How Oodie founder Davie Fogarty built a multimillion-dollar empire

Growing up around his parents’ Anzac Highway business shaped Davie Fogarty. Here’s how he built a multimillion-dollar Oodie empire – and his advice on how to start.

Davie Fogarty’s demeanour doesn’t scream rich guy.

When we meet for a coffee at Cibo there are no sports cars, no bespoke suits, and definitely no rich guy braggadocio.

The 28-year-old entrepreneur is quietly spoken and thoughtful, almost shy, casually dressed in jeans and jumper.

There is one nod to his incredible success though, although it would probably go unnoticed by many. Strapped to his left wrist is a Rolex Deepsea, a beautifully-crafted dive watch that pays homage to filmmaker and underwater explorer James Cameron and will lighten your wallet to the tune of a little over 20 grand.

Oodie founder Davie Fogarty and long-term partner Georgina. Pic: Instagram

It is, he says, his first luxury watch – restraint indeed for a bloke who’s regularly held up to be worth $500m (for the record, Fogarty disputes this figure and says it’s probably based on total turnover, but does admit that he has more than enough to retire many times over).

So how does a young bloke who grew up in Eden Hills find himself in the position of being able to waltz through the door of a luxury boutique and slap down the cash on a Rolex? Or, for that matter, a $4.3m home in the Adelaide Hills?

Well, he invented perhaps the ultimate lounge wear in the oversized fluffy couch potato uniform known as the Oodie. Then he started another company selling weighted blankets. Then he started a bunch more and the rest is Young Rich List history.

Ultimately, though, what he sells is probably less interesting than how, and why, he sells.

For Fogarty, selling is what he does. To ask him why would be like asking Buddy Franklin why he kicks goals. The young Fogarty started – and ended – many businesses before striking gold and, he says, this urge to sell goes right back to the beginning.

“I had many, so to speak, ‘lemonade stand’ type businesses,” he says. “I tried selling iPhone cases, headphones, I launched a seasoning business. I was grinding seasonings until 11pm in my shed, packaging them and trying to sell them. I failed in over six businesses before I launched the Calming Blanket. The calming blanket was my first success, before Oodie.”

It’s a simple idea on paper, and Fogarty is the first to admit that he didn’t come up with the concept of the weighted blanket.

Davie Fogarty, right, failed many times before launching the Oodie. Picture: supplied

Davie Fogarty with dog Sherlock. Picture: supplied

Essentially, it’s an ultra-heavy blanket that proponents claim creates a sense of calm and cosiness which can help with everything from anxiety to insomnia.

“There was a peer-reviewed study that came out in PubMed (a biomedical and life sciences database) which showed that proprioceptive input could really support certain ailments or disorders,” Fogarty says. “And that really gave credibility to the product. And then it kind of took off as a trend and eventually a lot of lower-end Kmart-type products started flooding out. So the business isn’t what it was, but it really did give me this financial stepping stone to invent Oodie and other brands.”

Good ideas have a short lifespan in a hyper-connected online world. As soon as someone hits marketing gold there are a hundred websites trying to jump the claim. It doesn’t bother Fogarty though. He thinks imitation is the greatest form of flattery and, moreover, the fuel that drives the whole machine.

“That’s the beauty of capitalism,” he says.

“And for the consumer that competition drives down prices so consumers can purchase it. And it’s great because it forces companies to innovate and keep bringing out new products and exciting solutions.

“So I don’t resent that, but it really is something all entrepreneurs need to know – you’ve got to keep reinventing the wheel.”

He might be relaxing at home here but Davie Fogarty loves working so much that he describes an attempted three week “trial retirement” where he turned off his phone and emails as an “awful experience”. Picture: supplied

Fogarty says he knows exactly where his taste for selling comes from – the floor of his parents’ Anzac Hwy business, Classic Timber Furniture.

“One of my earliest memories was my parents pushing me around in the warehouse,” he says. “So that was my first taste of business. I really learned a lot.

“A lot of people get into business through, you know, feeling inferior, especially sons feeling inferior to their fathers and stuff like that. But I had quite the opposite, my experience was quite positive.

“I think that I had a really good upbringing, and it made me love business, made me love working.”

Indeed Fogarty loves working so much that he describes an attempted three week “trial retirement” where he turned off his phone and emails as an “awful experience”.

“I lasted 48 hours,” he says. “Then I launched three new businesses. I don’t really have any hobbies. I tried golf and it was boring.

“I realised the only thing that I really love, besides friends and family, is working. That’s my only hobby.”

But if the furniture store sowed the seeds, the garden was tended at Mercedes College, the Adelaide Catholic school he says put him on the track to success.

“I was a bit of a troublemaker until about Year 11, and that’s when I pulled my head in,” Fogarty says.

“And Mercedes really supported me in doing that. Amongst my friends there it wasn’t cool to be running amok, it was cool to succeed in all aspects. I think that’s the culture that the school really instilled in us.

