He attended a second tradeshow and sold out there as well. With $700 of his own money, Durity had his first batch of Twist It Up Comb products manufactured and in January 2016, he attended his first beauty tradeshow. That’s when he called Durity and told him if Durity didn’t make a business out of the shrunken tennis racket, then, he would. In December of that same year, because of regulations that prohibit barbers from using porous products, Gray, Durity’s barber, got fined for having a twisting sponge on his workstation. So, he opted to keep his invention for his own personal use. “I wasn’t trying to leave a six-figure paying job,” he said. He took it to his barber, Steven Gray, who urged him to take the product to market.ĭurity wasn’t ready quite yet.
In 2015, after doing extensive research online, Durity partnered with a 3-D printer, an artist buddy of his and an illustrator he found on Craigslist to come up with a cab line of his design and created his first Twist It Up Comb product sample. “I spent about 90 minutes trying to find a tennis racket in Brazil” after misplacing his, he said, adding that when he returned to the states, he searched in toy stores, sporting goods stores and online to find a miniature version of a tennis racket, with no luck. It was during a trip to Brazil, recalls Durity, that he lost his carry-on-sized racket and was prompted to create something even smaller. When his real estate brokerage practice began to grow and he consequently began to travel more, he upgraded his tennis racket to a racquetball racket because it was smaller in size. For years, Durity relied on an actual tennis racket to style his mane. That’s when he decided to purchase his own and give it a try. After years of spending money on sponges for his hair and in search of something better, Durity said he came across a YouTube video that showed a man using an actual tennis racket to twist his tresses. Now, Twist It Up Comb sources all of its materials from California, said Durity.ĭurity doesn’t take credit for coming up with the tennis racket method. for the same price he was getting it from China before it shut down tens of thousands of factories, including the ones he worked with, due to pollution in 2017. He was also able to buy the mesh used to make the rackets in the U.S.
“The money (from “Shark Tank”) has been used to scale the company,” said Durity, adding that he was able to get more inventory as a result. Today, Twist It Up Comb is on a steady path of growth, according to the company. The company walked away with a $225,000 investment from Daymond John and Mark Cuban, who collectively took 25% of the company’s ownership. Just last year, when he realized he couldn’t keep up with the demand for Twist it Up Comb, Durity entered and appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” television show. In 2019, Durity said Twist It Up is on track to make between $1.2 million and about $1.5 million. In 2018, the Little Italy-based company with three employees had revenue of almost $500,000. So, he created a shrunken version of an actual tennis racket made of a sturdy plastic and stainless steel mesh, one that could twist the hair and also fit in a standard-sized pant pocket for portability. Company Description: A San Diego-based company that manufactures a tennis racket-like hair twisting product.įounded in 2016 by CEO Noel Durity, a San Diego-based real estate broker, Twist It Up Comb came about after Durity realized using an actual tennis racket in a circular motion to twist his afro-centric hair was not only functional, but also cost-effective and sanitary most twisting products currently in the market are porous sponges that tend to wear out after time.
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