S14.E22: Influencers in the Wild; Tones of Melanin; Tucky Belt; Eyewris

[JTMacc99]

Quote

Pitches include a social media star's board game, HBCU collegiate fashion designs, a wardrobe accessory and an innovative eyewear design.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

Season Finale-

Sharks-Kevin, Mark, Lori, Daymond, Barbara

Influencers in the Wild -Social media star’s board game, his name is Tank Sinatra (no, I’m not kidding), Tank’s Good News is his channel.   His game pokes fun at social media stars.   You win or lose followers.   10% for $500k.   He admits he made the valuation up.   $140k worth of sales through a broker, but it's only been for sale for two months.  No direct to consumer sales either. . Margins are decent.    Sales are very low. Tank Sinatra has zero clue about business.    Mark is out, Kevin is out, Lori is out, Daymond is out, Barbara is out. Mark gives Tank some great tips about branding.   

I see zero appeal in this game. 

No Deal. 

Tones of Melanin -HCBU collegiate fashion designs.   $300k for 5%.  Ashley is the entrepreneur, from Virginia Beach, VA near Hampton University.  Streetwear and collegiate wear , they have  licenses for over 40 colleges. Margins are great.  They have reversible satin jackets, basketball short, She started doing Greek apparel, and branched out. There are over 100 HCBUs, and many HCBUs don't have licensing programs in place.   $1.4 million sales in the last year.  $1.1 million this year, a lot by e-commerce.   Company is profitable about 25% profit this year.  THe supplier/manufacturer lets her pay after sales.  Mark is giving her great tips.  Right now, everything is going back into the business.  Lori is out, not her area of expertise, Barbara is out, Kevin is out,    Daymond is active in this area, and I'm hoping he'll join in. Daymond is out, but says to get a couple of sellers at each college, and they sell inventory.   

Mark will do $300k for 12% and makes the deal.   He'll be a great partner, and I bet Daymond advises both of them too. 

Tucky Belt -Wardrobe accessory, $70k for 30%, it tucks your blouse in, turning any shirt into a crop top (I loathe crop tops, so I'm out), Wrap the elastic belt around your waist, tuck in the shirt, and everything stays in place. You can even tuck your sweater in, I'm still not impressed.   Sales are 6 months, gross is $60k, 98% online, margins are good, and $40k profit this year.  Primary market is women from 17 to 25 years old.   Lori is out, she questions the market for this device, Barbara says crop/tucking is a trend, and she's out.  Daymond offers $70k for 40%, $70k for 40% is Kevin's offer. Brooke counters at 39%, and Daymond does it.  

I'm out, I see no reason to buy a giant rubber band to tuck my shirt in.  And I hated crop tops before when they were trendy, and I still hate crop tops. 

Daymond makes the deal. 

EyeWris Folding Reading Glasses -Innovative eyewear design, 25k for 5%, Mark (father) and (son) Kenzo Singer, from Santa Barbara, the glasses fold around your wrist, spring open, and snap shut. Mark (father) and (son) Kenzo Singer are the sellers.   Patents in U.S., China, and soon to have them in 26 European countries.  Margins are fantastic.  Mark needed the readers, and Kenzo came up with the idea to carry the readers with you. Mark created Gorilla Glue, and sold the company, but has a royalty from every company he's sold.  $28k in sales during the testing phase to start sales, small profits.   Mark  wants a partner to help his son Kenzo to keep th ecompany growing.  The sellers want marketing and licensing help with retail, licensing, and marketing.     Lori makes an offer, $28k for 10%, Kevin offers $50k for 10%,  Daymond and Lori would like to go in together.   Kevin, Lori and Daymond want to split 10%, Barbara and Mark want in too.   

I think this will be the most successful Shark Tank product ever. 

The glasses may be pricey ($79 with the Shark Tank deal), but my late father had readers all over the house, the car, and still never could find them when he needed them.   A couple of pairs of glasses he could carry with him would have been cheaper than buying multiple pairs of readers, and losing them constantly.  

Deal is made with Kevin, Lori, Daymond, Mark and Barbara for   25% total,  and $25k each, a total of $125k for 20% with all five Sharks.    

Update is a recap of seller updates throughout the season. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[bilgistic]

I hated Tucky and the woman hawking it. Cropping versus tucking just isn't a problem people have.

I really hated Tank and his boring board game. Hilarious that Lori didn't know who he is despite following him on social media.

The glasses bracelet ("glacelet", you heard it here first) is weird. Who's wearing that all day, besides Gam-Gam and Pop-Pop, who definitely aren't spending $110 on readers. And isn't the glacelet getting horribly scratched up from being worn around the wrist?

What about that guy who came on the show with the pocket magnet clip for glasses? What's he going to do now that glacelets have been invented?

I'm in a bad mood.

