On Season 13 of Shark Tank, kidpreneur Trey Brown from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, showcases his love of design and passion for his community with his trendy clothing brand SPERGO, which the 15-year-old hopes will inspire youth all over the world. Trey is seeking an investment of $300,000 in exchange for 10 percent equity.
Aware of the increasing violence in his community, and wanting to do something to encourage his peers to stay out of trouble, at the age of 12, Trey used his birthday money ($178) to invest in t-shirts with inspirational images and words. Since then, in just 36 months, the teen has sold more than 30,000 units of merchandise and has hip hop celebrities including Meek Mill and Sean Combs wearing SPERGO gear.
In February 2020, Diddy invested $25,000 in SPERGO. “Trey says: Diddy has been a mentor to me since that day!”
[Related: 27 Favorite ‘Shark Tank’ Products at Amazon — New List]
If that story sounds familiar to you, you know how Shark Daymond John launched his retail empire FUBU as a young man, out of his mother’s house in Queens, New York and with the help of rapper LL Cool J. And yes, that’s Trey’s mom with him on stage: he introduces her as his first first-time employee!
But don’t count out Mark Cuban. As seen in the video above, Cuban is visually and audibly the most excited Shark to hear Trey’s story. When Cuban finds out Trey would wake-up his mother Saturday morning to help him go door to door to sell his wares, Cuban (wearing a SPERGO baseball hat) cheers and claps.
Fun fact: Trey got to meet the CEO of the NBA Philadelphia 76ers, a guy who knows Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
New episodes of Shark Tank air Fridays at 8 pm on ABC, right before 20/20 at 9 pm. [BONUS: Stream any ABC show through the ABC GO Digital App found here. Download is FREE.]
