S06.E07: Titin, Beardbrand, Singtrix, Myself Belts

[yeswedo]

 

The Sharks hear a pitch for hypergravity-exercise clothing, as well as a line of products that appeal to fans of facial hair, and a karaoke machine that adds jaw-dropping vocal harmonies to help users sound like their favorite singing stars. Also: belts that are easy for kids to use, and a follow-up on Barbara's Season 5 investment in a company specializing in hand-knitted socks and leg warmers.

 

[cooksdelight]

What is it with the mothers who come on this show, that think their product is the second coming....they don't listen, they interrupt, they know it all. It drives me nuts.

I'm not sure Grace Lace leggings are doing that well. They had an offer on BradsDeals.com this week, if you buy a pair you got three free gifts. Which was really, really cheap in the end. I shop BradsDeals all the time, every day, always looking for a way to save money. And that caught my eye.

Lots of testosterone and arrogance this episode.

[Lola16]

The belts - were they fastened by Velcro?  That mom almost got eaten alive. While she wasn't really all that sharp, I thought they were pretty hard on her considering we've had much worse on.

 

The beard guy I couldn't really sit through.  Chest pad guy was obnoxious.  Kinda surprised Daymond went for it.  More surprised that Robert didn't jump up and insist on playing with the auto-tune machine.

[cooksdelight]

Yes, Velcro. Just like the Velcro flaps on kids' sneakers. I can vividly remember learning to tie my own shoes, and I prefer shoelaces to Velcro any day. Next thing you know, a mom will come up with clothes that Velcro together so the kid can dress himself. I'm sorry, but I'm all for a child learning the "hard" way to do things so that they'll be better able to handle the tough tasks in life.

[Eolivet]

Unless the inventor of the kids belts found it necessary to dress her kids in flat-front pants all day, every day, most kids pants -- even the nicer brands -- now have adjustable waists or elastic waists. Actually, even the flat-front uniform pants at Target are adjustable! Talk about a solution that had no problem.

[cooksdelight]

I really wish they'd give the Sharks iPads so they could look up "kids pants" and see what the popular styles are. My grand-nephews both wear elastic waist pants, ages 4 and 3. I hadn't though of that until I read your post, Eolivet.

[starri]

 

I'm not sure Grace Lace leggings are doing that well. They had an offer on BradsDeals.com this week, if you buy a pair you got three free gifts. Which was really, really cheap in the end. I shop BradsDeals all the time, every day, always looking for a way to save money. And that caught my eye.

I know this is just a personal prejudice of mine, but I've always found Grace & Lace's really Jesus-y mission statement really off-putting.  I know they're committed to helping people in India, and as long as they're more about food and clean water before the evangelism, more power to them.

 

Other than that, somewhat uninspiring set of products.

[Primetimer]

A supercharged karaoke machine is just one of many pitches that sounds off-key to the Sharks...and that's music to our hateful ears.

Read the story

[EtheltoTillie]

I couldn't believe that gross Methuselah guy had such a cute baby. His notion that women like that sort of look is very misguided. Count me out.

[Amarsir]

I feel like this episode suffered from being overly edited.  I can kind-of see why TITIN guy was off-putting to them, I guess.  But if beard guy did $600k of sales in 6 months, I don't think his valuation was nearly as crazy as they say.  There must be something I missed.

 

The SongTrix seems like it should have potential, but they have to get that price down.  Karaoke machines go from $50 to $150, and their cost was already at that high end.  I don't know if that many people love it enough to shell out $350 for the machine. Live autotune is cool though, I'll give them that.

 

I also don't understand why the kid wouldn't be wearing elastic pants.  That makes it a better version of something they don't need at all.  But maybe Walmart or someone could give them a trial run and see what happens.  Daymond could set that up I'm sure.

[starri]

 

The SongTrix seems like it should have potential, but they have to get that price down.  Karaoke machines go from $50 to $150, and their cost was already at that high end.  I don't know if that many people love it enough to shell out $350 for the machine. Live autotune is cool though, I'll give them that.

They may have it aimed more towards bars of other entertainment venues instead of just for home-use.

[SnarkyTart]

I'd like to see the show runners do a better pre-screening job.  It should be a bit of an obstacle course for a prospective entrepreneur to make it to the live show.  If they get that far, they should at the very least have something that's deserving of 30 seconds of uninterrupted time to explain their product and make their sales pitch.   If there's something causing either Mark or Kevin to interrupt the pitch and start yelling at the prospect within the first 15 seconds, something's wrong.  Either the product shouldn't have made it to the live show, or Mark and Kevin need to be told to stop being such asses, at least until the pitches are complete.  I've always been a fan of this show, but some of the knee-jerk yelling at and humiliating of the prospects is making it more uncomfortable to watch.

