R Riveter On Shark Tank – Robert Herjavec and Kevin O’Leary, along with Cuban, offered Bradley and Cruse the exact deal they were after. They knew that Cuban had experience with other businesses started by military families, including Bottle Breacher, which makes handcrafted bottle openers, and the shoe company Combat Flip Flops.
“The relationship Mark has with other military families in his portfolio has been a big asset,” Bradley says. Even more importantly, Cuban shared the founders’ passion and commitment. “The whole time that we were in the Shark Tank, you could just tell that Mark truly cared about military families and got what we were doing,” Bradley says.
R Riveter On Shark Tank
“He’s always there for us.” Like Combat Flip Flops, the R. Riveter story is compelling and inspiring, but the Sharks will want to know the numbers. This business reminds me of Sarah Oliver Handbags from earlier in season seven.
Choose The Right Partner
Like R. Riveter, Sarah used a unique workforce and business model. Instead of senior citizen “Pearlettes,” R. Riveter uses remote military spouses. Although all you need to say is the word “handbag” to grab my attention, since R. Riveter is appearing on Shark Tank, there’s got to be more to the company than that, right?
And there it is. What’s so special about R. Riveter is that the company’s handbags and accessories are made by military spouses. This is beneficial on many levels. For one, it empowers women whose husbands are off in the armed forces financially and emotionally.
Because military families often move around a lot, the jobs at R. Riveter are completely mobile with subcontractors making the parts and the pieces that can be shipped to the company’s North Carolina-based fabrication shop for assembly, according to Forbes.
By keeping manufacturing in the United States, R. Riveter is also keeping jobs in the country and helping to stimulate the economy. The more I hear about R. Riveter, the more I like it. R. Riveter was founded by Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruse, both proud Army wives who started the business in the small attic above Cruse’s home near Ft.
Will The Sharks Be Riveted?
Merrill, Georgia. Both ladies have master’s degrees and tried to figure out a way to channel their creative and entrepreneurial energy while living their mobile lifestyles. They eventually realized that other military spouses must be going through the exact same dilemma.
Bradley and Cruse decided to design and make handbags because of their uniformity, the pair recounted to ThePilot.com in July 2014. After a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign, which brought in more than $42,000, R. Riveter was on its way to becoming a reality
. While studying for her MBA at Brandman University in Southern California, Lisa Bradley wrote a paper about FedEx’s hub-and-spoke system. Through a “kind of carpooling for packages,” as the company likes to say, parcels are collected in a central location, sorted and then rerouted to their final destination.
“Even though you might be sending packages in the opposite direction of where they’re ultimately going,” Bradley says, “hub-and-spoke systems can be both more economical and efficient than taking direct routes.” I am obviously not going out and buying myself a handbag anytime soon, but I think this is a great story.
My Take On R Riveter
Finding a way to turn a negative into a positive, especially a profitable one, is always something I enjoy hearing about. As someone who works at home, I can appreciate how much the remote riveters cherish the opportunity to do so.
They also don’t need to worry about a military move disrupting their job. The remote riveters seem like a very content bunch. As Bradley and Cruse explained to the investors when they appeared on the Emmy-winning Shark Tank reality series in February 2016, “This is about more than a product.
It’s about empowering military spouses who want something more than a part-time job.” With military families moving every couple of years as active service members are reassigned to new posts, military spouses have résumés that show only spotty employment, making it difficult to land a job, let alone build a career.
Mark Cuban saw Bradley and Cruse as disrupters. “You are a social network through action,” he told them with admiration. “You could be, literally, the future of manufacturing.” With Cuban on board as an investor and adviser, R. Riveter has seen sales increase nearly 700 percent and has a workforce of 55 team members.
Shark Tank Skin Care Scam
As the company has thrived, Bradley and Cruse have learned some important lessons. For the past year or so, I have been inundated with complaints about a Shark Tank skin care scam. Most of the complaints come from people who ordered the product and had their credit cards charged without authorization for as much as $109!
