Shark Tank Bite Boosts Port Jervis Fashion Designer's New Venture
Fashion designer Jennifer Bischoff reinvigorated Tommy Hilfiger and Macy's fashions and now gives kids a way to design their own clothes--from her Port Jervis workshop, aided by Shark Tank investors.
A tense television moment on Shark Tank, when Jennifer Bischoff, of Glen Spey, bargained with two potential investors, resulted in both deciding to invest in Bischoff’s innovative children’s fashion venture, Supermix. Children design their own attire, choosing from a multitude of ornaments either on their devices or on store kiosks.
The Supermix workshop, where children’s fashion fantasies are actualized, occupies a storefront on Pike St. in Port Jervis. On a recent day, workers could be seen attaching ornaments to hoodies, sweatpants and other kidswear, overseen by Bischoff, cheerfully clad in colorful long skirt and sweater.
Bedazzlement has long been what Bischoff loves to do, she says. When she was five, growing up in Florida, she began painting her clothes, sewing on rhinestones, pictures and cloth collages. That led to studying fashion at Parsons School of Design and Savannah School of Art and Design, then launching Jender, her own line, in Miami, influenced by South Beach style and music—and becoming an influence. From her own line, she styled the clothes of musicians, and Jane’s Addiction took her along on tour.
When she then moved to New York, she was hired to launch new brands and reinvigorate established ones, from Macy’s to Tommy Hilfiger, Aeropostale and Sean John, among others.
“In the corporate world, I drove ideas for others,” she said.
For example, when she saw Chinese children wearing masks before the practice began among American children, early in the pandemic, that sparked an idea.
“It was surprising to see,” she said. “Would our kids be wearing them to school? Early on, I said, if this becomes a reality, let’s make it fun and whimsical.”
She designed hoodies with interchangeable masks—kitten, bear and dinosaur. She worked with a big team, responsible for 12 kids brands.
“I showed the design to Walmart for their Topsville label. They ordered 1.6 million. I’m a white space strategist,” Bischoff said, meaning that she identifies unrecognized opportunities.
“I couldn’t have done the masks on my own. I used the enormous power of the corporate infrastructure,” she said. “But with Supermix, I launched it alone. My job has been to look for opportunities for others, but I wanted this idea for myself.”
The Supermix vision emerged from working at her Glen Spey home surrounded by her children during the pandemic. They were embellishing their clothes with tie dye splashes of color and other eye-catching adornment.
“It was joyful. This was about recognizing the joy and pride when kids create their own things to wear and figuring out how I could bring this experience to all kids,” said Bischoff.
She spent a year researching the idea and making sure someone else wan’t already pursuing it. Bischoff started work on the project in May of 2020 and quit her corporate job in May of 2021.
When she moved forward, she said, “I called all my favorite people—freelance designers, a planner, a buyer. I developed a tech team to build the app. A production team in Port Jervis makes the product.”
The venture was “labor intensive,” she said, including designing the clothes and technology that kids would use for their creations. She rented what was an antique store on Pike St., with antiques “floor to ceiling, with decades of dust,” she said. “But it felt right.” She moved into it in March of 2022.
“The space felt great,” she said. Yet she found her self-funded venture “slow to get off the ground.”
Then her father urged her to apply to the reality television show Shark Tank, where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to venture capitalists, who may choose to invest. The odds were not good, as 50,000 people applied for that season, Season 15, of Shark Tank, Bischoff said. One quarter of 1% were accepted, and 125 of 50,000 people got on the show.
The process was long, but six months after Bischoff applied, she received a call from producers. The episode was shot in June and aired on a Friday in November, with five million people watching Bischoff pitch Supermix.
“I was grilled for an hour. It was like a firing squad,” she said. “That was edited to 12 minutes. One shark, called Mr. Wonderful, hated the idea of having digital kiosks in stores. He didn’t like retail. He thought I should sell directly to clients. But I learned to filter what to take to heart and what to filter out.”
Two sharks decided to invest a total of $250,000.
“Two sharks is unusual. It was validating,” Bischoff said, noting that, since the show’s airing, her sales increased 2000% over the previous year. “It was validating to see the ethos of the brand come to life, empowering kids to express themselves.”
And despite Mr. Wonderful’s resistance to the store kiosk idea, Bischoff said she quickly had ten stores interested. The Today Show also called to feature Supermix for a Christmas gift segment, and she sold 1700 gift cards over the holidays.
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