S06.E27: Zero Pollution Motors, The Paleo Diet Foods, World Record Striper Company, Frameri

[yeswedo]

 

Singer Pat Boone helps to pitch an eco-friendly car that runs on compressed air; a fit mother of three touts the benefits of her diet snack bars; a fisherman offers the Sharks the chance to invest in his unique lure, which helped him earn a world record; and two Cincinnati men look for help growing their eyeglasses business. Also: a follow-up on Lori's investment in Heidi Ho Organics.

 

*Airing at 8pm EDT

[nobodyyoucare]

Compressed air cars have a huge number of problems. Takes four hours to fill the tank to just go 4 and a half miles. 

[bilgistic]

How nice that Pat Boone took time off from hawking walk-in tubs in the buff to come on Shark Tank!

The glasses guys might have been the biggest douches ever in the Tank.

Edited May 2, 2015 by bilgistic

[leighdear]

The glasses were unattractive to me, though I love the general concept.  I do understand that the frames need to be thick & heavy to support the machining required for the snap-in lenses, but they just seemed way too masculine.  And yep, the guys were pretty bad with the pitch.

 

Paleo bar lady came off pretty hysterical to me.  The way she kept hammering the "I won't give it up" and "They all depend on me" came off so sad & desperate.  Seriously, the world does not need another protein/energy/nutrition bar.  That market has got to be completely saturated.

 

Fish dude was smart to listen to Daymond & go with Mark.  Fishing tackle is big business, so that product should earn some nice change for that guy.

[bilgistic]

What do you do about all of the fingerprints on the lenses??

[designing1]

 

I'm wondering if something happened with the eyeglasses guys that we weren't shown, because they just came on and Daymond has already taken two shots at them - "And did your mother drop you on your head?" and "Are you here for exposure or to be exposed?"

 

I think both of those remarks reflect his reaction once he did the math and realized they were valuing a startup at millions of dollars. (I think they came in asking...was it $150,000?...for something like 3.5%.) I think they had already revealed their meager sales by the time he said these things, but I could be wrong, and there may have been some out-of-order editing there.

 

 

What do you do about all of the fingerprints on the lenses??

 

Clean them? I clean my glasses at least a couple of times a day as the slightest speck bothers me, so were I interested in the product as a consumer, the need to clean the lenses wouldn't even be a consideration.

Edited May 2, 2015 by designing1

[me5671]

The glasses were unattractive to me, though I love the general concept.  I do understand that the frames need to be thick & heavy to support the machining required for the snap-in lenses, but they just seemed way too masculine.  And yep, the guys were pretty bad with the pitch.

 

I'm glad to hear that someone else thought that those glasses were ugly.  It's a great concept in theory, but the way they have executed so far seems shoddy.  The big, thick frames are not my cup of tea at all.  Also, did I hear correctly that they plan to sell each package for $500???  That seems really expensive if that is the case.  Not a fan of this one at all.

 

I thought that the air car idea is intriguing, but it is so far away from being viable that I'm shocked it got a deal.  It's a huge risk and, if it even works out at all, it will take decades before it starts to make money IMO.  On the other hand, if it does work out there's a huge upside so I guess that's why it got the deal.  Most likely, though, the deal won't even go through due to the contingency placed on it.  If that isn't fulfilled, then the deal falls apart.

 

The fisherman was a perfect example of an awesome product paired with a hapless entrepreneur.  So glad he got a deal, and Mark is definitely going to help him sell a lot of those things.  He did the right thing in accepting Mark's offer without listening to Kevin IMO.  There's no way Kevin was going to offer him a better deal and Mark already has experience in that field with the shell bobbers product.  

Edited May 2, 2015 by me5671

[bilgistic]

Clean them? I clean my glasses at least a couple of times a day as the slightest speck bothers me, so were I interested in the product as a consumer, the need to clean the lenses wouldn't even be a consideration.

