‘Felipe and with tennis’ is not just a typical expression from Mexico City that means ‘happy and content’is also a 100% Mexican brand of specialized products in tennis cleaning, footwear and other delicate garments. The concept of him is so fresh, that one of the sharks more cool from Shark Tank Mexico could not resist investing.
the entrepreneur Karla Lopez Floresa native of Guadalajara, Jalisco, conceived the idea together with her partner Renato Cortes since 2019, and soon after Diego Alvirez joined.
“Although the culture of tennis comes from the United States and they are called sneakersHere in Mexico we have developed our own tennis culture. That is precisely why our name is in Spanish”, says the young woman, better known on social networks as Karla Katmandú, in an interview for Entrepreneur.com.
The creators of Felipe and with tennis explain that the use of this type of footwear is more common. “They are no longer just shoes for sports or casual. On the contrary, we see them in more formal and even elegant settings, even at weddings”, he adds.
After two years of development, and “trial and error” looking for the perfect formula, in July 2021 they finally launched their own line of specialized products for cleaning and maintaining tennis shoes and all types of footwear from home.
The idea that led them to Shark Tank Mexico
Its flagship product is a highly specialized shampoo that can be used to clean all kinds of materials that sneakers are made of. Added to this is a range of cleaning brushes of different hardnesses and functions for different materials, as well as a odor eliminating formula and keep shoes fresh, among other accessories.
“We started with the concern of offering something to the market, to customers, we didn’t know what, but we wanted to undertake. We are fans of tennis and we have seen that on a cultural level the perception of them has changed. The market has grown a lot and we saw an opportunity. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re a ‘godín’ or a housewife or what you do in life, we all look for comfort”, says the entrepreneur.
La Guadalajara explains that during and after the pandemic, comfort became a priority over glamour.
“The market was changing and we saw that there were not many options to take care of home tennis shoes. We saw the need and we went from there. We wanted to promote the culture of shoe care at home, make it look almost like new without overspending or throwing it away,” adds López.
Spoiling you learn
The partners spent 2 years researching the market and looking for allies to develop the formula of the shampoo, as well as the rest of the products. “We had a very firm idea of produce everything here in Mexicobecause the country has enormous potential for production and also as a market”, details Karla Kathmandu.
Karla and Renato knew that they needed a very specific formula to take good care of sneakers, made with increasingly sophisticated materials such as vegan leather, or with integrated electronic devices, which cannot be washed like any other garment.
“The biggest challenge was the shampoo. It had to be effective in removing all types of dirt that adhere to footwear, but at the same time work with all materials without damaging them. We also had to design it so that it was easy to clean at home. And as they say, ‘by spoiling you learn’: we spent 2 years ruining pairs of tennis shoes until we found the correct formula”, said the young woman.
Now, Felipe y con tenis has a whole line of products to clean not only tennis shoes, but all kinds of footwear and other garments such as bags and jackets. For now their production is concentrated in CDMX and they have operations in Guadalajara.
Felipe and with tennis he came step by step to Shark Tank Mexico
In contrast to other large or medium-sized companies that come to Shark Tank Mexico, Karla and Renato’s business is in its early stages of development.
“We are ‘godínez’, until now we all have a ‘formal’ job and we can only dedicate part time to the business. Then all the profits have been reinvested. Everything has been very organic, we have not had partners, until now”, they explain.
The entrepreneurs began by investing their own money, selling from their website, on social networks and on ecommerce platforms such as Mercado Libre. They also have a presence in bazaars and entrepreneur fairs, as well as wholesale outlets in some laundromats and dry cleaners.
One of the issues that they are still not very clear about, and which is key to negotiating with sharks, is their numbers. “For now it is difficult to accurately calculate how much we sell, how many customers we have per month or growth, because we have many sales channels and we do not have good records,” they explained.
Thus, Felipe and with tennis presented his pitch in front of a panel of sharks made up of Alejandra Rios, Alexander Litchi, marcus dantus, Amauri Vergara and Trava Bear. With a valuation of 2.3 million pesos, His initial offer was to give up 30% of the business in exchange for 700,000 pesos.
And what were they left?
After some negotiations, it was finally the businessman Alejandro Litchi, who does not hide his taste for sneakers, who offered them the amount they were looking for, but with an extra.
The president of NICE in Mexico asked for 49% of the company and 3% royalties on sales. In addition, the shark gave them the option to repurchase in the future: when he recovers his investment, he will only keep 19% of the company and 1.5% of sales.
And they accepted! Renato and Karla explained that they will allocate 25 to 30% of the investment to advertising and marketing in digital media, “to spread the brand and reach other markets and consumers.”
The rest will be to implement administrative and inventory control software, as well as to make production processes more efficient, since “right now it is very traditional.”
“We are neither businessmen nor financiers. We just want to share this passion for sneakers, because we all have a favorite pair that we can bring back to life. There is no happier moment than walking around with clean tennis shoes”, says Karla.
Mairem Del Rio Addicted to watching series and movies, doing (a little) exercise and changing my hair color. I am also a journalist, with more than 16 years of experience and dedicated 100% to digital media since 2011. I have been from a reporter and community manager, to an editor in various media and agencies. My areas of expertise are as diverse as they are contrasting: entertainment, travel, lifestyle, health, business, and finance. Now I am focused on the entrepreneurial ecosystem, cryptocurrencies, NFTs, metaverses and the promising cannabis industry in Mexico.