Playing to pet peeves: how Phil Blizzard squeezes a profit out of anxiety-ridden animals.

• Author: Baverman, Laura
• Position: ThunderShirt

Phil Blizzard understands your apprehension. He felt it, too. "Most people's initial response to ThunderShirt is very similar to my own initial response when I first heard the idea of using a snug wrap six years ago --ridiculous," he says. "How is a shirt going to alleviate my dog's fear?" But wrapping his 50-pound Goldendoodle with a T-shirt and tape--sort of like swaddling an infant--during thunderstorms erased her anxiety.

It was 2008, and Blizzard, a Triangle developer mired in the worst real-estate market in decades, was looking for his next opportunity. He vetted veterinarians, seeking a solution more refined than his T-shirt-and-tape one. Finding none, he pulled out a sewing machine. Six years later, thousands of pet owners have paid $39.95 for a ThunderShirt. (He won't disclose the private company's sales.) The wraps are sold by national retailers, online and at hundreds of pet-specialty stores. "The terrific enthusiasm of the initial dog owners, trainers and veterinarians that tried ThunderShirts built our momentum," Blizzard says.

Getting there wasn't easy. Many admirers admit they were skeptics at first. A typical review on Petco.com reads, "I put off buying this because I just couldn't imagine it working ... but it does!" Marketing experts say Blizzard, 47, accomplished a feat few new product developers have--turning something perceived as a gimmick into a profitable business. It helps that he has capitalized on prolific trends in the pet industry, which has grown to an estimated $58.5 billion in the U.S. this year from $17 billion in 1994, according to American Pet Products Association. "If you can show a direct health benefit to the pet or that you will have more flexibility or freedom in your life because the pet is well cared for, that is the most successful marketing," says Bob Vetere, the Greenwich, Conn.-based trade group's president and CEO. Vets prescribe it because it's cheap and can't hurt, says Rob Manchester of Hayes Barton Animal Hospital in Raleigh. "ThunderShirts don't work for every pet, but because there is no downside to trying it, we do recommend it."

Durham-based Thundershirts LLC--it does business as ThunderWorks--was profitable after its first year and, according to Blizzard, has been an acquisition target of many of the largest companies in the industry. It employs 25 people in a former car dealership in downtown Durham. A private-equity investment in 2011 financed expansion into new markets and products...