Married duo Leslie Hsu and Greg Besner’s vacations looked like that of most New Jersey families: They’d drive down the shore from their home in Short Hills and set up by the ocean, on the beach with toes in the sand.

Hsu was a fashion and textile designer and Besner founded and ran international human resources technology company CultureIQ. On one of their vacations, Hsu had a lightbulb go off: Why were the beach chairs of today so similar to the beach chairs of yesteryear? Where was the innovation in the space?

Hsu hatched Sunflow, a pioneering beach chair that addresses a bevy of issues one might face at the beach. Your towel riding down your chair? It’s got spots to fasten it in. Your reusable water bottle doesn’t fit in the cup holder? It’s got ski boot buckles to expand the holder or make it tighter. Didn’t bring an umbrella? Attach the adjustable sunshade. Phone overheating in the sun or getting wet when the tide rises? The chair’s got a heat and water resistant dry bag.

Additionally, Sunflow folds down neatly and comes with two sturdy-but-removable backpack-style straps to make carrying it onto the beach a breeze.

“What exists today was to take a category that’s really been around 100 years and they really haven’t changed in the last 30 years,” Besner said. “Really the chairs my father has in the garage from the ’70s and ’80s are the same thing [as what’s available today] for the most part.”

The duo’s innovation has paid off: This spring, Sunflow appeared on Shark Tank and landed a $1 million deal. On July 15, Sunflow’s episode will re-air. Besner said they’re gearing up for an influx in sales.

“When we aired in March, we had thousands of orders. The first weekend we had close to 1,000 orders and for the next few months they just kept coming. People ordered it, and told friends about it. People have also watched it on Hulu, so it was quite exciting,” Besner said.

He and Hsu employ one full-time warehouse manager at their facility in Edison. After the episode aired, it was all hands on deck. “We had my wife, myself, head of sales, warehouse manager, and a couple college students recruited to help. It was still hard to keep up,” Besner said.

“As a new brand, it’s so exciting [for our episode to air again.] Our last episode aired in March when people were longing for summer. But now, to air right in the middle of the summer is exciting,” he said.

Since launching at the height of the pandemic in spring 2020 – which was not, of course, by design, but how the timing worked out after three years filled with product and brand development, nabbing patents, and making a first run of Sunflow chairs – Hsu and Besner’s chair has been a hit. They’ve shipped their $198 chair to 20 different countries. And they’ve mitigated the seasonality of their business by opening a warehouse in Australia, where 85% of the population lives within 30 miles of the beach and the seasons are opposite America’s.

Just last week, Hsu and Besner moved their family down to Spring Lake to live the shore life full-time, Sunflow in hand.

Sunflow’s Shark Tank episode re-airs on July 15 at 8 p.m. on ABC.