Daymond Garfield John (born February 23, 1969) is an American businessman, investor, and television personality. He is best known as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU, and appears as an investor on the ABC reality television series Shark Tank. Based in New York City, John is the founder of The Shark Group.
Early life
John was born February 23, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York City, but grew up in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens and attended Catholic school for seven years. He began working at the age of 10, when his parents divorced; one early job entailed handing out flyers for $2 ($8.38 in 2023) an hour. In high school, he participated in a program that allowed him to work a full-time job and attend school on an alternating weekly basis, which he credits with instilling an entrepreneurial spirit. After graduating from high school, he started a commuter van service and waited tables at Red Lobster. When John was 16, his mother had a boyfriend, an attorney, whom he considered a stepfather and mentor.
Career
FUBU
John started FUBU in his mother's house in Hollis, Queens. When John first had the idea for a clothing company for young men, his mother taught him how to sew and supported him by allowing her house to be taken over to grow the business.
Wool ski hats with their tops tied off with fishing line were popular at the time, and John noticed them being sold for $20, which he considered overpriced. He went home and sewed about 90 hats with his next-door neighbor. They sold their homemade hats for $10 each on the corner of Jamaica Avenue and made $800 in a single day in 1992. After the hats, they began selling screen-printed T-shirts. To break into the market, they sold on consignment and at large events around the Northeast. To make ends meet, John held a full-time job at Red Lobster, working on the FUBU business in between shifts.
Sensing potential, John and his mother mortgaged their house for $100,000 to generate start-up capital. In addition to Brown, he recruited longtime friends J. Alexander Martin and Keith Perrin into the business, and began sewing the FUBU logo onto hockey jerseys, sweatshirts, and T-shirts. They loaned about 10 of the hockey jerseys out to rappers for their music videos for two years and got product placements in about 30 videos. They were perceived as a large clothing brand, despite being a relatively small company and stores started requesting their brand. In 1993, he convinced LL Cool J, an old neighborhood friend, to wear a FUBU T-shirt for a promotional campaign. Later, while filming a 30-second advertising spot for The Gap, LL Cool J wore a FUBU hat in the commercial and incorporated the line "for us, by us" in his rapping.
In 1992, or 1994, John received $300,000 in orders and also an offer for participating in Macy's (M) at a Las Vegas fashion trade show, MAGIC. They had to take out a second mortgage of his mother's house in order to fulfill the orders. After being turned down by 27 banks for a loan, his mother used the last of their money to take out an advertisement in The New York Times. As a result of the ad, FUBU made a deal with Samsung Textiles, allowing them to complete their orders.
FUBU has earned over $6 billion in global sales.
FUBU is featured at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
Shark Tank
In 2009, John received a call from Mark Burnett asking him to join the cast of ABC's new reality business show Shark Tank, which gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to investors, or "Sharks" in the hopes of receiving an investment. Shark Tank completed its 13th season in May 2022. John has invested $8,567,000 of his own money in Shark Tank companies as of May 12, 2017. His favorite investments on record by 2015 were Al "Bubba" Baker's boneless ribs and Bombas socks. Shark Tank has won 4 Emmy Awards and has been nominated 9 times. The show won Outstanding Reality Program from 2012 to 2014.
On Season 5 of Shark Tank, John invested in Bubba's-Q Boneless Ribs on and helped grow the company from $154,000 in sales to $16 million in 3 years. In 2017, Bubba's-Q Boneless Ribs partnered up with Carl's Jr. to create the limited-edition Baby Back Rib Burger. He also made a unique deal with 15-year-old Moziah "Mo" Bridges, owner of Mo's Bows. John decided not to invest in Mo's Bows but instead to mentor the young entrepreneur. The company would eventually take on a seven-figure licensing partnership with the NBA to create bow ties that use the teams' logos.