I was being facetious. Having to constantly clean the glasses because my grubby fingerprints were all over them would drive me bonkers. I wear prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses for distance vision, but keep them encased when not on my face to keep them as clean as possible.

I paid $300+ (but less than $400) for the both of them at Vision Works, and that was after discounts and such, so $500 didn't astoundingly crazy to me, if I was into what they were selling. I'm not, though, as I'm fine with my fits-all black eyeglass frames and larger tortoise sunglass frames.

[NikSac]

Interesting episode tonight.

 

Bunky1412 I agree, they should get to hear from all of the sharks before they have to decide on anything. I don't like it when they pressure them to decide before even hearing from everyone.

 

The Aircar idea seemed kind of cool but as happens with most of these types of products they left out a massive component. If it needs to run on compressed air, how does that air get compressed?  (lemme guess - electricity? - eliminating the "it's all green!" component)  Also, isn't it illegal to drive that slow on most highways in the US when traffic and weather conditions are good? My husband's grandmother is the only person I know to ever get a ticket for going too slow on the highway, but it was for 10mph UNDER the speed limit. I do hope they move forward with the idea, just think they've got a ways to go.

 

No kidding the Paleo woman went down fast, and hard. I felt bad for her, but at the same time she was basically trying to sell not-very-tasty candy bars as health food - which is true for about 90% of the "health food" bars out there I think. I was glad Robert brought it up.

 

I really liked the glasses and the idea itself, but seems like they were way off base on how the company should be valued. Price-wise I thought they weren't too far off on the product, especially if you consider a lot of that might be off-set by vision insurance for most buyers.

[starri]

I have never, EVER wanted to punch an entrepreneur in the face quite as much as I did the Paleo woman.  I feel bad saying that because I'm very cognizant of the fact that I'm a man and she's a woman, and that's not a good thing, but as she was clearly into not just the Paleo stuff but also CrossFit.  If Paleo and CrossFit work for you, terrific, but watching people go through it, it's the health and fitness of equivalent of the Borg Collective.

 

Also, primitive humans DID.  NOT.  EAT. that way.  And it certainly wasn't because it was "healthier," it was because that's the way they had to live.  Also, the need for sugar to make the bars taste better, just like our ancestors did.

 

I was glad to see Heidi Ho doing so well.  I really liked her.  And whoever styles Lori needs to tell her to wear her hair like that on the show.  It was about a million times for flattering.

[nobodyyoucare]

 

The Aircar idea seemed kind of cool but as happens with most of these types of products they left out a massive component. If it needs to run on compressed air, how does that air get compressed?  (lemme guess - electricity? - eliminating the "it's all green!" component)

Compressed air to move vehicles has been around a long time. The problem is that all of the prior attempts the cars had horrible range for the amount of time it took to charge the tank. An hour to put the air in gave you seven miles. They said commuter car meaning commutes around the city not the highway. Basically think cabs and back and forth to work in a short distance. 

 

As for using electricity it is actually green to use electricity for electric cars. Burning oil to generate electricity to make a 100,000 electric cars to go a million miles uses less oil and produces less pollution then having a 100,000 gasoline cars go a million miles. 

[designing1]

 

Price-wise I thought they weren't too far off on the product, especially if you consider a lot of that might be off-set by vision insurance for most buyers.

 

I thought the glasses were priced quite competitively as compared to the incredibly high prices found at places like LensCrafters, etc. Out of curiosity I just went through their ordering process and the price for the first pair (with progressive lenses) was around $400, similar to what I've paid at retail outlets. I believe online suppliers, and maybe places like Costco and Walmart, are supposed to be substantially less expensive. 

 

My big issue with the glasses was this: I wear progressives, and if my frames are not adjusted properly I experience distortion and dizziness. It's hard to imagine that swapping them out will result in perfectly adjusted frames every time.

[Primetimer]

Two hipsters show up on Shark Tank with a multi-million dollar valuation for a company still in pre-sales mode. Oh, this will go well.

