Remember The 'Coldest Water Bottle' From Shark Tank? Here's Where The Brand Is Now

On a "Shark Tank" segment featuring a brand of water bottles called Coldest, the duo of identical twins was called "horrible pitchers" by Daymond John. They walked in with an eye-watering $30 million valuation and sold $15 million worth of water bottles, but made a $400,000 loss. The siblings turned down the only offer they got, but if you thought they'd bottled their big chance, think again. Joe and David Ahmad have managed to find a different path to success in what is a crowded market (they didn't even make it on our list of 12 popular insulated water bottles).

The brothers appeared on "Shark Tank" in February, 2024. While their main pitch revolved around their insulated bottles, they also spoke about expanding to products like pillows and dog beds. Despite impressive sales — steady growth leading up to 2022, when they crossed the $15 million mark — the sharks were not impressed. Lori Greiner felt they were trying to do too much, Mark Cuban felt their marketing wasn't up to the mark, Robert Herjavec didn't like that they were losing money, while Daymond John had a problem with the inventory they were holding.

The only offer they got came from Kevin O'Leary, but Joe and David turned that down because they did not want to pay a royalty on every product sold. Things have worked out for them though — not only has the company overcome its debt and inventory issues, it's worth $20 million and set for further growth.

Many brands go on to taste success despite facing rejection on "Shark Tank." Just being on the show can spark a huge spike in demand. And while this did happen to an extent for Coldest, the change in trajectory from a popular but loss-making enterprise to one primed for huge success comes down to lessons learned on the show.

"There's tremendous value in the pressure of being on 'Shark Tank,'" Joe Ahmed told Naples Daily News, adding that they were forced to ask themselves some hard questions. "When you look hard at each of the problems and realize the profit isn't where we want it to be, you start asking the right questions to yourself." One of the biggest decisions they took post their interaction with the sharks was to double down on the water bottles, and leave their plans to sell other products behind.

The team has also raised its marketing game by building up a VIP community of nearly 50,000 fans (or "Coldies," as they call them), who get access to exclusive discounts and weekly giveaways, as well as early dibs on weekly product drops. They have more than 1 million happy customers to show for it. Coldest's tale might even match the fascinating comeback story of Stanley Drinkware, which saw sales of the Quencher go through the roof after repositioning it as an everyday item instead of a camping product.