We were then done for the day and caught a cab straight back to the airport. What a whirlwind! We looked at each other when we walked out of the studio afterwards and said “is your body aching?!” It was like our backs and legs were holding all the pressure from the day and as soon as it was over it hit us all at once. We felt a real mix of excitement, relief and exhaustion and altogether it just felt so surreal.
We then were told that the show would air in about 3 months and to keep our lips sealed until then. It was so hard not to tell everyone what we had just gone through, but it was so exciting seeing our family and friend’s responses when they finally found out the news. Apart from it being significant to us personally, we felt like it was another example of Adaptive Clothing and the disability community being considered on such a large, mainstream platform, and for our customers and those within the community that was a significant milestone too. We really hope that experiences like this continue to promote conversations around the need for Adaptive Clothing and products that consider the disability consumer. Thank you to Shark Tank Australia for promoting JAM’s message, and thank you to everyone that has reached out to congratulate us after watching the show. We’ll be saying “Remember that time we were on Shark Tank?” for years to come!
