In 2023, Bethesda entrepreneur Justin Baer went on Shark Tank to flog his men’s apparel brand, Collars Co. The show’s Mark Cuban and Peter Jones ended up investing, and now the company is opening two new brick-and-mortar stores in Bethesda and Reston. Here’s a closer look. The Inspiration The brand’s flagship product is the $88 Dress Collar Polo, a somewhat odd-looking combination of a casual golf garment and a fancy structured collar. Baer loves the look of a dress shirt under a sweater but hates the layers’ bulk, so he hatched this Franken-polo concept in 2021. “I didn’t do any research,” he says. “It was just a problem I felt like I had.” The Execution It took more than six months to perfect the collar, which kept losing its shape over the course of the day. (He solved it with an insert sewn in to keep it stiff.) He also settled on a machine-washable polyester. Baer had a factory manufacture about a dozen prototypes. By the time he went on Shark Tank a year after starting the online business, he’d already sold 92,000 shirts. The Expansion Baer struck a $1 million deal with Cuban and Jones, who share 10 percent of Collar Co.’s equity. That has helped the company grow, but Baer says he tries to “keep my asks to a minimum.” Right now, he’s focused on brick-and-mortar expansion. “You can explain a product online,” Baer says, “but you can feel a brand in person.” This article appears in the July 2026 issue of Washingtonian.The post An Odd “Shark Tank” Shirt Business Expands in the DC Area first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less