S06.E18: Himalayan Dog Chew, Lip Bar, BevBoy, FunBites

[Amarsir]

I think the Lip Bar ladies made a mistake by not really pushing the fact their products are paraben, GMO, etc. free and vegan. That should be their target market and they should make their tagline something along those lines, not empowering women. I do agree with Mark on the logo - - showing a martini glass with red lips doesn't exactly say "empower women" or tell anyone that the products are vegan and, I would assume, not tested on animals. I try to be as green as possible and not use products tested on animals so I would check out their lipsticks if I knew that.

But there's no point at which that outweighs the colors, right? Would you use an aqua lipstick just because it's vegan?

 

• You can have a makeup brand with odd colors.
• You can have one about "empowering women".
• You can have a fun line named after drinks.
• You can have an "ethically made" line.

 

But they tried to squeeze them all together and that doesn't make sense.  Your point makes sense but then it would be an utterly different business.

[Amarsir]

Speaking of which, Mark five-second-shot-clock Cuban had the audacity to lecture someone about the virtue of hearing all offers last night. Just goes to my theory that Mark's insistence that people accept immediately is not based on any principle, unless that principle is always do what's best for Mark. I was happy to see him lose that one. 

I was happy to see him lose too, but not for that reason. It's because the woman clearly wanted Lori and Mark had done nothing to woo her other than assume she'd want his partnership.

 

But there's no hypocrisy there. He said "but sometimes there's a benefit to listening." That's a true statement I'm sure he'd agree with during his own shot clocks. He didn't say "always hear everyone out", he didn't bash Lori, and he wasn't rude when he lost. He just played an angle.  Just like it's not inconsistent to sometimes shoot for 3 and other times drive to the basket, there's nothing wrong with sometimes having a deadline and other times telling people to ignore it.

[Amarsir]

See, I have no trouble with that at all.  I am quite confident storytime in the O'Leary household involved The Fountainhead and The Wealth of Nations, so the children were absolutely aware what a drain on resources they were.

Here's Kevin doing his best to support your theory:

(If you watch until the end he actually gets a little more real, but still "in character".)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

One of the reasons I rarely watch this show is that I can't stand the obviously memorized pitches. The Lip Bar women sounded so fake because they had such a prepackaged spiel. I get that you have to come up with talking points to present your product quickly but I hate when it is so over-rehearsed that it sounds like you're reading off cue cards.

 

ITA that both Urban Decay and Wet N Wild both have enough non-red/pink/nude lipsticks for the niche market that wants green or other weird colors, and that if those colors were popular enough then the other brands would start selling them too.

 

I also agree that the Himalayan dog treat guys were mostly there for the publicity. It sounds like they are doing just fine on their own. I think maybe they should have stressed how unique their product is due to the yak milk and the nutritional value compared to other dog treats. I know that one of the sharks asked about the availability outside of Nepal but that was the only moment when it was touched upon. I personally love yak wool products and buying them can be challenging (your choices are generally really expensive products from high end brands or less expensive products that may not actually be made from yak wool). Knowing that, if I were the dog treat guys I would have emphasized that yak milk products are not generally available in the United States since uniqueness and availability are a selling point.

[PRgal]

I don't really get the fun-shaped foods lady.  The only difference between her product and cutting food into shapes using cookie cutters is that you can do many at the same time.  I'm surprised no one mentioned cookie cutters during the pitch!  And yes, she was annoying.

[sarthaz]

I don't really get the fun-shaped foods lady.  The only difference between her product and cutting food into shapes using cookie cutters is that you can do many at the same time.  I'm surprised no one mentioned cookie cutters during the pitch!  And yes, she was annoying.

 

In addition to cookie cutters, plastic molds that cut food into various shapes have been in stores for as long as I can remember.  I have five of these things, and they're at least 8-10 years old -- hearts, stars, etc -- I don't have one that cuts them into perfect squares, but only because it wouldn't look fun for my kids.  So what on Earth is her patent for?  The extra impossible-to-clean hinged piece that pops them out?  I just didn't understand this pitch at all or how any of the sharks could possibly be interested in it.  Between this and lipstick undifferentiated lipstick, this episode was a bust.

