Collars & Co. is still in business, and its post-Shark Tank story is considerably bigger than the early update pages suggest.
When Justin Baer entered the Tank in 2022, he was asking for $300,000 for 4% of his apparel company, a valuation of $7.5 million. He had already sold 92,000 shirts and generated $5.4 million in sales over roughly 18 months.
The negotiation nearly collapsed over the equity.
Baer eventually accepted a deal with Mark Cuban and Peter Jones: $300,000 in cash plus a $700,000 line of credit for 10% of Collars & Co. The deal closed after the episode. (wtop.com)
Four years later, the company is still operating. Its original Dress Collar Polo has become a much broader menswear business, the company has opened physical stores, and founder Justin Baer said in July 2026 that Collars & Co. was targeting $100 million in sales for the year. (wtop.com)
That last number needs a qualifier: $100 million is Baer's 2026 target, not a verified completed revenue figure. The company is privately held, so there is no public financial statement establishing that it has already reached $100 million in annual sales.
Collars & Co. entered Shark Tank with $5.4 million in sales
The business began with a simple wardrobe complaint.
Baer disliked wearing a traditional dress shirt under a sweater or jacket. The sleeves bunched up, the shirt was uncomfortable, and the collar could lose its shape. His solution was a polo shirt with a structured, dress-shirt-style collar.
Collars & Co. says Baer spent about a year finding a factory, fabric and designer capable of producing the combination he wanted. (collarsandco.com)
The breakthrough came from TikTok.
In a 2026 interview with WTOP, Baer said his seven-year-old daughter encouraged him to make a TikTok video showing the shirts. The response turned into sales almost immediately. He says the company generated $40,000 in sales in its first month. (wtop.com)
By the time Baer walked into Shark Tank, the numbers were no longer experimental.
He told the Sharks that Collars & Co. had sold 92,000 shirts and generated $5.4 million in sales, with the business still operating primarily online. The company was profitable, too, reporting a 20% net margin during the pitch. (podcasts.apple.com)
His ask was aggressive: $300,000 for 4%.
That implied a $7.5 million valuation.
The Sharks did not think 4% was enough.
Mark Cuban and Peter Jones offered $1 million, but wanted 10%
The negotiation became the memorable part of the episode.
Kevin O'Leary offered $300,000 for 10%. Peter Jones made a similar 10% offer. Baer resisted because he believed the business was worth substantially more than the valuation implied by those offers. (transcripts.foreverdreaming.org)
Then Cuban joined Jones.
Their final offer was $300,000 in cash plus a $700,000 line of credit for 10% of the company. The credit facility carried market-rate interest. (wtop.com)
Baer accepted.
That distinction matters because the deal is sometimes described simply as a "$1 million investment." It wasn't $1 million of cash. Only $300,000 was an equity investment; the other $700,000 was a credit line that gave Collars & Co. access to additional working capital.
The company later confirmed through its representatives that the deal had been completed, and Baer spoke positively about working with both Sharks. Peter Jones' own portfolio page still lists Collars & Co. as an investment and says he invested alongside Cuban. (crossroadscolab.com)
The first post-Shark Tank jump was unusually large
The immediate results were striking.
According to the Shark Tank update reported by the Shark Tank Blog, Collars & Co. generated $8.5 million in sales during the two months after the episode and saw a 300% increase in website traffic. (sharktankblog.com)
The company also moved beyond its original men's polo.
It introduced a women's line that reportedly sold out within a week. Baer was talking with buyers from Nordstrom, Zappos and Saks Fifth Avenue, while the company's warehouse expanded from 8,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet to handle the increased volume. (sharktankblog.com)
The brand was no longer just selling one viral shirt.
It was building an apparel company around the same basic proposition: clothes that look more formal than a typical polo without requiring the discomfort and maintenance of traditional dresswear.
Collars & Co. eventually moved from an online brand to physical stores
The next significant change was retail.
Collars & Co. opened its first permanent store in Chicago in 2023. A Boca Raton location followed later that year, and a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, store opened in 2024. (sharktankblog.com)
The move was deliberate rather than a retreat from e-commerce.
In an interview with The Washingtonian in July 2026, Baer explained that online marketing can explain the product, while a physical store lets customers experience the brand in person. The company was then expanding its physical footprint again, with new stores planned in Bethesda and Reston, Virginia. (washingtonian.com)
That is a meaningful evolution for a company that began with a Shopify store and a TikTok video.
Collars & Co.'s own website now lists far more than the original Dress Collar Polo: sweaters, blazers, pants, outerwear, accessories, button-downs, multiple polo styles and women's products are all part of the assortment. (collarsandco.com)
There is also a wholesale ordering platform, another sign that the company is no longer operating purely as a direct-to-consumer startup. (wholesale.collarsandco.com)
Mark Cuban's $100 million prediction is now being tested
There is an interesting piece of Shark Tank history here.
During the company's update, Cuban said he believed Collars & Co. could become a $100 million company. At the time, that sounded like the kind of optimistic prediction that makes good television. (sharktankblog.com)
The company subsequently passed $20 million in reported lifetime revenue by 2024, according to Shark Tank Blog. (sharktankblog.com)
But the more interesting number comes from 2026.
In a July interview with WTOP, Baer said Collars & Co. was looking to make $100 million that year. WTOP described the company as a $75 million men's lifestyle brand in its related podcast listing, but Baer's specific statement was that the business was aiming for $100 million in 2026. (wtop.com)
Those figures should not be treated as interchangeable.
The $100 million figure is a current target from the founder, not independently audited annual revenue. Third-party e-commerce estimates also vary considerably and should not be presented as company financials. What can be established from the company's own operation and recent reporting is that Collars & Co. has continued growing rather than disappearing after its Shark Tank appearance.
So, did Collars & Co. actually succeed after Shark Tank?
Yes.
And the evidence is more tangible than a claimed "net worth" number on an aggregator website.
The company is actively selling products in 2026. Its official site has a substantially expanded product range, a wholesale operation and physical retail locations. Peter Jones still identifies Collars & Co. as an investment in his portfolio. Baer remains founder and CEO, and recent reporting shows him discussing further retail expansion. (collarsandco.com)
The company has also reached the point where its original product is almost smaller than the brand it created.
That is probably the most useful way to understand what happened after Shark Tank. Collars & Co. did not simply ride a television bump and fade away. The $1 million deal gave Baer additional capital and two experienced investors, but the business kept expanding the same underlying idea: make traditionally formal clothing easier to wear.
As of August 2026, the exact annual revenue is not publicly established. Baer's $100 million target is ambitious, and estimates from third-party data providers should be treated as estimates rather than audited results.
But the basic question has a straightforward answer.
Collars & Co. didn't disappear after Shark Tank. It turned a dress-shirt collar attached to a polo into a growing apparel brand, and four years after the deal, it is still expanding.