Read the story

[LeGrandElephant]

There are already websites where you can send in your prescription and get lots of different types of glasses to wear on different days. (I only tried once many years ago and it was a bust for me because I have a really strong prescription and I don't think I had measured my pupil distance correctly or something and so I could see through them but they annoyed me and gave me headaches very quickly. I hear from friends that the method of doing your prescription and aligning that stuff over the web has improved, but I haven't bothered to test it again since I mostly wear contacts. I have a feeling it's easier to get right for more mild prescriptions, but mine is very strong and needs to be special high index plastic and stuff, so I still get one pair from an eye doctor and take good care of them for years and years.)

Anyway the thing I noticed about these frames was they all are the same basic shape and style, in order to accommodate the same lenses. If you want different glasses for fashion, why confine yourself to the same style in different colors? Wouldn't you want the option of also having wire rim frames, or the kind that is just the lens with no frame, or bigger or smaller lenses? This swapping lenses thing seems really restrictive for no real advantage.

Their valuation was insane. I don't think they should have been let on the show asking 3.5% for 150 grand with no sales.

When they did a closeup on the bar flavors I was like oh, did cavemen eat cinnamon? The whole paleo thing is ridiculous so I was torn between feeling bad for her and being annoyed at her.

On the air car: I though they said four hours charging from an electric outlet would get you 100 miles, and 5 minutes filling up from an air hose like you use for your tires would also get you 100 miles. That seems quite good, and I see much lower distances mentioned in this thread. Did I misunderstand?

Edited May 2, 2015 by LeGrandElephant

[Shibori]

I've purchased glasses online before, and I can say that those "try on" features aren't very accurate. If I'm going to pay upwards of $100 a pair, I want to see them in person first. Warby Parker sends you frames to try on before you pick to address that issue. I've also ordered from the super cheap online retailers with good results. I've gotten a total of six prescription pairs from eyebuydirect for less than $100 *total*, including shipping, and I really liked 4 out of the 6 and wear them regularly. At about $10-15 a pair, I'm ok with that ratio. Interestingly, my two favorite were the ones I liked the least as I was ordering, and the two that I thought I'd love are the two I never wear. The take home for me is that markup on glasses is insane.

There were a lot of good reasons to dislike the Paleo lady, but I wish they hadn't focused so much on her having three kids. I'm single with cats and find most of the "momtrepreneurs" on this show insufferable, but I bet if it had been her husband up there the Sharks wouldn't have mentioned his kids over and over like that. taljing about her other jobs is legit, and they could have just left it at that without mentioning the kids.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Shibori

[LeGrandElephant]

I didn't really think her other jobs sounded like that big of a deal. Teaching group fitness one hour a day is a good way to get paid to exercise, which you should be doing anyway ideally. And one afternoon a week as a dental hygienist isn't much and presumably she could quit that if they invested and her product started making more money.

[nobodyyoucare]

 

 

 

On the air car: I though they said four hours charging from an electric outlet would get you 100 miles, and 5 minutes filling up from an air hose like you use for your tires would also get you 100 miles. That seems quite good, and I see much lower distances mentioned in this thread. Did I misunderstand?

What I stated was what the actual published tests on the tech showed. Not what the air car company claimed in its press releases. 

 

MDI has been pushing their aircar since 2000. They were supposed to have gone into production in 2000 as well. Never happened. None of the factories opened nor produced cars. MDI has a history of claiming models will go into production and it has never happened. No vehicle with 100mpg has ever passed a crash safety test. None of the air cars have ever passed the testing hence they cannot be sold even if they went into production.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIRPodthis the vehicle they showed on the episode. Supposed to have gone into production in 2000 but has never done so.

 

If you do a search you will see stories every year on this car company but none of these stories which come as adverts mention the history of not coming out.

 

was a CNN episode that came out in 2000.

 

BBC reported back on it in 2008.

