Product Update
Is SwimZip Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is SwimZip from Shark Tank still around in 2026? The deal it made, the sharks who invested, and where to buy SwimZip today.
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Betsy Johnson walked out of the Tank in Season 5 with a handshake and no closed check, and then went on to nearly match an entire year of prior sales in the two days after her episode aired. SwimZip is proof that a deal falling through on air does not have to be the end of the story, and years later the UV-protective kids swimwear brand is still standing.
Children's apparel is a category with tight seasonality and thin margins for most independent brands, which makes a decade-plus survival story like this one worth examining in more detail than the two-day sales spike alone.
The Short Answer
Yes, SwimZip is still in business, and it has grown well beyond its original children's swimwear category. The company now sells men's and women's apparel and hats alongside the original product line, all through its own website.
This is a case where the failed on-air deal clearly did not slow the company down.
The Shark Tank Pitch
Johnson pitched in Season 5, Episode 15, in the kids and education category, out of Kansas City, Kansas, with UV-protective swimwear built to shield children from sun exposure without sunscreen. She asked for 60,000 dollars for 5 percent equity, a high valuation ask relative to most first-time apparel pitches.
The concept tapped directly into a parenting concern, sun safety, that most competing swimwear brands were not addressing head on at the time.
The Deal That Got Done
Lori Greiner offered 60,000 dollars for 20 percent equity on air, and Johnson accepted. According to Shark Tank tracking sites, however, that deal never actually closed once the post-show diligence process played out, one of the more well known instances of an accepted handshake falling apart afterward.
Losing the investment did not cost SwimZip its television exposure, and that exposure alone turned out to carry significant weight.
SwimZip net worth in 2026
As of April 2023, Shark Tank tracking coverage put the company's annual revenue at approximately 5 million dollars. No more recent independently verified figure has surfaced publicly since then, and no separate personal net worth estimate for Betsy Johnson has been published. Treat 5 million as the most recent sourced revenue figure rather than a confirmed 2026 number.
Two Days of Sales Nearly Matched a Full Year
The single most striking detail from SwimZip's post-air period is the sales spike immediately following the episode: within two days of it airing, the company came close to matching an entire prior year's revenue, a scale of demand shock that would overwhelm most small apparel operations without a serious fulfillment scramble.
Johnson has stayed visibly connected to entrepreneurship education since then, serving on the Youth Entrepreneurs Kansas City Advisory Council, a role that keeps her engaged with the next generation of founders in her home market rather than stepping back from the business world once SwimZip found its footing. The product expansion into men's and women's apparel and hats also shows a company reinvesting growth into a broader product line rather than staying a single-SKU children's brand.
Surviving a demand shock like that two-day spike without a shark's capital cushion behind it required real operational discipline, enough inventory or a fast enough manufacturing turnaround to avoid disappointing a wave of first-time customers who might never come back if their order was delayed or canceled. The fact that the brand kept growing in the years after, rather than burning out on that single spike, points to a team that handled the surge competently rather than getting lucky once and coasting on it.
Where Things Stand Now
SwimZip pitched in Season 5 out of Kansas City and had its on-air deal with Lori Greiner, 60,000 dollars for 20 percent, fall apart after the show. The company grew anyway, nearly matching a full year of sales in the two days after the episode aired.
As of the most recent public figure, from April 2023, the business was generating roughly 5 million dollars a year and had expanded into adult apparel and hats alongside its original kids' swimwear line. The product remains available through the company's own website today.
Season 5 is now well over a decade in the rearview mirror, which makes SwimZip one of the longer-running success stories in this batch and a useful reminder that a collapsed on-air deal is not a reliable predictor of what happens to a company afterward.
Where to buy SwimZip
Still selling as of June 14, 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full SwimZip deal breakdown and term sheet →
