Todd Clausen

@ToddJClausen

Elephant Pants inventors hope apparel line will land investors and help the mammals.

RIT alumni Nathan Coleman and James Brooks are set to appear Feb. 24 on the popular TV show.

Two Rochester-area college graduates behind a loose-fitting and rather colorful line of pants will get their shot to impress a tough panel of investors this week on ABC’s Shark Tank.

Nathan Coleman and James Brooks bring their line of Elephant Pants to the show on Friday (9 p.m., Channel 13), and it could be the millennial entrepreneurs pushing the program over the $100-million mark for total deals.

The Rochester Institute of Technology alumni launched their Brooklyn-based e-commerce company after a trip to Thailand in 2013 that exposed the 29-year-olds to the issues facing elephants being beaten, poached and killed for their ivory tusks.

"We didn't know about the whole struggle," said Coleman. "We came back with a mission to try and help."

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They've gotten behind the issue by becoming advocates and donating a portion of every sale — about $127,000 — to the International Elephant Foundation.

The pants are targeted to women ages 18-34 and helped their company generate $4.5 million in revenues last year.

The two will join a small group of entrepreneurs from the Rochester-area appearing on the show. Tim Talley of Rochester turned an appearance and an investment from Mark Cuban into a deal that put his U-Lace shoelaces into Target and 7-Eleven.

He said recently that U-Lace continues to receive a sales push in reruns of the show. Cuban still provides advice but expects Talley to make the product a success.

"There is no billionaire pixie-dust," Talley said. "Pixie-dust is just hard work."

Sales generated from appearing on Shark Tank helped Irondequoit High School graduate Heather Saffer expand product lines, promote her Dollop-line of frosting nationally and lead her to a book deal. She also is planning to be a part of an entrepreneurial event later this year at The College of Brockport.

Saffer said her experience on the show couldn't have gone better, and has given her access to a network of entrepreneurs that have appeared on the show.

"Contrary to popular belief, being on Shark Tank is not a magic bullet," Saffer said. "The bump to sales is huge, however short term. You still have to work just as hard, if not harder building your company to succeed before the show as after."

Coleman and Brooks will pitch to Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John and Robert Herjavec. John was a guest speaker at RIT about four years ago.

While they can’t reveal if a shark took a bite, the two men have been making sure that their website can handle the extra orders expected by appearing in front of a national TV audience of about 10 million.

"There are some fun moments and surprises," Brooks said.

TCLAUSEN@Gannett.com