Bombas Is the Most Successful ‘Shark Tank’ Brand. Here’s Why.

It was 2014 when Bombas‘ co-founders Randy Goldberg and David Heath found themselves on the set of Shark Tank‘s sixth season. Three, two, one went the countdown. They walked through the doors and in front of the judges, sweating under the lights for an “awkward” minute while production captured room tone, and waited for the cue to start pitching their sock business. A psychologist was on standby backstage, just in case — because “adrenaline takes over.” It’s fight or flight.

“They warned us about it,” Goldberg and Heath recall. “For the first 15 minutes after you walk out, you’re actually not going to remember what happened. It’s almost hallucinatory like you’re in shock. The psychologist is on hand to brief you to make sure you’re not traumatized. Can you imagine people going on and saying the wrong thing and feeling like they just embarrassed themselves on national television?”

Fortunately, the co-founders said the right things. After an hour and a half in the tank fielding all of the questions they’d worked tirelessly to prepare for, they landed a deal with Daymond John: $200,000 for a 17.5% equity stake. And once the very real shock wore off, Goldberg and Heath were elated. John, a fellow New Yorker who’d bootstrapped his own large apparel business, had been their first-choice shark from the start.

“We knew that even though the mechanics of our business would be different, the nature and the heart of what it takes to build something from an idea from your home and turn it into something that is recognized all over the country [would be the same],” Goldberg says. “[We needed] somebody like that in our corner, validating and challenging us. That’s why we wanted Daymond as a shark. And it’s been a fruitful and amazing relationship.”

Related: 5 Important Lessons Shark Tank Teaches Us About Negotiation

John became an invaluable “friend and mentor” to the co-founders as they built Bombas from scratch, and the company’s since become the Shark Tank franchise’s most successful of all time — with $1 billion in lifetime revenue. But more important to Goldberg and Heath than that staggering figure is another 100 million. To date, the company has donated more than 100 million essential apparel items to people experiencing homelessness.

And it’s the very reason Bombas exists in the first place.

Entrepreneur sat down with Goldberg and Heath to learn more about their founding journey and unwavering commitment to the mission that’s fueled their business from the start.

“Maybe there’s a way to solve this problem in the homeless community by starting a brand that donates a pair of socks for every pair of socks sold.”

Although Goldberg and Heath became fast friends in 2007 when they met at a media company they both worked at and “always kind of toyed with the idea of starting a business together,” Bombas didn’t grow out of an initial business inclination at all. It began in February 2011 when Heath stumbled upon a Facebook post that revealed socks as the No. 1 requested clothing item in homeless shelters.

Heath was surprised socks were the most in-demand, even beating out jackets and shoes, and so was Goldberg when Heath shared the discovery with him the next day. “At the time, we weren’t like, ‘Oh my god, let’s start a business,'” Heath says. “We were like, ‘Okay, there’s this interesting problem in the homeless community.’ And we started carrying socks in our bags to and from work, and we’d give them out to people. The more we started to interact with that community, [the more we started to] realize firsthand how valuable this piece of clothing is to someone living on the streets.”

The wheels continued to turn. Soon, their awareness of how other brands were making giveback initiatives central to their operations — Toms Shoes and Warby Parker both used buy-one-give-one models — got them thinking about how they might leverage their interest in entrepreneurship for good: Maybe there’s a way to solve this problem in the homeless community by starting a brand that donates a pair of socks for every pair of socks sold.

Image credit: Courtesy of Bombas

Bombas was born out of a mission, one it continues to uphold in deed and name: “Bombas” comes from the Latin word for “bumblebee,” and “Bees live in a hive and work together to make their world a better place,” the company explains on its website. “They’re small but have a big effect on things.” What’s more, the company’s “Bee Better” mantra, stitched into its apparel, is a reminder to be better for yourself and your community.

Related: 6 Ways to Align Your Mission With Your Content-Marketing Strategy

The co-founders started with an Indiegogo campaign in August 2013. In the campaign’s FAQ, they said that if they could hit the milestone of a million pairs donated, Heath would get a tattoo (he had no tattoos at the time). Goldberg and Heath were fairly certain no one would even remember the campaign a decade later. But the ink on Heath’s arm —…