U-Lace

First, I’m incredibly jealous you’ve been to Harajuku; second, what’s the story behind how the idea of colored laces was found there?

After leaving my last job where among other things I was the company’s global trend spotter. I immediately bought a ticket back to Tokyo to walk the streets of Harajuku in search of an idea or inspiration for a new product. I found that idea in the window of a little shop in Harajuku. In the window I saw a pair of sneakers laced up in 6 colors at the same time. I though it was the coolest thing ever. I ran in the shop to buy the sneakers but when I picked them up all the ‘extra’ shoelace puddled out of the sneakers. It was a window-shopping merchandising scheme for the shop owner, but the inspiration for U-Lace for me.

What has it been like since going on Shark Tank? Have there been any particular struggles you’ve had to overcome?

It’s been great since going on Shark Tank. Like any business there are struggles and growing pains but we just keep pushing ahead. Having Mark Cuban as a partner has been the best thing ever. Mark gives valuable insight and ideas and provides a team to help us find and make the best of opportunities. Most importantly, he trust us to work hard and make smart decisions. This will be our biggest year ever and we’re on pace to hit the million dollars in sales milestone this year.

How has ShipStation helped you with your business?

Before ShipStation we were manually entering addresses into our shipping software. That’s tough enough but once you add in filling out customs paperwork on international orders and truly you have a nightmare on your hands. With ShipStation we were able to quickly ship over 6,000 orders in the days after we aired on Shark Tank and we depend on it daily to manage and speed up the shipping of hundreds of orders each week. We would not be able to operate and keep our customers happy without ShipStation.

What’s your favorite ShipStation feature?

ShipStation also helps us manage inventory and track sales trends but letting us run really cool reports. I think the reporting is my favorite feature besides just making it possible to manage hundreds even thousands of orders.