Alan Kaufman walked into Shark Tank Season 1 having already spent $900,000 of his own money on a wearable umbrella. He left with a verbal deal from two sharks. That deal never actually closed — and the story gets worse from there.
This article covers exactly what Nubrella was, what happened on the show, why the investment fell apart, how the business tried to survive after the episode, and what ultimately ended it.
What Nubrella Was and the Problem It Tried to Solve
Nubrella was a hands-free, wearable umbrella. Instead of holding a handle, you wore it. The design looked like a large bubble hood attached to a backpack-style harness that sat on your shoulders.
The idea made sense on paper. Think about who needs their hands free in the rain — commuters, delivery workers, photographers, dog walkers. A standard umbrella forces you to sacrifice one hand every time it rains. Nubrella tried to solve that.
It also had a real functional edge over a traditional umbrella. The design offered better wind resistance and broader upper-body coverage. Rain coming in sideways? A regular umbrella fails fast. Nubrella was built to handle that.
At launch, the product was priced between $60 and $80, sold online only. Kaufman had plans to move into retail. Nubrella Inc. was based near Boston, Massachusetts, and the company held multiple U.S. and international patents on the design.
The Shark Tank Pitch — What Alan Kaufman Asked For
Kaufman appeared on Season 1 of Shark Tank. He asked for $200,000 in exchange for 25% equity, which placed an $800,000 valuation on the company.
He also disclosed something that raised eyebrows in the room: he had already invested approximately $900,000 of his own money into Nubrella before stepping on that stage. That’s a significant personal bet on a product that had not yet proven itself at scale.
On camera, Kaufman received a verbal agreement from Daymond John and Kevin Harrington. It looked like a win. Two sharks, a handshake, national television exposure — from the outside, it seemed like Nubrella had just launched into a new chapter.
It had not.
The Shark Tank Deal That Never Closed
Here is something many viewers do not realize: an on-air handshake on Shark Tank is not a completed deal. It is a starting point. The real negotiation, legal work, and due diligence happen off-camera — and that process can kill a deal entirely.
That is exactly what happened with Nubrella. The verbal agreement with Daymond John and Kevin Harrington never became an actual investment. The deal fell apart after filming, during or after the due diligence phase.
Kaufman later spoke publicly about what happened. In a 2016 MassLive article, he said his Shark Tank deal “never materialized.” He went further, stating the show had “nearly ruined him” and claiming that parts of the experience were misleading. He described the show as “mostly faked” — though it is important to note that this was his personal perspective and stated opinion, not an established or proven fact.
What made things harder was the public perception gap. After the episode aired, many people assumed Nubrella was now shark-backed and flush with investment. That assumption created pressure on the business without providing any of the actual capital. The exposure brought attention, but attention alone does not pay suppliers or fund distribution.
How Nubrella Operated After the Show — and the Rebrand to Canopy
Despite the deal falling through, Nubrella kept going. The company continued operating for several years after the Shark Tank episode aired.
At some point, Nubrella rebranded under the name Canopy. Some channels referred to it as Nubrella/Canopy during this transition. Rebrands like this usually signal one of two things: either the company is trying to reach a new audience, or it is trying to move past a name that carries negative associations. In this case, it was likely both.
The rebrand did not change the core challenges. The company never achieved wide retail distribution, which had been part of Kaufman’s original plan. Without shelf space in major stores, a product like this relies almost entirely on consumers seeking it out online — which limits growth significantly.
The product’s appearance also worked against it. Nubrella was genuinely functional, but it looked unusual. Most people, when faced with a choice between something practical but visually odd and something familiar and cheap, pick the familiar option. A $5 umbrella from a corner store beats a $70 wearable hood in most people’s minds, even if the wearable hood performs better.
Holding patents helped protect the design, but patents do not create demand. Nubrella had intellectual property protection and a product that worked — and still struggled to build a sustainable customer base.
Why the Business Ultimately Failed
Several factors combined to bring Nubrella down. None of them alone would have been fatal, but together they were too much to overcome.
Heavy upfront investment without validated demand
Spending $900,000 of personal money before proving the product could sell at scale is a serious risk. Kaufman believed in the product deeply — but belief is not the same as market evidence. By the time he appeared on Shark Tank, he was already deep in a financial hole that required a significant sales volume to climb out of.
The Shark Tank deal created a false signal
When the episode aired and people saw a deal get made on camera, it looked like validation. But the deal never closed. That gap between perception and reality cost Kaufman time and energy he could not afford to lose.
Product-market fit problems
The product solved a real problem, but it asked consumers to change their behavior and accept looking unconventional. That is a hard sell. People already own umbrellas. Getting them to switch to something bulkier, pricier, and socially unusual requires either a much lower price point or a very specific need — like a profession that makes hands-free rain protection essential.
Distribution never scaled
Staying online-only limited how many people could discover and buy the product. Kaufman had plans to enter retail, but those plans did not materialize. Without physical retail presence, reaching mainstream consumers was always going to be difficult.
Rebranding could not fix the fundamentals
Changing the name to Canopy did not resolve the underlying issues with price, distribution, or consumer perception. A new name can refresh a brand’s image, but it cannot rewrite a business model that is not working.
Where Nubrella Stands Today
Nubrella — later Canopy — is no longer in business. The website is offline, and the product is not being sold through any official channel. If you find units available anywhere, they would be old stock or secondhand listings.
Alan Kaufman, the inventor and driving force behind Nubrella, passed away in 2022. His death marked the permanent end of any possibility of a relaunch or continuation of the brand under his leadership. There is no new ownership or active successor product as of the latest available information.
For entrepreneurs, Kaufman’s story is worth studying seriously. It shows how a genuinely innovative idea can still fall short — not because the product does not work, but because of the gap between functional value and what consumers will actually buy. It also shows how a single media event, even one as large as Shark Tank, is not a business strategy.
If you want to follow more business stories like this — companies that got national exposure, navigated deals, and faced the real-world gap between a great pitch and a sustainable business — ReputeBusiness covers these kinds of case studies in plain language.
Key Takeaways from the Nubrella Story
- On-air Shark Tank deals are not final. Many do not close after filming ends.
- National TV exposure creates pressure, not just opportunity. If the deal falls through, the public still assumes you are funded.
- Patents protect a design — they do not create a market. Nubrella had strong IP and still failed commercially.
- Consumer psychology matters as much as product performance. People often choose familiar and cheap over functional but unusual.
- Distribution is not optional. Staying online-only capped Nubrella’s growth before it could find its audience.
- Rebranding is a tool, not a solution. If the core business problems remain, a new name will not fix them.
Nubrella was a real product built by a real inventor who put nearly a million dollars of his own money behind an idea he believed in. The fact that it did not survive is not a story about a bad product. It is a story about how hard it is to change consumer habits, how misleading media exposure can be, and how many things have to go right — at the same time — for a business to make it.
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