[Merneith]

Isn't the whole point of the Paleo diet that you should avoid eating processed food ... like, for example, heavily processed protein bars? I thought a Paleo protein bar would be, like, a hard boiled egg or a chunk of smoked salmon?

[Jamoche]

No vehicle with 100mpg has ever passed a crash safety test. 

Yeah, I thought it was weird that supposedly there are other cars being built in India, yet they have exactly 3 hand-built prototypes which is why they haven't done any crash tests.

[LeGrandElephant]

They played the triumphant music when Robert and the car guys "made a deal" but it sounds very unlikely that the deal will actually go through. 

[AndreaK1041]

Also, primitive humans DID. NOT. EAT. that way. And it certainly wasn't because it was "healthier," it was because that's the way they had to live.

Thank you. This woman has a basic misunderstanding of science. She can eat organic whole fruits all she wants, but that is not what "cavemen" ate because those things didn't exist. They have been bred for thousands of years by humans to be the plump delicious things we like to eat. I'm sure it's a healthy way to eat, but don't say it's something it's not.

[LeGrandElephant]

The paleo diet seems to assume that neither humans nor the plants and animals we cultivate has evolved in the past 20,000 years or so, which is completely wrong. It might be a healthy diet by pure luck, but the logic behind it makes no sense. 

[cooksdelight]

Paleo woman lost me the minute she walked out with the caveman. And the constant "everyone is depending on me".... she's headed for a nervous breakdown at some point.

[bilgistic]

I enjoyed Mark's "Oh, lord." when the caveman shuffled out. It echoed my sentiments.

[nottopbravo]

Anyway the thing I noticed about these frames was they all are the same basic shape and style, in order to accommodate the same lenses. If you want different glasses for fashion, why confine yourself to the same style in different colors? Wouldn't you want the option of also having wire rim frames, or the kind that is just the lens with no frame, or bigger or smaller lenses? This swapping lenses thing seems really restrictive for no real advantage.

 

 

This is what bugged me too.  The lenses have to be the exact same shape for this to work.  You couldn't swap between round wire frames and square rectangle ones therefor limiting your choice in frames.  The only option you would have would be the color.

[Latverian Diplomat]

I didn't really think her other jobs sounded like that big of a deal. Teaching group fitness one hour a day is a good way to get paid to exercise, which you should be doing anyway ideally. And one afternoon a week as a dental hygienist isn't much and presumably she could quit that if they invested and her product started making more money.

 

I think they were looking for a reason to opt out, and once they got a hold of that thread they just pulled and pulled it. Which kind of sucks, because nobody is asking Pat Boone if he's 100% dedicated to compressed air cars. 

 

The paleo diet seems to assume that neither humans nor the plants and animals we cultivate has evolved in the past 20,000 years or so, which is completely wrong. It might be a healthy diet by pure luck, but the logic behind it makes no sense. 

Centuries of agriculture has gone into making plants more nutritious. Broccoli and carrots are prime examples, they are far more nutritious than their ancestral plants. Another thing to hate about paleo is that it pretends to be environmentally friendly but it's not really sustainable. You can't feed large populations without wheat, soy, and other legumes. Peanuts are important in many parts of the world, and so is dairy. At least half of India at least eats mostly things that aren't allowed. 

 

The car thing was ridiculous. I can see Hawaii as a place where "green cars" could pay off. Lots of short trips, pollution concerns, etc. though the cost of electricity might be high there. Gas stations give away compressed air for tires, they are not going to let you "refill" your car there, even if that's even practicable. I don't see why the factory needed to be Hawaii either. Why is shipping the raw materials to Hawaii less environmentally friendly than shipping cars? Build them in a place with the infrastructure, labor costs, and cheap shipping to make for a good factory location in the US, especially if expanding to the rest of the US is a long term goal.

 

I thought the thing where Cuban said "take my offer w/o hearing a competing offer or it's off the table" should be against the rules. Part of the fun of the show is seeing the sharks compete against each other, and it's a weird curve ball to throw at the entrepreneurs.

