What You Need To Know About Matador Meggings From Shark Tank

Since "Shark Tank" premiered in 2009, numerous entrepreneurs have walked through its hallowed halls in an attempt to get rich off of activewear and athleisure. Some companies, like BoobyPack, have fizzled out. Others, like the gym shorts brand Birddogs, are thriving.

Valentine Aseyo hopes his company, Matador Meggings, will make waves when it hits Season 15 of "Shark Tank." Unhappy with leggings options for men, Aseyo launched Matador Meggings to create a product that was workout-friendly, flattering, and comfortable enough for all-day wear. The leggings are the company's flagship item, and they're made of moisture-wicking lycra in a variety of fun colors and patterns. Each pair has a zipper pocket, a loop for towels and T-shirts, and an inner drawstring. Crucially, they provide ample coverage where it's needed most. As Aseyo so eloquently put it on the Matador Meggings website, "Because people shouldn't tell your religion by your leggings."

Matador Meggings has already racked up a number of positive reviews. The leggings were included in the Strategist column "This Thing's Incredible." Not only were the leggings appropriate at the gym, brunch, and dance parties, wrote Alex Blynn, but they were also a comfy option for his painful bout of sciatica. "[Leggings] would be a shape-defining silver lining to my medical crisis," he wrote.

Here's what you need to know about Matador Meggings before it makes its "Shark Tank" debut.

In 2015, Valentine Aseyo was training to become a yoga instructor when he stumbled upon a sartorial setback. In his class of over 20 women, he was the only person who couldn't wear leggings without risking serious crotch exposure. "I'm not sure if those women were ready for a show," he quipped on the Matador Meggings website. The alternative was wearing flimsy, inappropriate leggings with shorts over them. He sought the same sort of coverage and protection for his nether regions that are typically available for bras.

That's when a lightbulb went off for Aseyo. "I decided that this would be my contribution to humanity: meggings! Men's leggings specifically designed for the male anatomy," he continued.

Even though they were initially designed to accommodate yogis, Matador Meggings' line of high-performance compression pants is also ideal for gym rats, weightlifters, and CrossFit enthusiasts. Moreover, the company now produces compression shorts, tops, and padded bottoms for cycling.

In figuring out the brand identity for his nascent company, Valentine Aseyo tapped into his Spanish heritage, settling on matadors as a key design inspiration. "Though athleisure is a newer concept born in the last decade, matadors have brought elegance and sophistication to athletic wear for centuries," Aseyo wrote on his company's website.

On the one hand, matador garb — traje de luces — is practical. The tight-fitting pants keep the bullfighters light and quick on their feet. For Aseyo, the bullfighter is also an interesting figure in terms of masculinity. "If you look at their clothing alone, no 'macho' would really wear them: incredibly brave colors, super tight-fitting, very intricate embroidery," Aseyo continued. "But they didn't give two s***, and I absolutely love that." It's a bold aesthetic choice and rebuke to macho culture that is in keeping with Matador Meggings' unofficial slogan: "Real men wear spandex."

Of course, Aseyo paid homage to the bulls as well. Each pair of leggings is stamped with a circular pattern that runs down the length of the pants, with the spiraling design meant to evoke bull horns.

Matador Meggings had another crucial inspiration: Burning Man. Valentine Aseyo is an avowed Burner, having attended the yearly festival in Nevada's Black Rock Desert for years. Indeed, he had been wearing leggings at such festivals long before his burgeoning yogi career (at the lax festival, he admitted, he was less in need of a modesty pad).

"Burning Man certainly influenced my design process like it did every single aspect of my life," Aseyo shared in the same interview section of his website. "For the past decade, every year at Burning Man I've been collecting the elements I enjoyed seeing on art, installations, costumes, and how others expressed themselves."

Aseyo admitted that the brand's first collection was geared toward fitness enthusiasts, and thus had a more palatable, muted tone. For the second collection, Aseyo let his inner Burner loose. "[It] is totally psychedelic, funky, and on a completely different wavelength as our focus has shifted to festival-goers with this collection," he continued. The bright colors and loud patterns recall the flamboyant outfits and eye-popping structures at Burning Man.

Now, Matador Meggings is targeted at seemingly every type of consumer, may it be fitness freaks, festival-goers, or those who are just looking to flaunt it. The company even fosters its own online community, known as Bulls of Matador Meggings, which has its own Instagram page. Aseyo added, "We started [it] to foster diversity, celebrate all body types, appreciate the beauty of all ages, and spread inclusivity."

As he starts his "Shark Tank" pitch, Valentine Aseyo's energy is absolutely infectious. His vision for Matador Meggings, however, is significantly less so. 

Valentine begins with a relatively reasonable ask of $250,000 for 10% equity. While the Sharks are impressed by the entrepreneur's one-man mission to give a "perfect superhero crotch" to every person who needs it (as well as the $2 million in revenue he's managed to accrue), they can't justify an investment in the product. Kevin O'Leary is predictably repulsed by the lack of proprietary technology. At the same time, Mark Cuban shares his skepticism that serious athletes (such as his own Dallas Mavericks) would choose the fashion-focused Matador Meggings over demonstrably effective compression pants — even if they have to wear shorts to preserve their modesty on the court.

Elsewhere in the tank, Daymond John can't get behind Valentine's ubiquitous vision of what should be a highly specialized product. Guest-Shark Daniel Lubetzky agrees, and though he tries to impart some advice to Valentine by suggesting that he take more time to discern the product's target audience, he joins Daymond in going out. Lori Griener, meanwhile, is simply unconvinced that men are willing to wear the loud leggings, regardless of their utility. Thus, in spite of his indomitable positivity, Valentine leaves the Tank empty handed to continue his journey alone.