The so-called “biggest deal in Shark Tank history” is a TOTAL SCAM. […] When we think of the military, sometimes we just consider the brave men and women who are on the front lines fighting as the ones who are making a sacrifice.
But as anyone who is close to someone serving in the military probably knows, the ones the servicemen and servicewomen leave behind have their lives dramatically affected, too. Friday night’s special episode of Shark Tank highlighting entrepreneurs with connections to the military will prove just that by featuring R. Riveter on the show.
Entrepreneur, auteur, raconteur. Rob Merlino is a blogger and writer who enjoys the Shark Tank TV show and Hot Dogs. A father of five who freelances in a variety of publications, Rob has a stable of websites including Shark Tank Blog, Hot Dog Stories, Rob Merlino.com and more.
Don’t Get Comfortable
The friends became business partners when they realized their conundrum presented a unique opportunity. If they could find a way to channel their creativity into a business that would make good products and provide opportunities for women in the same situation, they’d have something special.
They named their company R Riveter, after Rosie the Riveter – the fictitious female cultural icon made popular by women who joined the industrial workforce to replace men who’d gone off to war during WWII. Military spouses are basically the thread that keeps R. Riveter together, and the company does a lot to highlight these heroes on the homefront.
Once you hear how R. Riveter employs military spouses, it might sound innovative and disruptive in today’s world, but it actually hearkens back to what was going on with America’s workforce during World War II. Since Lori invested in Sarah Oliver handbags, I think she’ll pass on R. Riveter, but one of the male Sharks could have some interest.
The rugged military/industrial look of the products might appeal to Daymond. R. Riveter also runs a Shopify eCommerce site, which is often an indicator of his involvement. As if all of this awesomeness wasn’t enough, R. Riveter also repurposes military equipment to make their handbags, such as wool blankets and old army tents, Forbes reports.
Play To Your Strengths And Those Of Your Team
Feel free to donate “any solid color military material that is in good condition” to R. Riveter, according to the FAQ section of the company’s website. You can also have a custom bag made from materials that once belonged to a service member who holds a special place in your heart.
Their tenacity and ability to market and sell their handbags earned them the attention, and funding, of the Kickstarter community? they raised over $42,000 to get R. Riveter up and running. Will a Shark give R Riveter another kick?
“Learning and growing is hard,” Bradley says, “but as an entrepreneur, you have to keep doing both. Mark has pushed us not to get too comfortable.” When Bradley and Cruse mentioned to him they were thinking about offering a wider selection of handmade items on their website so more military spouses would have business opportunities, Cuban encouraged them to move forward right away.
They did, creating Post to Pillar: A Curated Marketplace for Military Spouse Makers. The collection includes apparel, jewelry, handcrafted clay mugs, pillows and blankets, and represents 15 percent of R. Riveter’s sales. The first time Bradley tried assembling a handbag, she sewed a pocket in upside down.
Shark Tank Keto Scam
“A customer told me she loved her bag but things kept falling out of the pocket,” Bradley recalls with a laugh. “That’s when I got fired from sewing.” Since then Bradley has focused on the business side of R. Riveter, while Cruse, who has a master’s degree in architecture, handles design and operations.
R. Riveter’s wares can be purchased through the company’s official online store. The bags range in price from around $35 to $260, depending on the style and size. There are a few other accessories available for purchase on R. Riveter’s website as well.
If you find yourself in Southern Pines, North Carolina, you can also visit R. Riveter’s flagship store to buy these bags. There have been a lot of emails in my inbox about a new Shark Tank Scam – the Shark Tank Keto Scam.
Just like the Shark Tank Skincare Scam I reported on a few years ago, this scam is designed to part you from your money by offering a “risk free trial offer.” DON’T BELIEVE […] They started hand making hand bags from military surplus tents and apparel in Cruse’s attic.
