Jeff Alpaugh Customs Sees Boost in Business after Dragons’ Den
FREDERICTON– Since appearing on the Dragons’ Den this month, Jeff Alpaugh, owner of Jeff Alpaugh Custom, says business has been busy.
On November 9, the country watched Alpaugh and his fiance Emilee Boychuk pitch “the world’s most dangerous dress shirt” to the CBC Dragons and walk away with a special deal with two of the Dragons.
Related: Fredericton’s Jeff Alpaugh Makes a Deal on Dragon’s Den
For $100,000, for Dragons Michele Romanow and Michael Wekerle to purchase 30 per cent of the company. The deal also included a $50,000 order of shirt for Wekerle’s Toronto club, the El Macombo.
Such a deal was exactly what they were after.
“We kind of went through what’s our ideal scenario, what’s a good scenario, what’s a bad scenario,” says Alpaugh. “The ideal scenario was a deal with both Mike Wekerle and Michele Romanow. I think that surprised a lot of people.”
Alpaugh said many people expected him to gun for a deal with Joe Mimran, the designer behind Joe Fresh, but they wanted to appeal to Wekerle and Romanow for specific reasons.
“I thought Mike Wekerle is a finance guy and what that means he can take $100,000 and leverage it and turn it into a million. That’s the type of people you want on your side,” says Alpaugh.
“But also, he’s the embodiment of someone who dresses dangerously and lives dangerously. So it’s going to be what we call an ‘engaged stakeholder.’ Someone who is genuinely interested in the company from an emotional standpoint as opposed to, ‘this is just another thing in my portfolio,’ which was critical for me.”
Meanwhile, Romanow would be able to help the business grow on the e-commerce side.
“The way I dream of building our company, there will be brick-and-mortar stores along with the e-commerce. I know a lot of people think brick-and-mortar is dying. Maybe I’m just wrong and bullheaded, but I would like to have our stores across the country,” says Alpaugh. “But I think in the next year or two, really driving the e-commerce will help us build enough sales to fund that expansion on our own without having to seek further financing.”
Though the episode was recorded all the way back in April, Alpaugh says “due diligence” for the deal is still being done. It’s a process that’s been slower than most people would expect.
“I don’t have $150,000 in my pocket,” he says. “The due diligence process has been fairly slow and unexciting. I will say the slowness and the lack of direct access to the Dragons make it seem less appealing every day, especially now that it’s aired.
“As you could imagine, I’m getting a lot of phone calls from people who have a lot of money saying, ‘hey, I could give you more than that.’ Which is a good thing, but it is also causing me a lot of personal stress as I got a lot to think about and I also have to run the business day-to-day.”
Alpaugh is especially excited about the line of shirts for the El Macombo.
“The most exciting part of the due-diligence process is speaking directly with Wekerles’s executive assistant and his team for the El Macombo and actually working on the line of shirts for the El Macombo,” says Alpaugh.
Though he may not be the “instant millionaire” many people think he is, Alpaugh says just appearing on the Dragons’ Den has led to an increase in interest and business. Most of his days are now jam-packed.
“It’s been overwhelming and it’s been very cool,” he says. “But it’s a lot of work to do”
This new momentum will hopefully help the business as it heads into 2018. Alpaugh says they are working on introducing to technology for shirt fittings in the early New Year, as well as gearing up for a country-wide tour in the spring.
“We’re going to set up pop-up stores in different cities in the country for two weeks so folks can come in, get their measurements and see what it’s all about,” says Alpaugh. “This allows people who are in different cities who want to get measured personally and meet the Dangerous team and learn about it first-hand.”