[NikSac]

Compressed air to move vehicles has been around a long time. The problem is that all of the prior attempts the cars had horrible range for the amount of time it took to charge the tank. An hour to put the air in gave you seven miles. They said commuter car meaning commutes around the city not the highway. Basically think cabs and back and forth to work in a short distance. 

 

As for using electricity it is actually green to use electricity for electric cars. Burning oil to generate electricity to make a 100,000 electric cars to go a million miles uses less oil and produces less pollution then having a 100,000 gasoline cars go a million miles. 

 

I don't disagree that the electric or air cars could be more environmentally friendly, I just think it's bogus that they leave out this factor when talking about how environmentally friendly it is. In this case, it just runs on air!  Well no, not exactly.  I wish they'd gotten more into how much electricity it used while "filling up" and what that might cost in different markets. Around here the gas stations charge for the air you put in your tires, too - so in places that charge for the air, how much would it cost if you filled up at the gas station instead of at home? Plus I guess they're assuming that buyers would never want to drive more than 100 miles?  Otherwise they would expect people could end up wanting two cars, right?  The aircar for short trips and another one for longer trips? Or what if you're on a short trip but get stuck in traffic?  My commute used to be about 8 miles each way, but it involved a bridge over a river and one traffic incident, breakdown, etc. could cause even such a short trip to take anywhere from 30 minutes to well over an hour. The longest I ever got stuck was over 2 hours creeping along in nearly 100 degree heat. Would this car make it that long?  Between those things and the fact that it hasn't even been crash-tested.... well, as a shark would say, "I'm out." 

 

I'm all for looking at alternative fuels and I applaud them for doing it, I just think they left an awful lot out of the discussion - or, it was edited out.

[marny]

i have yet to hear any of these people who push the Paleo stuff actually explain how that diet is a more beneficial one than a traditional balanced diet. Cutting out processed foods? Sure, that's a good move. But avoiding legumes and grains? Unless you have Celiac disease, there's just no benefit to doing that. That doctor the bar woman kept incessantly mentioning was a genius to trademark the name "Paleo" and capitalize off all of the lemmings, but soon this trend will go the way of Atkins and Cabbage Soup.

Edited May 2, 2015 by marny

[seacliffsal]

I'm not sure how much the paleo women (or inventor of the paleo diet) really know about history-especially 'cave men'.  Life expectancy not so great (and yes, for multiple reasons outside of dietary), not the smartest of human history, etc.  When she spoke about cranberries and raisins it was all I could do to keep my eyes from rolling to the back of my head.  Her pitch was based on eating what the cave people ate but then mentioned foods that just...no.  Where was the undercooked meat from extinct species?  Oh right, it's not really what she says it is.

 

As for the car, cool concept, but unworkable at this point.  However, Robert is the car guy so he'll either make it work or drop the deal.

[Latverian Diplomat]

I don't disagree that the electric or air cars could be more environmentally friendly, I just think it's bogus that they leave out this factor when talking about how environmentally friendly it is. In this case, it just runs on air!  Well no, not exactly.  I wish they'd gotten more into how much electricity it used while "filling up" and what that might cost in different markets. ...

 

I'm all for looking at alternative fuels and I applaud them for doing it, I just think they left an awful lot out of the discussion - or, it was edited out.

Yeah there's an important distinction to be made between energy storage and fuel. Two others that have this problem are Flywheel Energy Storage and hydrogen fuel cells. Compressed air is probably the least promising because the others (and batteries) have very efficient conversion to electricity and can take advantage of electric motors. 

 

i have yet to hear any of these people who push the Paleo stuff actually explain how that diet is a more beneficial one than a traditional balanced diet....soon this trend will go the way of Atkins and Cabbage Soup. 