[designing1]

I wonder how much of the interrupting and yelling (and Mark is awful with this, Kevin slightly less so) can be attributed to editing. I believe I've read that pitches go on for a long time, so they have lots of footage to slice and dice to make things seem "exciting".

[cooksdelight]

Did I hear correctly when they mentioned that the guys with the karaoke machine had invented Guitar Hero? I think Kevin or Mark said "But you didn't have to SELL Guitar Hero...."

[SnarkyTart]

Did I hear correctly when they mentioned that the guys with the karaoke machine had invented Guitar Hero? I think Kevin or Mark said "But you didn't have to SELL Guitar Hero...."

Yes, you heard correctly.  From their website:  http://www.singtrix.com/

 

 

From the creators of original Guitar Hero®* comes Singtrix®, the next-generation karaoke machine that makes bad singers sound good and good singers sound amazing!

[cooksdelight]

Then why don't they just license this thing and be done with it? Or was the whole point to get on TV??? *rolls eyes*

[SnarkyTart]

Or was the whole point to get on TV??? 

That was my impression.  Didn't Mark have a name for people like that a few weeks ago?  I can't remember what it was.

[johanna101]

I think he called them "gold-diggers"?

[bilgistic]

I know this is just a personal prejudice of mine, but I've always found Grace & Lace's really Jesus-y mission statement really off-putting. I know they're committed to helping people in India, and as long as they're more about food and clean water before the evangelism, more power to them.

Other than that, somewhat uninspiring set of products.

Someone on the TWoP boards called them GodSocks, and I've only ever thought of them that way since. I very recently saw a woman in my building at work wearing socks that were higher than her knee-high boots, and it made me wonder when we were going to get an update about the holiest of socks.

I always get kind of cheesed when some do-gooder goes to another country to fix something, as if we don't have hunger, homelessness, orphans and poor health within our own borders.

I love me some bearded dudes. I can't stand Lori and her lopsided hair, so if she doesn't like "beardsmen", that's more for me.

[KaveDweller]

I'd like to see the show runners do a better pre-screening job.  It should be a bit of an obstacle course for a prospective entrepreneur to make it to the live show.

 

I think they like having some idiots and/or silly products on.  They think it's better entertainment when the Sharks insult the entrepreneur and that it would be boring if everyone got a deal.

[Cramps]

One of the karaoke guys had had a weave, bleached hair and major plastic surgery to try to look younger. It made concentrating on his pitch very difficult!

The God Socks. (As hilariously described above ) are too Little House on the Prairie. There is no way Joanna Coles thought those were stylish. No fashionable New Yorker would wear them. If they made it to Cosmo, it's only to promote the magazine on Shark Tank.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Cramps

[needschocolate]

I may be going to hell for this, but when the sock lady said that they built an orphanage in India, I thought she was going to add, "not only do these poor orphans have beds to sleep in, but now they can earn money making socks."

[designing1]

 

I may be going to hell for this, but when the sock lady said that they built an orphanage in India, I thought she was going to add, "not only do these poor orphans have beds to sleep in, but now they can earn money making socks."

 

Having lost my job to outsourcing in India, that's where my mind went as well, so make room in that hand basket.

[hoodooznoodooz]

My son is 5 years old, and I must note that half of his pants have belt loops and no elastic waistband or any of those tabs that allow one to adjust the waist. Mostly traditional denim jeans. He only has one pair of jeans with elastic in the waistband. A lot of his stuff are hand-me-downs. He has one of those D-ring belts but when he is at school, he just tugs and tugs until he can lower his pants to pee, without loosening the belt. I think a Velcro closure belt would be helpful, but then again, he has Velcro closure sneakers and still cannot tie shoelaces, so there you have it. But that inventor's price was too high.

[bilgistic]

I may be going to hell for this, but when the sock lady said that they built an orphanage in India, I thought she was going to add, "not only do these poor orphans have beds to sleep in, but now they can earn money making socks."

I'll keep your seat warm, as I've already voiced my opinion about foreign charities.

I hate socks, and all I could think when the fashion gurus at Cosmo were handling the socks was if they liked the cheap texture, since they are made of acrylic (so the GodSockers said in their initial pitch). Think of the sweat and stink--socks should be made of natural fibers. Feet need to breathe! (Which is why I hate socks--they are foot prison.)