“And you know, I don’t know where I’d be without that.”

Davie Fogarty has bought a $4.3 million dollar house in Mylor. Picture: YouTube

Fogarty is circumspect about money. He says it’s not the driving force behind what he does, but he’s also not so arrogant to claim that it hasn’t removed some of the day-to-day stresses many people in Australia face.

“Money solves money problems,” he says. “It doesn’t solve all problems.

“But I would never say that money can’t bring happiness because I know that money can cause a lot of stress for people.

“Just the other day I was able to go to the doctor and not think twice about paying the fee, and I think it’s naive to not realise that some people would struggle with that.

“But money can also create a lot of unhappiness. If you allow it to dictate things it can create anxiety for example, the anxiety that comes with thoughts that it could all be taken away. You can certainly get too attached to it and there’s always a balance.”

Fogarty agrees that the wealthy have an obligation to give back to society in some way, and it’s something he’s been thinking about lately. “I’ve been considering how to do just that in the best way possible,” he says.

“Often what can happen is that people get so busy chasing their own reward that they forget that they need to start giving back. They don’t have time to give back.

“So yeah, it’s something we’re really looking into whether it be a foundation or something similar.”

Shark Tank Australia – Sabri Suby, Dr Catriona Wallace, Davie Fogarty, Jane Lu and Robert Herjavec. Picture: Supplied.

Fogarty’s latest adventure is network television, or more exactly a seat on the judges’ panel on Channel 10’s Shark Tank.

The show, based on an American program of the same name, sees entrepreneurs pitch ideas to judges who then decide whether or not to invest in the budding businesses.

Any money invested is the judge’s own, but they also stand to reap the rewards which could come from buying a slice of a potentially lucrative pie.

Success to emerge from the franchise so far include Bombas, a sock company that donates a pair to the homeless for every pair sold, and Scrub Daddy, worth around $450m, that sells reusable kitchen sponge.

Famously, the judges passed on the Ring doorbell which was later bought by Amazon for more than one billion dollars.

The pitches in the latest Australian series, Fogarty says, have been top notch.

“I’m not just saying this, but I was blown away,” he says.

“I have my finger on the pulse when it comes to Australian products and innovations, but I was shocked at how great businesses were.

“Not only that, but the attitude of the entrepreneurs too and that’s a testament to Shark Tank.

“I think it’s going to inspire a lot of Australian entrepreneurs, but I also think that the businesses themselves are going to be really big, which is also going to inspire.”

And Fogarty’s advice for any Shark Tank contestants who succeed in getting their product up? Try to take some time to just enjoy the ride.

Davie Fogarty with his Oodie and social media specialist Linda Huynh. Picture: Sarah Reed

“I’m very guilty of what a lot of people are guilty of which is not being in the moment,” he says. “Of not really taking note of how significant that thing you’re doing really is.

“So unfortunately, there wasn’t really that crystallising moment where I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be massive’, because I was just constantly going and going and going.

“So that’s my advice for some of the Shark Tank contestants.

“I’ve told them, ‘These are going to be the craziest next two years, and you’re gonna hate it – at some level – every single minute. But you’re going to look back and they’re going to be the best moments of your life.”

START UP TIPS: HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN BUSINESS

OK Davie, I have what I think is a good idea and I want to get off the nine-to-five roundabout. I need $2m to do that. What’s your advice?

In the first instance, you’ve got to learn how to sell anything. So, don’t invest lots of money upfront; learn how to sell with another product, and then invest into your grandiose idea. I don’t like dropshipping, which is shipping the product from China directly, and I never did dropshipping, but it can be good because people can learn and fail, and realise that it’s actually pretty hard to sell one product. Once you’ve done that you’ll start to learn more, and then you can maybe invest into the product stage, but probably not before then.

Good advice. Now, bricks and mortar versus online. Is there any place for bricks and mortar store in 2023?

Well, you look at the recent Aesop transaction (the Australian cosmetics and skincare brand recently sold to L’Oreal for $3.7bn). They’re an amazing Australian success story and they use bricks and mortar as a branding opportunity rather than a distribution opportunity. And when it comes to the big retailers, one purchase order from them can change a brand’s life. Typically, though, we don’t see that pull in Australia as much. So the answer is … it depends.

So how do I set up an online business that’s going to work? What's the best way to do it?

There are definitely formulas. The first is you need to learn. You need to learn the skill sets and use existing businesses out there, or mentors, to tell you what skill set you first need to learn. Once you’ve done that then you can go through a deeper research process. First you need to be contemplating, ‘What is my plan?’, and then you should be using YouTube’s free resources to really build up that knowledge and skill set.

So you would suggest hitting YouTube?

I think you should. But in saying that, I was teaching someone just the other day who wanted to quit their nine-to-five and she really struggles with visual learning. She can read a book in a day, but struggles to watch a 12-minute YouTube video. Certain people have different ways of learning.

Shark Tank Australia,
Channel 10, Tuesdays, 7.30pm ■