Product Update
Is The Duo Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is The Duo from Shark Tank still around in 2026? The deal it made, the sharks who invested, and where to buy The Duo today.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nathaniel Wellen pitched The Duo, a two-handle umbrella built for sharing, as a teenager with a family connection most Shark Tank contestants would kill for: his great-grandfather founded ShedRain, one of the biggest umbrella manufacturers in the country. That connection turned out to matter a great deal once the cameras stopped rolling.
The Short Answer
Yes, The Duo is still in business, and it has scaled into national retail in a way most Season 15 products never manage. The umbrella is sold through Target, Walmart, REI, Nordstrom, and Macy's.
That kind of big-box and specialty retail spread points to real production volume and distribution muscle behind the product, not just a scrappy direct-to-consumer storefront trying to build awareness one customer at a time.
The Shark Tank Pitch
Nathaniel Wellen pitched The Duo in Season 15, Episode 11, which aired in January 2024, presenting a dual-handle umbrella with a 54-inch canopy built for two people to share comfortably, in the Home and Lifestyle category.
He asked for 100,000 dollars in exchange for 10 percent of the company, pitching not just a product but a family legacy angle that gave the sharks confidence the manufacturing side of the business was already solved.
The Deal That Got Done
Robert Herjavec made the deal, investing the full 100,000 dollars requested but taking 18 percent equity instead of the 10 percent on the table. Wellen accepted, giving up a bigger slice of a business that already had a manufacturing and distribution advantage most first-time founders never get near.
That advantage is ShedRain, the umbrella industry giant founded by Wellen's great-grandfather, which owns 49 percent of The Duo and handles manufacturing and distribution on the company's behalf. Having an established umbrella manufacturer as a built-in production and retail partner is a structural head start that explains a lot about what happened next, since most Shark Tank founders spend their first year post-deal just trying to solve manufacturing problems that Wellen's family company had already solved decades earlier.
The Duo net worth in 2026
There is no independently sourced net worth figure for The Duo available at this time, and given the company's tight ownership ties to ShedRain, a private manufacturer, any specific dollar estimate would not be verifiable. This article is not going to guess at one.
What is documented is retail traction rather than a valuation: the company moved from prototype to a 10,000-unit production run with confirmed placements across multiple national retail channels, which is a concrete measure of scale even without a dollar figure attached. A first production run of that size, distributed across five major retailers, represents a level of retail commitment well beyond what most first-year Shark Tank products achieve.
Where Things Stand Now
The Duo has moved fast since its January 2024 air date, going from a single prototype to shelf space at five major national retailers within a couple of years, an unusually quick retail ramp for a product from this show. Wellen was also brought back for a follow-up Shark Tank segment discussing entrepreneurship for young founders, a sign the show itself considers this one of its better outcomes worth revisiting on air.
Between the closed Herjavec deal, the ShedRain manufacturing backbone, and the Target-to-Macy's retail spread, The Duo looks like one of the stronger post-show survivors in this batch. The combination of a genuinely differentiated product idea, a two-person umbrella instead of the standard single-person design, and a family manufacturing connection that removed most of the usual startup friction is a rare pairing.
If you're looking to buy it, check any of those five retailers or the company's own site, where the full range of colors and sizes should be available.
Wellen's age and family background make this one of the more unusual entries in this batch, most teenage founders on this show do not have a decades-old manufacturer ready to absorb their production and distribution needs on day one. It is a reminder that not every Shark Tank success story starts from zero. Some start with a real structural advantage, and the deal with Herjavec then layers a second advantage, a shark's retail relationships and negotiating experience, on top of a supply chain that was never really in question in the first place.
Where to buy The Duo
Still selling as of June 20, 2026. Check today's price and availability.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
See the full The Duo deal breakdown and term sheet →