[cooksdelight]

This episode would be a good case for the Sharks putting on ridiculous people just to make fun of them, and give us something to snark about.

[sarthaz]

However, upon looking it up I only just realized that the Sherpa are a people, not a job.  So yeah, that's wildly inappropriate I agree. In Robert's defense though, I'll bet you a lot of people don't know that and he was just as ignorant about it as I was.

 

Sherpa (or more accurately Sharwa) are indeed a people ... who are culturally identified as expert mountaineers and internationally recognized by using their expertise to guide lesser individuals to fame and glory.  It is even generally accepted that the Sherpa people have an evolutionary genetic adaptation that aids their breathing during high ascents like Everest.  Further, many Sherpa appropriate the name "Sherpa" (which isn't even the correct pronunciation) as their public surname so people will know they're the best mountaineering guides.  All this is to say that using the term Sherpa to mean "an expert guide" is not wildly inappropriate.

[needschocolate]

I watch home renovation shows and almost everyt ime someone says they need a new kitchen because theirs has so little storage and counter space, I think "Gee, I wish my kitchen was that big."  And yet, comparing my kitchen to my my friends', mine is one of the biggest.  So, whenever I see a product on Shark Tank, I immediately think about how to store it - is it worth a place in my lack-of-storage-space house?  The food cutters are definitely not worth a space and neither are the pool drink holders (and green lipstick will not be in my make-up bag).  Two products solving problems that don't exist.  

 

In addition to the space they would take up, the drink holders didn't make sense to me - either you have to take your drink in and out of the foam part - increasing the chance of spillage - or you grab the whole thing and hoist it into the air - with the "tail sticking our a foot or more.  

[Guest]

Good point.  I see the Bev Boys as a novelty pool party item.  People with too much money will toss a few in their pool before a party, for a laugh.  Then store them in the pool house, I guess.  Maybe they should have some LED lights for added novelty.  

 

Y'know those rubbery ice cube trays in cute shapes they sell at Ikea and elsewhere?  The cutters reminded me of those, but with even less likelihood of ever being used.  I have a few of those novelty ice cube trays around taking up space and never use them.  Or maybe I finally tossed them after decades of seeing them in some drawer.  

 

I think a lot of these products don't really rely on people using them so much as just thinking, "That's cute, novel and cheap, I'll buy it!"  

[HelloOutThere]

 

[Robert is] lean.  Don't know if he's hairy.  Probably Robert and Kevin Harrington have the best bods among the men on the panel.

 

I personally think Robert has gotten too lean; gives him a bobbleheaded look, like in that photo from GMA. In fact I think he is starting to look like Quagmire from Family Guy. Giggity!

 

The floating koozy thing is kinda fun. I order silly giveaway stuff for one of the brands I manage and would totally do a run of those for a 4th of July promo or something.

[Kel Varnsen]

The Bev Boy was one of the dumber ideas I have seen in awhile. An ice cold can of your favourite beverage will warm up pretty fast if it is floating in a nice warm pool or even worse a hot tub. Mark is pretty good at pointing stuff like that out, so I am surprised he didn't pick up on that. 

[TheOriginalDonald]

Yak Cheese-I personally liked to buy the What Does The Yak Say? shirt.

Lip Bar-Anyone who has seen GloZell Green KNOWS green lipstick is HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRIBLE!

BevBoy-Kevin didn't get the big deal of the day, but at least he didn't get Zonked, Monty O'Leary

FunBites-I'm sure Mark was angling for a NBA licensing deal there.

Let's Make A Deal is a Mark Burnett/One Three Media Production, Jay Stewart speaking

[nobodyyoucare]

Namaste means both hello and goodbye. Thing is the two guys used the term wrong. It is to be used as a greeting or goodbye to a singular person. 

 

Sherpa is an acknowledged word for guide or emissary. It is not an insult to use Sherpa as a word for guide to someone from that area even if they are not of the Sherpa people.