[needschocolate]

While the belt lady was making her pitch, I kept thinking "if this is such a great idea, someone else - Carter's, Garanimals, whoever makes kid's clothing nowadays - would already be doing it." There must be a reason why no one does - no market for it, it doesn't hold well, something.  

 

I think she said she had a patent, but I didn't think you could patent putting velcro on a belt - perhaps the patent was for the designs on the belt.  Maybe someone with a better understanding of patent law can set me straight (and, frankly, if you have any understanding of patent law, you probably have a better understanding than me).  

 

I am a substitute teacher and tend to do most of my subbing in kindergarten and first grade.  I don't recall seeing a boy wear a belt.  Nor do I recall seeing any boy's pants fall down.  

 

However, there have been quite a few times that kids weren't able to do the button or snap on their pants.  Maybe they should make pants that have velcro instead of a button above the zipper.  I would think that most any boy that could handle the snap/button and the zipper, could handle buckling the belt.  I do believe that many, if not most, small boys don't want to take the time to undo and reclose a belt - which may be true even if the belt has velcro.  Heck, I don't think most of them want to take the time to undo and redo the button and zipper and probably just pull their pants down and back up. This is just my opinion - I don't have any first hand knowledge (and I am not going to research it - watching young boys take off their pants would get me fired).  

[Skittl1321]

I think the patent on the belt was on the closure that held the belt to the belt loop.  I guess that way a kid can't just pull it off.

It made it a bit different from just a belt with a velcro closure and the front.

 

 

The orphanage the sock people opened in no way has to do with production of the product. They are not employing those kids. They aren't even running the orphanage. They sponsored it through an organization that runs them.

[needschocolate]

The orphanage the sock people opened in no way has to do with production of the product. They are not employing those kids. They aren't even running the orphanage. They sponsored it through an organization that runs them.

 

I agree.  But when they showed people that make clothing talking about poor children in a third world country, my mind immediately went to sweatshops with child labor.  I remarked that I was going to hell for thinking it.  If I really thought they were putting those kids to work making socks, I would have said that those people should go to hell.  

[UsernameFatigue]

One of the karaoke guys had had a weave, bleached hair and major plastic surgery to try to look younger. It made concentrating on his pitch very difficult!

 

The guy on the right? He was very distracting as he kept making wierd facial expressions. I hate these pitchers that come in with ridiculous valuations. Thirty million? To me pitchers that over valuate (and it seems that at least half do) aren't there to make a deal, but only to gain free exposure for their product.

 

The belt lady was so annoying. And I hate when people (usually moms ) bring their little kids in to pitch a product. Totally turns me off. At least this one didn't dissolve into a puddle of tears, but she was annoying nevertheless.

[KaveDweller]

He wasn't her kid though, she introduced him as "my friend." I think her son is too old to model this, didn't she say she's been doing this for ten years?

 

I don't mind the kids being their when appropriate, but I don't like when they have the kids stay for the negotiation and the parents claim the decision is up to the 12-year-old.

[Amarsir]

The guy with Beardbrand did an update on Reddit:

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/2lzisq/the_ultimately_shark_tank_guide/

 

Nothing that will particularly surprise you, but he shares a few details about leading up to the show.  And he said his web traffic tripled the weekend of the show, and stabilized closer to double after that.  (Which is actually less than I would guess.)

[Beach Party]

I'm behind watching episodes.  What happened to the rule that the cash offer cannot be changed?  You ask for $500,000 and have to stick to that amount or "walk away with nothing.".  This is the third episode in a row where the cash offer has been changed in negotiations, instead of the percentage.  Can't remember in the last few seasons of an entrepreneur trying to change the cash amount.  In the last episode, the shark was actually the one who up'ed the cash offer. 

[marny]

I think they can't get less than the cash amount they asked for, but they can get more.

[Taeolas]

Yeah the presenters have to get at least what they ask for, or they walk away with nothing. If they can get more out of the Sharks, then all the better. 

[Kel Varnsen]

Someone on the TWoP boards called them GodSocks, and I've only ever thought of them that way since. I very recently saw a woman in my building at work wearing socks that were higher than her knee-high boots, and it made me wonder when we were going to get an update about the holiest of socks.

I remember that discussion. And based on that, during the update I couldn't help but wonder how these people felt about having their product featured in a magazine between pictures of scantily clad women, birth control ads and sex tips.