Measure Your Child’s Foot Accurately With Foot Fairy

Small children are little bundles of joy but when we look for their shoe size we never find the exact fit. To get an easy-to-use child-friendly solution Foot Fairy was introduced.

This foot measuring system is used for kids with 100% accuracy. Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks created the Foot Fairy app to help their four little kids.

The app has a connection with Zappos, a shoe firm that enables its customers to always get the perfect shoe size. 

Foot Fairy came up on Shark Tank season 5. This unique product was introduced to solve a general issue encountered by parents: deciding the correct shoe size for their kids. 

Foot Fairy is the brainchild of Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and her friend Nicole Brooks. Dr. Sylvie Shapiro is a Beverly Hills podiatrist and Nicole Brooks is a registered family therapist. 

Foot Fairy was an iPad application that was created to assess the foot size of a child accurately. To use the app parents had to place the iPad straight on the foot of their child and the software will then determine the exact length of the foot.

In this way, parents do no not need to guess their kids’ foot size at the time of purchasing shoes. The process is more efficient and convenient. 

Four Fairy provides precise measurements and direct shoe ordering within the app. They have made a partnership with the online shoe vendor Zappos and it depicted the founders’ obligation to offer a holistic solution to the problems of buying shoes for kids online.

Foot Fairy gives parents a useful solution while promoting the foot health of their children. Having a background in podiatry Sylvie was able to understand that a lot of children face foot problems because of ill-fitting shoes and the Foot Fairy was an endeavour to settle the issue. 

When Dr. Sylvie and Nicole pitched Foot Fairy on Shark Tank; they appealed for an investment of $75,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in the business. Finally, Mark Cuban agreed to invest $100,000 in exchange for a 40% stake in the business.

In this article, we are going to discuss what occurred to Foot Fairy on Shark Tank. 

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What is Foot Fairy?

Foot Fairy is a small, free app created to measure the foot size of a child accurately. Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks created this foot size app when they realized that parents required a solution to find the accurate shoe size for their kids.

With the help of a tablet like an iPad, Foot Fairy measures the foot size of a child. Parents just need to take a picture of their child’s foot by using the app and it will measure the foot size automatically. 

The app will then send the measurement to a store that sells children’s shoes so that the parents can find the correct shoe size and make convenient online purchases.

Foot Fairy is designed to save parents time and effort by offering an easy way to measure children’s feet at home, eventually preventing problems related to poorly fitting footwear.

Here are some product details of the company: 

• The app has 100% accuracy while measuring the foot size of your child. 
• This is a user-friendly app. 
• The founders thought that they did not require marketing for the app. 
• The website has an 18% click-through rate but 93% of people paid a visit to the website.
• They were obtaining commission from Zappos, the shoe company for the consumers that arrived at their website.
• The website is not working anymore.

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Who is the Founder of Foot Fairy?

Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks are the inventors of Foot Fairy. The two mothers introduced the idea of Foot Fairy as a solution to a general parenting problem.

Dr. Sylvie Shapiro is an experienced podiatrist. Being a foot doctor, she often followed the problems caused by children wearing poorly sized shoes. Some parents confessed to assuming their children’s shoe sizes, resulting in ill-fitting footwear and potential foot issues.

This understanding and her experiences as a mother made her learn the requirement for a more precise, convenient technique for selecting children’s shoe sizes.

Nicole Brooks, a fellow mom, shared the feeling. She was also frustrated with the conventional shopping process for children’s shoes.

They have to often take the naughty children to a store and keep them quiet for a long time to measure their feet. Nicole and Sylvie were inspired to invent a better way after this.

In this way, Foot Fairy was developed. It is an iPad application introduced to measure a child’s foot size accurately without going anywhere.

The app was created to make the shoe-buying process simple for parents. Foot Fairy replaced the conventional in-store measurement process by introducing a simple, at-home method.

To measure the child’s foot size parents may place their child’s foot against the iPad screen and wait for a tinkle. The app will assess the child’s foot size in this way.

Furthermore, the app provides a  convenient link to a pre-populated web page from Zappos, an online shoe vendor, displaying shoes in the child’s size.

Before appearing in Shark Tank, the founder had designed the Foot Fairy app successfully and since it was launched officially it has been downloaded 13,144 times.

Although Zappos made a partnership with Foot Fairy and gave a commission on shoe sales the company had yet to earn a remarkable revenue, mainly due to a glitch in their system connecting to the Zappos app rather than the correct webpage.

They appeared on Shark Tank in search of some funds so that they could build their back-end infrastructure, improve their system, and retain customers.

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What Happened to Foot Fairy on Shark Tank? 

The co-founders Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks pitched Foot Fairy, a foot-measuring mobile application on Shark Tank to get an investment of $75,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in the business equating to a variation of $500,000.

During the pitch, the founders represented Foot Fairy as an app created to take an accurate footprint of a child’s foot with the help of an iPad’s screen surface. In this way, it enabled parents to measure their kids’ feet to buy shoes conveniently at home.