I was a little surprised that they didn't ding the faddish nature of this product, but I guess half of their ventures are attempts to surf a fad, and also Cuban appears to be a Paleo-head, so no sense picking a fight, I guess.

[starri]

When she spoke about cranberries and raisins it was all I could do to keep my eyes from rolling to the back of my head.

Didn't you learn about how Early Man harvested cranberry bogs in a class in high school or college?

 

I am all for cutting out processed foods, and generally my diet doesn't involve too many items that I can't identify as clearly animal, vegetable, or mineral, but that's not because it's just like how our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate.  They ate like they did because they were nomads with no domesticated livestock or agriculture.  That's the kind of lifestyle that seems really great to wealthy urban and suburbanites, but multiply that by seven billion people that it becomes unsustainable very quickly.

 

Cranberries, blueberries, cinnamon, added sugar...all the things cavemen ate.

 

I hate to use this as a shorthand, but there's something about people who read articles offered uncritically by charlatans like Dr. Oz or the nauseating Food Babe and decide that they have just as much information as scientists who have devoted their entire careers to studying the actual way humans process food, instead of what "feels right."  That's a whole other rant that I could have here, but it's a bit afield from topic, and it really bothered me that (IIRC) the only real criticisms of her claims were to the added sugar or Lori's dislike of the taste.  I just feel claims that are health-related deserve greater scrutiny, and hearing Mark (?) saying he's a big believer in paleo didn't help.

Edited May 3, 2015 by starri

[Eolivet]

The Paleo bar woman creeped me out with her constant mentioning of "Dr. Cordain" or whoever he was -- his name might as well have been Jim Jones with how devoted she seemed to him and "not letting him down." Seriously, if this was a crime drama, it would've ended with the police storming his compound.

 

I will agree wholeheartedly with the poster last week who said entrepeneurs should be barred for asking for anything under a certain percentage (10%?). Those guys offered less equity than Breathometer, who had actual millions in sales?! Interesting that Kevin the valuation hawk was not only suspiciously silent on their valuation, but also offered them a deal.

[NikSac]

Yeah there are two huge changes I'd love to see on this show, especially after the last couple of episodes. One is that the entrepreneurs should be required to be reasonable on the equity they're offering, I don't know what "reasonable" means but Eolivet I think 10% is a good idea as a bare minimum. Second is that the entrepreneurs should at least get the opportunity to hear from all the sharks before they respond. Even if all they get is "I'm out" from most of them, I don't like this whole "take my offer or leave it right now or I'm out" thing.

 

On a separate note thank you marny for the reminder about the Cabbage Soup diet. I never followed the official diet (way too weird!), but I did make the soup and practically lived off of it for about a year after college. Hot, cold, or blended up as juice, it was kind of my staple between college and my first 'real job' (cheap and healthyish - beats Top Ramen, right?). Think I'll be making a batch this week. Like most diets I think there are good things to learn, but Paleo is one of the ones that really makes me shake my head. Cut out processed food, okay fine, makes sense. Eat a candy bar full of sugar and pretend it's the way the Cavemen ate?  No... sorry.

[zxy556575]

Sometimes the sharks will make an offer solely because they respond well to the presenter and feel that he/she is someone they want to be in business with. I think the entrepreneurs should take that to heart and dismiss any sharks who demand an answer before everyone else has had time to speak. Why partner with someone who's just proven they're more than willing to steamroll you?

[cooksdelight]

The Paleo bar woman creeped me out with her constant mentioning of "Dr. Cordain" or whoever he was -- his name might as well have been Jim Jones with how devoted she seemed to him and "not letting him down." Seriously, if this was a crime drama, it would've ended with the police storming his compound.

With Benson and Amaro leading the charge! :)

Seriously, she seemed so "off" to me, I sort of tuned out whatever she was saying. I did get that the bars were pretty expensive. And I got a sense of "you'll need to join our cult" if you buy them.

[LittleIggy]

When they did a closeup on the bar flavors I was like oh, did cavemen eat cinnamon?

