This Triangle business will be featured on Amazon for Prime Day. Here’s what to know.

Morrisville business The Woobles promotes the benefits of trying something new.

Now, the couple who created and own The Woobles, who were once featured on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” will again step out of their comfort zone. Their company will have a high-profile spot on Amazon’s homepage for Prime Day on July 11 and 12.

The Woobles sells beginner crochet kits that teach customers how to create a variety of stuffed creatures, including Pierre the Penguin and Fred the Dinosaur.

Husband-and-wife team Adrian Zhang and Justine Tiu, who live in Apex, started the business in July 2020 and sold $5 million in kits and accessory products in their first two years. While the business was originally based in Apex, the company recently moved to a Morrisville warehouse. As of 2023, they have taught over 250,000 people how to crochet, Zhang said.

Prime Day is a 48-hour event beginning 3 a.m. Tuesday, July 11, when Amazon Prime members will have access to exclusive sales, according to a press release from Amazon.

The Woobles will be featured on the homepage of the website for the 48-hour period.

As part of the day, The Woobles will sell its most popular kits at a 20% discount, Zhang said. This is the only sale the company runs all year, he added. The company began selling its best-selling kits with Prime at the beginning of the year.

“We’re grateful for the partnership that Amazon has to help elevate our brand,” Zhang said.

How the Woobles started

When the couple first came up with the idea for their business, Tiu had recently been promoted to a managerial position in Google after working as a user experience designer. She said she struggled in the new role, and her self-confidence took a blow, so she started picking up hobbies to take her mind off of work. One of those hobbies was crocheting. In the process of learning how to crochet she learned another lesson — she still had the ability to learn something new.

“It helped me build back my confidence and made me feel like, ‘Things will get better, I can become a better manager, I can do whatever life throws my way,’” Tiu said. “So that feeling is what we are trying to spread to people with The Woobles.”

Tiu said the process of actually creating The Woobles involved a lot of “blood, sweat and tears.” In the early stages of the business, Tiu and Zhang were the only employees, and used to hand-stamp every package and spin every ball of yarn for the kits themselves using Sharpies.

It continued to be just the two of them until around November 2022, but they now have 10 employees plus additional freelancers and contractors. Tiu said they are expecting their first child in August, which was an incentive to hire additional employees.

Woobles on ‘Shark Tank’

Zhang and Tiu pitched The Woobles on an episode of “Shark Tank” that aired on Sept. 30, 2022. In the episode, the business was offered a deal from Sharks Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban: $450,000 for 6% equity in the company.

While Tiu and Zhang accepted the deal on the show, they later chose not to move forward with the partnership.

Zhang said they don’t want to publicly explain why they chose not to proceed with the deal, but “at the end of the day, I think it was just, we wanted to focus on building our business.”

He added that while they eventually chose not to pursue the deal, they still “had an amazing experience” sharing their product with the world.

While the business “got a huge sales boost” from its TV appearance, it was not a permanent solution for the business, and the company is still focusing on creating a strong product, he said.

“I think for us it’s just, ‘How do we share the joy and confidence that comes with trying something new?’ ” Zhang said.

This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 9:00 AM.