On The Profit, billionaire investor Marcus Lemonis first met with Inkkas Shoes in 2016. The Brooklyn-based fair trade company makes shoes, sneakers and boots in Mexico and out of woven textiles supplied from local artisans in Peru, among other countries.
At the time, co-founder Dan Ben-Nun was the CEO of Inkkas; his brother David Ben-Nun was Director of Operations; and childhood friend David Malino was Director of Sourcing and Distribution.
On the show, Lemonis offered Inkkas an investment of $600,000 in exchange for 40 percent equity.
Since The Profit episode, Inkkas was folded into Marcus’ ML Fashion Group, where Malino still works for Inkkas/ML Footwear in New York City.
According to LinkedIn, in 2020, Dan Ben-Nun founded ADSPACE, a DTC advertising agency in Austin, Texas. (Marcus Lemonis Fashion Group is listed as a client on the ADSPACE website.)
David Ben-Nun left the footwear and marketing worlds behind in 2016 when he moved to Tel Aviv, Israel to studying medicine at Sackler School of Medicine. According to LinkedIn, David works as a research assistant at the University’s molecular biology and biotechnology lab.
Today, Inkkas continues to receive 5-star reviews online and is a partner of the OneShoeOneTree project. For every shoe purchase, the company plants one tree around the world. As of 2020, Inkkas has planted more than 257,000 trees!
New episodes of The Profit air Tuesdays at 10 pm on CNBC.