Thank you! I thought the same thing! That and yeah, cavemen made raisins!

As far as the air car went, when I heard the guy say he was from Brattleboro, VT, I sat up because I went to grad school there a couple of years ago. It's a great little town.

[Amarsir]

They played the triumphant music when Robert and the car guys "made a deal" but it sounds very unlikely that the deal will actually go through. 

The company's Facebook page makes it sound like the deal is still on, if not finalized. I'm also inclined to agree that there's just no way this is a viable business. 

[saber5055]

Why partner with someone who's just proven they're more than willing to steamroll you?

 

 

I know. The Sharks are always ranking on the presenters as being too "this" or "that," yet how dare one of them tell a Shark he/she wouldn't partner with someone so short-sighted and rude that he/she won't even let you speak or ask a question. I hate when some Shark gets his/her undies in a bundle and demands an answer or the offer will disappear. That's when my remote comes into play.

 

Everyone here is against the air car, but I had never heard of it and I was very fascinated by it. I hope it works out. Plus, I have an air compressor in my barn ...

[LeGrandElephant]

I guess I understand it more when one shark makes an offer and no other sharks have expressed any interest, and the presenters ignore them to beg for deals from the others that don't seem interested. Then, I can see why the first shark would be annoyed. But, when someone else is actively saying they are about to offer a deal (like Kevin was in this episode), I don't think its cool to tell the person they can't listen to it. 

[nobodyyoucare]

Keep in mind what you see is often an hour compressed down to a few minutes. 

[bilgistic]

Everyone here is against the air car, but I had never heard of it and I was very fascinated by it. I hope it works out. Plus, I have an air compressor in my barn ...

I quite liked the notion of it, but I would fear for my life in that tiny thing in my traffic-choked city.

[nobodyyoucare]

You can get an electric Tuk Tuk if that three wheel design of the pod gets your fancy. 

[NikSac]

I quite liked the notion of it, but I would fear for my life in that tiny thing in my traffic-choked city.

 

Same here, I liked the general idea of it, but I thought it was a lonnnng way from ready to go into production, and also that they need to be more honest about it - safety, cost of ownership, performance in traffic, etc. I wonder if they might do better to refine the concept a little more and then try to sell the concept or technology to one of the major auto manufacturers?

[TimetoShine]

Re: the glasses. As someone who's worn glasses her entire life, I love the concept. Not sure if I like the actual glasses the guys present. I also don't think a $500 price point is too much. I've spent that much on 1 frame and so has my mom. Although, I've only ever purchased designer frames.

 

I also loved the fisherman. He was funny.

Edited May 3, 2015 by corinne

[LeGrandElephant]

I still think the biggest problem with those glasses is them all having to be the same shape. But, regarding the price of glasses:

I think my one pair of glasses cost about $400 from the eye doctor. But, (a) that was before all these websites sprung up to compete, (b) I was under the impression they were more expensive partly because my prescription is so strong and if you used normal lenses they'd be giant coke bottle glasses, so you have to use high index plastic with special coatings, © it's one thing to pay that much for one pair you really need to see, another to pay that much for a bunch of extra pairs just for fun. I have taken good care of that one pair for ten years or so (I mostly just wear them in the morning and evening at home, and wear contacts when I go out), and I would not be willing to pay much for another pair unless this one breaks.

I tried to order a cheaper backup pair and the lenses weren't aligned correctly so I couldn't wear them. Maybe there's a way I could have had them done correctly, but I was never that motivated to try again. I do have friends who have gotten multiple pairs online for cheap and can apparently see, but I think they have weaker prescriptions than me so I'm still suspicious how well it would work for me.

[needschocolate]

The sharks must get some background info before filming.  There is no way that Kevin just happens to know the names of the top one or two companies in each field.  That may also explain why they don't seem to ask some of the more obvious questions (and, each segment is probably much longer than we are shown so maybe the obvious questions sometimes get cut).