[WallStreetDuchess]

The show was pretty "meh." I wouldn't have the need for any of the products.

The woman with the Tucky thing- her husband is Chad Knaus, who is a big time crew chief in NASCAR. Not saying she can't have her own hustle, but I doubt she would need the money. Her dropping that 1% kind of showed that. I follow her on Instagram and she was so excited about the show, which was cute. 

I would not be her demographic for that, as I wouldn't wear a crop top and I don't think I could handle that rubbing on my skin.

[BusyOctober]

I don’t get the Tucky.  Cropped shirts look good on subsets of people: young and skinny.  I do not belong to either category, so I am definitely not the target audience. But do people really want to wear a belt around their torso?  I foresee rashes and irritation, especially in the warmer weather.  And is finding cropped tops really a problem? When I go shopping with my 16 yr old, all I see is cropped! Tanks, tees, sweaters, hoodies, even pajama tops are all I see on the racks. I also found her perma-smile off putting.  

The Eye-Wris Dad was very charming.  Loved his opening story about buying the wrong versions of groceries because he couldn’t read the packaging.  Been there too many times myself and came home with Mac n cheese with jalapeño.  But like already mentioned, wouldn’t those readers get scratched up really quickly, being banged up as users rest their arms/ wrists on counters, grazing against objects as they go through their day?  

Once again, I am old, so I have no idea who Tank is.  I also do not use a lot of social media.  I find the rise of “influencers” sad, troubling and a bane on society, especially for young people.  A lot of damage happening because everyone depends on being “liked” and “followed”.  Tank’s game doesn’t feel like it’s a home run IMO.  Who is this game for? Obviously not my generation or older. And anyone under 25 is too enamored with these Influencers to poke fun at them via a tongue in cheek board game.  

LOVED the young woman pitching Tones of Melanin!  So happy she got a deal.  She is going to be successful no matter what she does in life.
 

 

[seacliffsal]

5 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

 

Once again, I am old, so I have no idea who Tank is.  I also do not use a lot of social media.  I find the rise of “influencers” sad, troubling and a bane on society, especially for young people.  A lot of damage happening because everyone depends on being “liked” and “followed”.  Tank’s game doesn’t feel like it’s a home run IMO.  Who is this game for? Obviously not my generation or older. And anyone under 25 is too enamored with these Influencers to poke fun at them via a tongue in cheek board game.  

LOVED the young woman pitching Tones of Melanin!  So happy she got a deal.  She is going to be successful no matter what she does in life.
 

 

I, too, wondered who was his target audience for the game.  The game seemed really boring to me, but I also am dumbfounded by the whole concept of social influencers.  I just don't understand how so many people make a living from doing, well, nothing.  I think "Tank" is seeing a change in how influencers earn money as he mentioned needing a product to sustain.  Could we now be at the point of over-saturation in the social media sphere and the whole system will start imploding (I really hope so...).

Loved the HBCU presenter and the father/son duo.  Just like Lori, for whatever reason there were a few tears in my eyes when the father spoke about his time being over.

I couldn't believe they highlighted Gwyneth Paltrow in their season recap.  Clearly the producers were more enamored with her than were most viewers.

[Msample]

The game pitch was BAAAAAD. The "game" itself was beyond lame - roll dice and move a pawn ? That is some 70s era board game design, at best. Modern board games are far more immersive/sophisticated than that, even mass market ones like Catan.  Not to mention his financials sucked as well. 

[DEL901]

2 hours ago, Msample said:

The game pitch was BAAAAAD. The "game" itself was beyond lame - roll dice and move a pawn ? That is some 70s era board game design, at best. Modern board games are far more immersive/sophisticated than that, even mass market ones like Catan.  Not to mention his financials sucked as well. 

Agree.  And people obsessed with influencers tend to spend a lot of time onl8ne….I was waiting for him to say the gave was online interactive or something.  

[DrSpaceman73]

33 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Agree.  And people obsessed with influencers tend to spend a lot of time onl8ne….I was waiting for him to say the gave was online interactive or something.  

Yes I was too.  That game seems exactly what his target audience and fans would find boring. 

Trying to diversify and stretch the brand but that will fail

Do women really tuck their shirts into their bra?  I had no idea. 

The hbcu idea is good.  I wonder if their is Any other company doing it though. If if she has exclusivity in her deal. Sounds like Damon's companies do some similar things. 

I liked the eyeglasses idea. If nothing else for the patent and licensing.  They may not sell a lot themselves but sell the idea to big eyeglass companies take a portion of the profit. Or sunglass companies. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

23 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

I don’t get the Tucky.  Cropped shirts look good on subsets of people: young and skinny.  I do not belong to either category, so I am definitely not the target audience. But do people really want to wear a belt around their torso?  I foresee rashes and irritation, especially in the warmer weather.  And is finding cropped tops really a problem? When I go shopping with my 16 yr old, all I see is cropped! Tanks, tees, sweaters, hoodies, even pajama tops are all I see on the racks. I also found her perma-smile off putting.  

