"We had a $2 million term sheet on the table in February," says Jake Danehy , who cofounded and bootstrapped Fair Harbor with his sister Caroline ."We actually turned it down to focus on our growth and being profitable."ounded in 2014, men's swimsuit brand Fair Harbor is far from the first of its kind. But last year, it became the first to turn a profit of over $18 million by turning recycled water bottles into swim trunks.
In 2014, they decided to do something about it. Jake, a junior at Colgate University studying geography, entered the college’s pitch competition for emerging companies. He pitched Fair Harbor, a men’s swimwear company that makes its trunks from single-use water bottles, and won the competition, securing $20,000 in funding and mentors in judges Jennifer Hyman, Jessica Alba, MC Hammer and Neil Blumenthal.
Six years later that strategy has paid off: the profitable company has attracted about 300,000 customers. Radio—specifically theon SiriusXM—has been crucial to their sales, as have the more than two million catalogues they’ve sent to prospective customers in 2021, as well as Fair Harbor logo’s positioning behind home plate in Yankee Stadium. This all helped the brand surpass 2020 revenue within the second quarter of 2021.
During the first five months of 2021, Fair Harbor generated $23 million. The trajectory isn’t too surprising, though. 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. Similarly, sustainable fashion is expected to grow 50% to $9 billion by 2025.