Entrepreneur Miles Penn knows shopping for clothes online can be difficult, and this idea is the inspiration for MTailor: a retail clothing app that utilizes a user’s cellphone camera to obtain body measurements that Penn claims are 20% better than an actual tailor. Taking the company to investors during Season 7, Episode 17 of “Shark Tank,” the appearance doesn’t go well in the slightest. Despite the entrepreneur starting arguments and leaving after rejecting offers from Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary, the MTailor company still sees success to this day.
Rejecting or losing a deal doesn’t always guarantee failure. Just like the creators of MuteMe walking away without a deal in Season 13, MTailor is doing just fine without the Sharks. After acquiring more investors after its television appearance, the company currently receives favorable reviews online and continues to turn a profit. In a time where online businesses can come and go faster than Hawaii sinking, being in business since 2014 says a lot, and Penn may be more savvy than the Sharks originally thought.
How does the MTailor app work?
Founding the company alongside his Stanford pal Rafi Witten, Miles Penn’s MTailor app makes taking measurements of yourself incredibly simple. After changing into form-fitting clothes, all a user needs to do is lean their cellphone against a wall and then stand back six feet. A 15-second video scan of their front and back then produces 60 measurements, including both the upper and lower body.
For a shirt, these measurements include areas such as the neck, chest, sleeve length, and cuff, among the five other points the app targets in this area. MTailor proudly claims that each article of clothing passes through a quality control team that performs a manual 26-point inspection, ensuring everything is right for the customer.
The company is so confident in their measuring software that they provide a 90-day money-back guarantee. During this time, customers also have the option to submit a request for the company to make new garments should they not be the right fit.
How is MTailor doing?
Despite Miles Penn rejecting the offers made during his appearance on “Shark Tank,” and Rafi Witten leaving the company in 2019, things are going well for MTailor. In 2018, the company successfully raised $7.2 million in venture capital, and were able to raise an additional $8.3 million in January, 2022. In April, 2024, MTailor reported $13 million in yearly sales and the company is valued at nearly $25 million. Not bad for a guy Kevin O’Leary described as a “dead shirt walking”.
Around the web, critics praise the company for the materials it uses, but still report that not every shirt is going to be a perfect fit. In a 2023 article from “The New York Times,” Dan Jones gives high praise for the materials used by the company, but notes that the shirt he received was too loose for his body. Within the Apple App Store, the MTailor app has a 4.6 out of 5-star rating with close to five thousand reviews. The app also has a respectable 4.1 out of 5-star rating on the Google Play Store with just over two thousand reviews.
While not every product on “Shark Tank” can reach the same levels of success as the Bug Bite Thing Suction Tool, Penn and MTailor’s story is still proof that determination can get you farther than you may realize.
