Growing up, siblings Caroline and Jake Danehy spent a large portion of their summer vacations ferrying between their home in New York City and Fire Island’s car-free Fair Harbor beach. In the process, both began noticing an increasing amount of plastic water bottles stuck floating in the water. In 2014, the sibling team decided to take action to help this problem. Jake was a junior attending Colgate University and entered the college’s mock Shark Tank pitch competition for emerging companies. He pitched Fair Harbor, a men’s swimwear company that makes suits from recycled plastic water bottles. He won the company, earning $20,000 along with mentors in judges Jennifer Hyman, Jessica Alba, MC Hammer and Neil Blumenthal. With his sister Caroline, then a high school senior at Manhattan’s Ethical Culture Fieldston School, he laid the groundwork for the business.
Unfortunately, Caroline and Jake ran into various issues regarding the recycled plastic they wanted to use. Manufacturers quoted recycled plastics-to-swimsuit fabric at about $12 per yard, which was more than they could afford. Jake later explained in an interview that “no one was really doing this in 2014,”. However, utilizing the pitch competition prize money, they were able to make a down payment and soon produce Fair Harbor’s first swimsuit in China.
In 2018, the Danehys settled into a New York City office. They were hoping to win a share of the $21 billion swimsuit market by focusing on e-commerce and traditional advertising. Six years later, that strategy has paid off. Fair Harbor has attracted about 300,000 customers. Radio shows such as the Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM have been hugely effective to their sales. They also sent more than two million catalogues to prospective customers in 2021 and had the Fair Harbor logo’s positioning behind home plate in Yankee Stadium. These were all very helpful to brand growth, as the brand surpassed 2020 revenue within the second quarter of 2021. In the first five months of 2021, Fair Harbor had already generated $23 million.
Both the swimwear and sustainable fashion categories have been growing at a steady clip, with the global swimwear market expected to increase 38% to $29 billion by 2025 as people increase spending on vacations and beach time, according to Statista. Sustainable fashion is also expected to grow 50% to $9 billion by 2025. Sitting between both of these industries, Fair Harbor has the market on its side and continues to grow each day.
This is a great idea in every way. I think the fact that this is such a sustainable product really enhances its appeal, and like you said, their investment in digital brand growth will only continue to pay off. I just hope that ultra-discounted swimsuits would not end up taking away the value of this product because more people are willing to pay for a cheap product if it works the same.
Its neat how they started this business that nobody had tried before from nothing but a school project, which in just a few years turned into a massive brand.
It’s awesome to see how not only he grew his business, but also the publicity surrounding his business, going on a number of shows and competitions. Furthermore, the fact that the business wasn’t just a one time hit and has still continued to flourish consistently is a very difficult thing to do.