San Diego

Multi-million Dollar San Diego Company Chooses Ugliest Christmas Sweaters of 2017

When Evan Mendelsohn co-founded Tipsy Elves, a San Diego based company that designs ugly Christmas sweaters and other apparel, he never thought that one day the company would have sales reaching $50 million.

Mendelsohn and his partner, Nicklaus Morton, are both University of California, San Diego grads. That's where they first got the idea for an ugly Christmas sweater company that catered to people their age. 

"There was a house of five of us and we liked to dress up but we realized there wasn't a place to get the kind of clothes we liked," said Mendelsohn. 

After a run on the show, Shark Tank, the company really took off. Robert Herjavec, one of the sharks, chose to invest. The investment was the most successful that Herjavec has made on the show.

"We also sell apparel for Halloween and Saint Patrick's Day when it's not Christmas time," added Mendelsohn. 

Today, Tipsy Elves is one of the go-to websites for the holidays. 

That makes Mendelsohn somewhat of an authority on ugly Christmas sweaters. On Tuesday, he helped NBC 7 pick out some of his favorites from his office in downtown San Diego. Watch the video above for the full story. 

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