 

Crop tops are not only trendy now (no, I don't understand why) but for all sizes.   Including a lot at Lane Bryant and other plus size retailers.    My goal is to find longer shirts, not shorter with my belly and muffin top hanging out.    I would never buy a Tucky, and I hope the crop top is a trend that disappears quickly.   Also, I really do live in lower Alabama, AKA L.A., and the Tucky belt would be miserable to wear in the humidity.   I bet it gets really hot any time of year.  

I bet the eyewris lenses are a flexible, scratch proof material.   The frames certainly were nicer than the usual boring reader frames.  

I loved the HBCU pitch, and love that the entrepreneur saw a need in the market, and filled it, and is so successful.  She'll be another fantastic success story, and with help on marketing, and sales from Mark will be even more successful.   I bet there will be advice from Daymond too.   He's been very generous to entrepreneurs in the past, without a deal.  

Edited May 21, 2023 by CrazyInAlabama

[Quickbeam]

I hate crop tops as an older woman. Not only in ready to wear but as a knitter I’ll see magazines with 90% crop top patterns. Yes you can make them longer but it’s annoying. I couldn’t stand the game guy or the crop top pitch. 
 

I see the eyewris going huge. 

[KaveDweller]

17 hours ago, bilgistic said:

The glasses bracelet ("glacelet", you heard it here first) is weird. Who's wearing that all day, besides Gam-Gam and Pop-Pop, who definitely aren't spending $110 on readers. And isn't the glacelet getting horribly scratched up from being worn around the wrist?

There are a lot of baby boomers out there who need reading glasses. And based on my parents, are always losing them. I think they will sell a lot to people who want to try them, even if they don't even up wearing them.

I think the Tucky has a very small market. As someone who would never wear a crop top, why wouldn't people who do want to wear them just buy shorter tops?

[lh25]

I wondered about the glasses getting scratched up as well, and they didn't look comfortable.  The little arms on the sides seemed to dig into the wearers farce.

[jcbrown]

I hope the crop top trend goes down in flames like, yesterday, and takes the idiotic "tucky" with it.

[Kiss my mutt]

I’m having a hard time even finding cute tops that aren’t cropped, so the tucks is the last thing I need. I might look at the glasses.  I wear my readers on my head so much I have a grove in my scalp from them. 
 

Wow! No food items this time. That’s a first.

[Tango64]

The influencers game: Let’s take a concept that is entirely 2023, very high concept internet age, and turn it into  a board game circa 1970. Because you know, today’s folks  who are into influencers spend a lot of time playing board games. 

Edited May 21, 2023 by Tango64

[Vermicious Knid]

Ha, yes. Turning social media into a board game seems counterintuitive. Has there even been a new, successful board game since oh, Catan? He mentioned Cards against Humanity but that's a card game and came after decades of kids who played Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering. 

Barbara is right, crop tops are a trend. Like bell bottoms they appear for a while and then disappear for twenty years at a time. If you don't have a perfect midriff they are not wearable. Now that the idea is out there, people can probably just use a flat belt for the same effect. The Tucky may be more useful for someone with a colostomy bag. Tones of Melanin should get together with the people who sell the satin headgear earlier in the season. 

This was pretty meh for a season finale but I presume it's because Eyewris got all five Sharks. 

[seacliffsal]

It's interesting to me that seemingly the Sharks have changed their perspectives on the products that are being presented.  It used to be that several would say "you have a product-not a business/company so I'm out" while now they seem to be all aboard for one product presentations.  They also used to dismiss a lot of clothing companies as "any other company can just copy this..." whereas now they treat some clothing companies as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Snacks?  Hard market but they seem to be more interested in all the variations of sugar free/gluten free/vegan/dairy free that presenters offer up.  Are these changes due to changes in the market or the fact that it's very rare to see something truly inventive/original on the show?

I still can't get over how out of touch they are at times.  Really?  Tuckit?  When they rejected "Ring" because they didn't understand the need for home security because in their world everyone lives in a gated community or in a condo with a door man.

[EtheltoTillie]

Did they really reject Ring?  I didn't remember that at all. It's huge now, isn't it?

I'm glad everyone also agreed that the board game seemed boring.  You might play it once if at all. 

[Shrek]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Did they really reject Ring?  I didn't remember that at all. It's huge now, isn't it?

 

It failed to get a deal in 2013 for a lot of reasons and not because the sharks didn't understand the need for home security, in fact it was called something entirely different (doorbot) and was struggling financially as virtually nobody understood it and technology in mini cameras had a lot of catching up to do as well as the price of them coming way down. There are more reasons why it didn't get a deal which you can find with a quick google search.

As with everything, hindsight is a wonderful thing and perception is rarely reality.