The company was connected to Zappos, a major online shoe vendor that recommended shoes that fit the measured size. Nicole described that the business model was to deliver the app for free and make revenue through commissions from Zappos when users bought shoes based on the app’s suggestions.

During their presentation, the Foot Fairy app had been officially launched for three weeks and had garnered over 13,000 downloads.

Nevertheless, the founders had yet to get a commission cheque from Zappos and there was no cross-promotion or integration with Zappos.

The sharks had mixed opinions about the product and the business model. Barbara Corcoran was eager to know why they were attempting to sell shoes for another brand in place of monetizing the app directly.

Kevin O’Leary was concerned about the ease with which major shoe retailers could easily copy the app’s features.  Hence, he left the deal.

Robert Herjavec was concerned about the lack of proprietary components and bowed out. Lori Greiner liked the idea but felt that it was not at an investable stage yet. That is why she left the deal.

Barbara Corcoran realized that the entrepreneurs’ confidence overwhelmed them with the business facts, resulting in her opting out.

Mark Cuban found the product potential enough. So, despite the problems pointed out by his fellow sharks, he was ready to invest $100,000 in exchange for a 40% stake in the business. He kept the offer contingent on various conditions.

Some of the conditions were to test the software personally to ascertain its functionality, to check that there were no identical products in the market, and to analyse the agreements with their technology team to confirm that Foot Fairy retained ownership of the software behind the application.

Sylvie and Nicole acknowledged Mark Cuban’s proposal, securing a deal on Shark Tank. Unfortunately, the deal eventually fell through, and the company shut down a few months after their 2014 Shark Tank episode aired. Sylvie and Nicole moved on to other prosperous ventures in their respective domains.

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Foot Fairy Shark Tank Update

After coming up on Shark Tank, the deal with Mark Cuban for Foot Fairy did not work out. Mark’s team did not disclose why the deal did not become successful but it is assumed that something was discovered during due diligence that led it to fall. 

For this reason, the company finally shut its doors forever in May 2014. The company did not become successful due to various factors. The most important factor is that Foot Fairy did not have a website and their Facebook page was inactive with only 1500 likes. 

A Google search for “Foot Fairy” generated little results, mostly related to the Shark Tank episode in place of the company itself. This shortage of online presence may have impacted awareness and interest in the app.

As of 2023, Foot Fairy has no imprint on the app store, and the company appears to have vanished. Dr. Sylvie Shapiro, one of the co-founders, still has Foot Fairy listed as active on her LinkedIn page, but this may not be substantial as she also has other ventures listed that have folded.

On the other hand, Nicole Brooks, the other co-founder, has established a new firm called Stryke Club, which delivers skincare products for men.

Foot Fairy did not become successful after appearing on Shark Tank. The company went out of business soon after the Foot Fairy Shark Tank episode was aired. As of 2023, Foot Fairy has no trace of existence.

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What Happened To Foot Fairy After Shark Tank?

After appearing on Shark Tank, the possibilities for Foot Fairy appeared favourable. They had secured a deal with Mark Cuban for $100,000 in return for a 40% stake in the business.

Nonetheless, the deal was contingent on various conditions, including software testing, market research, and contract reviews.

Unfortunately, the deal with Mark Cuban did not work out.

The particular reasons have not been publicized, but it is assumed that the contingencies were not fulfilled during the due diligence procedure.

Without the investment, the company encountered a lot of problems. Foot Fairy finally went out of business in May 2014, a few months after the Shark Tank episode aired.

The absence of a reliable website, minimal activity on their Facebook page, and low search results for “Foot Fairy” on Google indicated that awareness and curiosity about the app were limited.

Despite the unfortunate fate of Foot Fairy, the co-founders Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks focused on other ventures. Dr. Sylvie Shapiro proceeded to practice podiatry in Beverly Hills and has a prosperous line of spa and resort footwear called Planet Flops.

Nicole Brooks co-founded Strike Club, a men’s skincare line. Despite the closure of Foot Fairy, both founders found success in their fields, indicating their entrepreneurial spirit was unstoppable.

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Did Foot Fairy Get A Deal On Shark Tank?

Yes, Foot Fairy did obtain a deal on Shark Tank. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks, the founders behind Foot Fairy, represented their foot-measuring mobile application on Shark Tank season 5.

They appealed to the sharks for an investment of $75,000 for which they were ready to give up a 15% stake in their business.

Eventually, they got a proposal from Mark Cuban who was ready to invest $100,000 in exchange for a 40% stake in the business along with multiple contingencies.

The founders took the offer and Foot Fairy secured an investment in the show. Nonetheless, it is later disclosed that the deal with Mark never closed, and the company shut down a few months after the episode aired.

Sylvie Shapiro went on to succeed in her podiatry practice and with her line of spa and resort footwear called Planet Flops. Nicole Brooks co-founded a men’s skincare line called Strike Club.

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Final Opinion

However, despite getting investment the Foot Fairy app encountered technical problems and the company was unable to sustain its business operations.  Foot Fairy after Shark Tank went out of business. It only lasted for six months after the show. However, Foot Fairy is no doubt a significant instance of a product that sought to marry technology and amenities to address an everyday parenting challenge.

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