In episode 22 of season 12 of “Shark Tank,” three friends and business partners came up with a new way to clean. The guys at The Scrubbie introduced their product, a flexible scrubbing attachment that can be attached to almost any type of extendable water nozzle. They said it would cut cleaning time and water use in half.
The product reminded me of the famous Scrub Daddy, which was featured on “Shark Tank” in 2012.
The Scrub Daddy went on to become one of the show’s biggest financial successes, selling more than $200 million worth of products since it started. We thought it would be a good idea to check on The Scrubbie and see if this cleaning product has the same potential.
The Scrubbie: Who Are They and What Do They Do?
Years ago, Jeff Dakin, who is from Wichita, washed his dinner dishes with the metal edge of the spray gun in his kitchen sink. This gave him the idea for The Scrubbie. When he thought about how useful it would be to have a sponge attached to the spray gun’s nozzle, he called his long-time friend Matt Hosey, a local contractor in oil and gas leasing, with whom he had talked about other product ideas in the past. Tyler Kessler, a childhood friend of Hosey’s, came along, and the three “Side Hustle Homies” from Wichita got to work on making their groundbreaking scrubber.
The three friends spent the next few years and a lot of money making their product as good as it could be. They also worked with professional product engineers to make a universal connector that lets the sponge connect to a wide range of water nozzles. During this time, both Hosey and Kessler joined the business as investors and partners. The Scrubbie was finally released at the 2019 Wichita Women’s Fair, where it was a huge hit right away.
This thing is called a “Universal Scrubbing Attachment.” The Scrubbie is designed to make cleaning easier and faster by putting the water and sponge in the same place. This way, you don’t have to keep switching between the two. Also, it’s easy to use right out of the box, and you don’t need any tools to connect it to most kitchen sinks and garden hoses.
The Scrubbie: Where Are They Now?
After their successful booth at the 2019 Wichita Women’s Fair, The Scrubbie team brought their product back to the 2020 Fair, where it was even more popular than the year before. The day after the Fair was over, things got a lot more exciting when they found out that one of their marketing managers had sent in an application for The Scrubbie to show their product on “Shark Tank” because of the idea of a sale they had had before. They were excited because they had just found out that they were going to be on the show.
All three of them had been fans of the show for a long time, so they were excited about the chance to be on it and ready for the sudden attention it would bring them. Dakin said that the 6 million or so people who watched a typical “Shark Tank” episode on a Friday night were 6 million potential customers. The company then got ready for more people to visit their website, which is also where they sell their products and told their suppliers to be ready for more people to order their products.
The sponges can go in the dishwasher and can be used in different ways. They can also be changed out on their own and come in packs of three, so the universal connector can be used more than once. The Scrubbie attachment costs $19.99 ($14.99 after a discount), and it comes with three sponges. A pack of three replacement sponges costs $4.99. Also available is a subscription service that sends users a pack of three sponges every two months for $30 ($14.99 after a discount).
Even before it was on “Shark Tank,” the handy scrubbing attachment was getting attention locally and was featured in The Wichita Eagle and on the 104.5 The Fox radio station. The Scrubbie team also got offers to buy out their product, but they decided to keep it and are now working on making even more attachments for it. Hosey said this about their plans for the future: “We are very aware of the long history of entrepreneurs in Wichita. We just want to repeat what they did.” Well, we wish them luck and hope they can become the next “Scrub Daddy” on “Shark Tank.”