[bilgistic]

On 5/20/2023 at 2:24 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

Crop tops are not only trendy now (no, I don't understand why) but for all sizes.   Including a lot at Lane Bryant and other plus size retailers.    My goal is to find longer shirts, not shorter with my belly and muffin top hanging out.    I would never buy a Tucky, and I hope the crop top is a trend that disappears quickly.   Also, I really do live in lower Alabama, AKA L.A., and the Tucky belt would be miserable to wear in the humidity.   I bet it gets really hot any time of year.

All of this. I generally can't find shirts long enough to cover my gut and hips. I haven't worn a crop top since I was a teenager. And I live in the southern piedmont region of North Carolina, so I never wear more than one layer, and I sweat through that (thanks to perimenopause and a defective thyroid).

21 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

There are a lot of baby boomers out there who need reading glasses. And based on my parents, are always losing them. I think they will sell a lot to people who want to try them, even if they don't even up wearing them.

My mother (74) always has a pair of readers in her purse and just hands them over to my dad (75) when he needs to read the menu. They're usually together, so he doesn't have to have a separate pair.

[Shrek]

11 minutes ago, bilgistic said:

My mother (74) always has a pair of readers in her purse and just hands them over to my dad (75) when he needs to read the menu. They're usually together, so he doesn't have to have a separate pair.

My wife keeps one of those fold up pairs you can buy at Walgreens for $20 in her purse for me when just such an occasion arises, usually when we're out at dinner & I need to read a menu.

[KaveDweller]

10 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Did they really reject Ring?  I didn't remember that at all. It's huge now, isn't it?

I'm glad everyone also agreed that the board game seemed boring.  You might play it once if at all. 

They rejected Ring, and then a few years back the guy behind it was on as a guest shark and got to give them a hard time about it.

4 hours ago, Shrek said:

My wife keeps one of those fold up pairs you can buy at Walgreens for $20 in her purse for me when just such an occasion arises, usually when we're out at dinner & I need to read a menu.

 

Smart plan. Maybe the market is for people who don't carry a purse to keep glasses in?

I was a juror on a case a few years ago where the witness was asked to read something. He was like, "oh, I don't have my reading glasses." The lawyer questioning him was like, "oh, um, take mine" and pulled his pair off and handed them over. I remember thinking it very amusing. 

[30 Helens]

On 5/19/2023 at 10:15 PM, bilgistic said:

And isn't the glacelet getting horribly scratched up from being worn around the wrist?

That was my thought, too. Although as someone else mentioned, maybe they’re made from a special scratch-proof material. But still, it looked like a pretty large, klunky thing to be wearing around your wrist all day. And if you are fashion-unconscious enough to wear a glasses bracelet, you are probably also fine with just having a pair of cheap readers on a chain around your neck. To me, this was one of those pitches that seemed kind of cool at first, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

As for the ridiculous “Tucky”: Who here has ever worn a bra? Or a heart monitor strap? And how many of you have enjoyed that feeling of an elastic band squeezing your chest? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

That’s what I thought. If you want a crop top, buy a damn crop top. And then donate it to Goodwill next year when people come to their senses and this fad goes away.

[lh25]

I think the Influencers In The Wild would be fun as a game where you actually look for influencers doing certain things as you go about your day.  The board game sounds a bit boring.

[aemom]

On 5/19/2023 at 11:15 PM, bilgistic said:

I hated Tucky and the woman hawking it. Cropping versus tucking just isn't a problem people have.

So true! I really disliked her and her dumb product and I can't wait for crop tops to go back out of style again. 

 

On 5/20/2023 at 8:11 AM, BusyOctober said:

The Eye-Wris Dad was very charming.  Loved his opening story about buying the wrong versions of groceries because he couldn’t read the packaging.  Been there too many times myself and came home with Mac n cheese with jalapeño.  But like already mentioned, wouldn’t those readers get scratched up really quickly, being banged up as users rest their arms/ wrists on counters, grazing against objects as they go through their day?  

The wrong grocery story was hilarious. Maybe you could make them with an anti-scratch material, but for me, the big problem is that the lenses are touching the skin on your arms. They are going to be smudged all the time.

 

On 5/20/2023 at 8:21 AM, seacliffsal said:

Loved the HBCU presenter and the father/son duo.  Just like Lori, for whatever reason there were a few tears in my eyes when the father spoke about his time being over.

I kept waiting for him to say that he was dying of cancer or something! Glad to hear that wasn't the case. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by aemom
Typo

[Moose135]

On 5/20/2023 at 7:54 AM, WallStreetDuchess said:

The woman with the Tucky thing- her husband is Chad Knaus, who is a big time crew chief in NASCAR.

Probably best known for the number of times he has been penalized by NASCAR for 'bending' the rules...he's a Chevy guy, so for that reason, I'm out! 😉