Stick To Your Convictions
Before long, they had more orders than capacity, so they networked with other military wives (and at least one husband) to create a group of “remote riveters” who complete part of the assembly process, then ship their goods to the “home office
” in Southern Pines, NC. Military wives take on the Sharks when Cameron Cruse and Lisa Bradley pitch R. Riveter Handbags in episode 719, the Shark Tank “Military Special” for season seven. The women met on a military base where their husbands were stationed and quickly hit it off.
Like most military spouses, they bemoaned the lack of roots caused by constant moves: it seemed neither one of them could find the opportunity to pursue their own passions. Years later, in 2011, the hub-and-spoke idea would become the inspiration for R. Riveter, the company that Bradley and Cameron Cruse co-founded in Dahlonega, Georgia, where they were living with their Army Rangers husbands and families.
Military spouses or, riveters, across the country make the individual parts of the handbags. Some are created out of upcycled material, such as retired uniforms, tents and wool blankets. Then each component—lining, straps, pockets—is stamped by the maker and mailed to the warehouse in Southern Pines, North Carolina.
There, the handbags are assembled and shipped to customers or sold in the nearby brick-and-mortar retail store. The name of the company is a nod to Rosie the Riveter, the classic figure symbolizing female empowerment that originated during World War II as more women joined the workforce, filling the often rough-and-tumble jobs left empty by men that went off to fight
. R. Riveter puts “the humble and courageous spirit of Rosie the Riveter” into all of its products, according to the company’s website. R. Riveter also names its handbags after military spouses that made a positive impact on the world.
It’s nice to see that they’re finally getting some recognition for their achievements, too. I received a bag from my Son. I am retired Air Force, and my Grandmother and her two sisters worked in the Bethlehem Steel plant in WWII.
She was a widow at the age of 20, I was raised by strong powerful women. It is an honor carrying your bag. Elena (Nina Dobrev) carried an R. Riveter bag during the episode titled “Do You Remember the First Time?”
in Season 6 of The Vampire Diaries. Being loved by humans and supernatural beings alike is a pretty big deal. Along those lines, we’ve actually seen many companies with a variation on its approach to manufacturing walk through those Shark Tank doors and walk away with different levels of success.
Like the many products that have come before it on the show, R. Riveter is certainly taking a gamble with a company that seems to have its focus split between making a profit and being philanthropic, but it’s certainly nice to dream that R. Riveter will
be a riveting product to the millionaire and billionaire investors on Shark Tank. Since Shark Tank, R. Riveter has launched R. Riveter Marketplace (which sells products sold by veteran-owned companies including Shark Tank winners Bottle Breacher and Combat Flip Flops).
The company also opened a flagship store in Southern Pines, North Carolina. And in 2018, R. Riveter made it on the Inc. 5000 List (#386), and continues to expand the product line with new designs including the Whittle – a leather purse worn around the waist.
New episodes of Shark Tank air Sundays at 10 pm on ABC, right after American Idol. [Related: 27 Favorite ‘Shark Tank’ Products — New List] Bradley remembers sitting down with a consultant in the early days of R. Riveter and explaining the company’s working model: They ship raw material to military families and the riveters ship the finished pieces back.
The consultant told her it would never work because production costs would soar. “That was a big moment for me,” Bradley says. “I was determined to make the company succeed just to prove him wrong. I was convinced that manufacturing in America could be done in a different way.
We’ve shown that it can be.” R. Riveter is a line of handbags made from upcycled military materials (green canvas, black waxed canvas, USMA wool, brown leather) and manufactured by military spouses. Each bag is marked with a number representing an individual military spouse.
The founders of R. Riveter, Army wives Lisa Bradley and Cameron Cruse (Riveter No. RR001), pitched their fashion forward business on Shark Tank in February 2016. They left with a deal from billionaire Mark Cuban — $100,000 in exchange for 20 percent equity
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Emma Nehls is a military writer and historian with a passion for exploring the intricacies of warfare and the human experience within the military. With extensive knowledge and a deep understanding of military strategy, tactics, and historical contexts, Nehls brings a unique perspective to his writings.
