Bala Bangles

Key numbers

The product

Bala Bangles are wearable wrist and ankle weights designed to look like oversized jewellery: a cast-iron bar wrapped in soft, sweat-resistant silicone with an adjustable strap, in one- and two-pound versions. They add resistance to yoga, Pilates and walking without restricting the hands, fixing the two things people hated about traditional weights - they were ugly and uncomfortable.

How they did it

Yoga instructor couple Natalie Holloway and Max Kislevitz came up with Bala during a six-month trip through Asia, frustrated that no wrist weight allowed the mobility yoga required. They funded a first production run with $10,000 of savings plus $50,448 on Kickstarter in early 2018. A 2020 Shark Tank pitch turned into a $900,000 offer from Mark Cuban and Maria Sharapova, and the pandemic home-fitness boom took revenue from about $2M in 2019 to $20M in 2020 and toward $40M in 2021. Placement in Target, Nordstrom and 500+ retailers pushed Bala beyond a single product.

Why it worked

• Rebranded a stale category through design and fashion
• A small Kickstarter validated demand before scaling
• Rode the 2020 home-fitness boom with strong retail distribution
• Shark Tank plus celebrity backing accelerated growth