The Christmas Tree Hugger Shark Tank Update

Want a better looking Christmas tree? Ryan Kenny might have the answer for you with a product he brought to the Shark Tank on Season 9, Episode 10 - it's his Christmas Tree Hugger. He wants to "fix the fake" and make artificial trees look real. This is one of the relatively inexpensive Shark Tank products.

Huggers come in both classic brown bark and white birch and both reverse to a candy cane design. You can alter the height with the velcro tabs. When you add a tree skirt up to the bottom of the Hugger, it looks ike a real tree!

The Atlanta-based company founded by Ryan donates a portion of the proceeds from the Hugger to Christmas Tree Santas, a volunteer organization that gives trees to impoverished families. Also, for each Hugger ordered, Ryan gives $1 to Toys for Tots.

Alas, Ryan left without a deal. Kevin O'Leary doubts anyone would want to buy it since they had only done $50,000 in sales in a year and a half. Kroger carried the Christmas Tree Hugger, but Ryan had difficulty getting a reorder since only 40 percent of the inventory was sold.

Lori Greiner does not think that artificial tree poles are a problem and goes out, followed by Robert Herjavec. O'Leary tells Ryan to 'take it behind the barn and shoot it" (one of his favorite lines) and Barbary Corcoran also goes out, but adds that she is impressed that he took the initiative to make a sales call to Kroger. Mark Cuban likes the product, but goes out, viewing it as a product, now a business.

The Christmas Tree Hugger is available online at Amazon and other online sites and Ryan hopes to have it widely available in retail for Christmas 2018.

The company seems to be doing well, appearing on QVC, but not selling out. They only have 329 followers on their Facebook page, so they need to step up the social media marketing.