Sonnet James Update | Shark Tank Season 10
Entrepreneur Whitney Lundeen pitched her clothing company during
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of what happened to Sonnet James after
Whitney Lundeen appeared on
| Shark: | Result: |
| Sara Blakely | Accepted deal for $350,000 for 25% equity |
| Kevin O’Leary | No offer |
| Mark Cuban | No offer |
| Barbara Corcoran | No offer |
| Lori Greiner | No offer |
Shark Tank Sonnet James Update
- Entrepreneurs: Whitney Lundeen
- Business: Women’s Clothing
- Ask: $350,000 for 25% equity
- Result: $350,000 for 25% equity
- Sharks: Sara Blakely
Founder of the clothing line Sonnet James, and busy mom Whitney Lundeen, loves to play with her kids. However, letting loose with them often meant expensive dry cleaning bills for her clothes.
Additionally, she also loves to feel beautiful, and feminine, but wearing dresses just wasn’t conducive to getting on the ground with her little ones. That’s why she created Sonnet James, a dress line made for moms, that will hold up to grass stains, dirt, and playing on the floor with legos.
Her versatile brand offers bright colors, beautiful patterns, soft fabrics, and best of all the dresses are machine washable! Whitney says her line is perfect for the mom who is over yoga pants, but still wants to be comfortable with flexible clothing.
With 75% margins and her dresses being manufactured locally in California, Whitney was pleased to admit to the sharks that her company margins are reasonable. Also, her average customer order is two dresses at a time.
A single dress can be made for $34, and her average sales price is well over $120. Additionally, all of her sales are direct-to-consumer, through her own website as well, which is a positive thing for the sharks to hear.
Let’s take a look at some of Whitney’s sales numbers for her company. In the first year the company was launched, it managed to generate $84,000 in gross sales, 5 years prior to filming.
Further, in the most recent year, Sonnet James generated more than $1.2 million in online gross sales.
In terms of Whitney’s background, she shared that she became a young mom and stay at home wife. However, she quickly found herself single.
That’s when she came up with an idea to make a dress that would have reminded her own mom to play with her as a child.
Not knowing how to sew or run a business, she quickly had to learn how to do both, especially once a mom blogger shared her site, and overnight she had 150 dress orders. Through tears and a lot of hard work, she has created a successful, and popular dress line.
Almost all of the sharks were moved by Whitney’s personal childhood story of overcoming abuse, but Kevin O’Leary raised some concerns about the valuation.
He eventually asked Whitney to justify the $1.4 million imputed valuation that she was asking for, but guest shark, Sara Blakely, quickly interrupted Kevin and instantly made an offer of $350,000 for 25% equity.
Whitney quickly accepted an offer that would give her and her company exactly what she was asking for when coming on
Did Sara and Whitney’s partnership bring further success to the brand? Keep reading our Sonnet James update to find out!
We have sad news to share in our Sonnet James update! It turns out that Whitney and Sara eventually finalized the deal, which doesn’t always happen after the episode airs.
Since that time, Whitney’s dresses have appeared on popular magazine covers, and at the height of her success she was earning $6 million annually.
However, on August 31, 2023, Whitney posted a video on the Sonnet James Instagram account, announcing that she was closing down business. She shared that she wanted to focus more on her health and her family.
At the time of this writing, branded tote bags are still available on the currently still running Sonnet James website. However, that is the only product available for purchase.
That said, Sonnet James dresses can still be found on many re-seller websites.
We of course wish Whitney well in her future, however, this will be our final Sonnet James company update.
You can check out our other company updates from Season 10 Episode 11, by following the links below!
For even more on companies and products, be sure to stop by our Season 10 products page!
Andrew Smith is the founder and owner of Shark Tank Recap. He is a longtime Shark Tank fan that has been watching it for years and has seen every episode multiple times. His friends know him as the Shark Tank expert, because he can answer any question about the show! His favorite Shark Tank products are Bertello's pizza oven and Bug Bite Thing!