 

Paleo woman - I couldn't decide if she was really nervous or a little off her rocker and over zealous.  If she was very nervous then I may actually feel bad that her results were 2 "your bars suck" and 3 "you suck"

 

Fisherman guy - I thought he gave a very good, natural presentation.  I can understand when a shark offers exactly what was asked for and the entrepreneur starts asking if their are other deals, but, otherwise, I think it is really rude for a shark to say any version of "take it right now or I am out" threat.

 

Glasses guys - I only wear cheap cheaters, so I am no authority, but I can see how some people may like what they are selling.  However, I don't think there was any way those guys really wanted a deal - they just wanted some free advertising.  

 

Air car - Hey, Pat Boone looks good for 80.  I hadn't heard of air cars before, so I thought it was intriguing.  I thought they said it takes 4 hours to fill the tank with enough compressed air to go 100 miles.  If that is correct, then that is 4 hours to fill for 1.5 - 2 hours of driving - definitely not the car to take on vacation.   I didn't understand why, if they are already being manufactured in India and Europe, why they had to make protypes in the US.  

 

I got the feeling that the real reason they want to produce these cars in Hawaii is because they want to live in Hawaii.  The rationale they gave seemed week.  It is a set of islands that have ocean breezes, it is not like pollution just hovers over Hawaii all the time.  It would make more sense to me to focus on an area that has a bigger pollution problem, but I guess they couldn't get that deal from the main company.  

[starri]

I got the feeling that the real reason they want to produce these cars in Hawaii is because they want to live in Hawaii.  The rationale they gave seemed week.  It is a set of islands that have ocean breezes, it is not like pollution just hovers over Hawaii all the time.  It would make more sense to me to focus on an area that has a bigger pollution problem, but I guess they couldn't get that deal from the main company.

The problem with Hawaii is not so much that there's a problem with pollution, it's that getting resources to Hawaii is incredibly expensive.  If you build a car in Hawaii, you don't need to put it on a boat or a plane to get it to Hawaii to be sold.  If it doesn't run on gasoline, they don't have to ship that either.

[saber5055]

I was thinking Hawaii because there are no interstate highways where everyone is driving 90 mph like madmen. However, I've never been there, so correct me if I'm wrong. I just picture it having two-lane roads that are pretty curvy so the mph is pretty slow. So the tiny air car would work well there, small vehicle for a small place.

 

Plus there's the living there thing ... Heh.

[Charlesman]

When the Zero Pollution car came out with the Hawaii idea, it reminded me of Catalina Island... which has no cars but is golf-carts only. And then I thought... what does this do that golf carts don't? It's just barely more roadworthy. At double the price. Didn't make sense to me.

As far as Frameri, well, for a while I wore different frames to go with different outfits... and the solution was simple: cheap glasses from online retailers. You can buy basic prescription glasses for $10 online. Add in tints, UV and anti-scratch coating, lighter lenses, and still you're paying maybe $50 for prescription glasses, at the most. For $500 instead of six pairs made out of swappable frames and lenses, I could have 10 pairs in a variety of shapes and styles. Big round lenses, rectangular, aviator style; thick frames, narrow frames, etc. I buy new pairs every so often, now I just have frames lying all over the house... if a pair breaks or gets lost I have tons of spares.

As a permanent eyeglasses-wearer, I'm offended by the high prices Luxottica causes in the marketplace. It should not cost $300, $400, $500 a pair to see. People deserve better. I love my $12 glasses. Such a better solution to the problem.

[MoreCoffeePlease]

I agree that the eyeglasses idea was not a good one.  I'd certainly buy more frames/glasses if they were cheaper, but I would NOT want to pop lenses in and out just to get different colors and patterns.  I would want a variety of shapes and rims.

 

Although I don't think the world needs anymore granola/protein bars, I do think they were hard on her for teaching an exercise class once a week, as someone mentioned up-thread.  I would have shot back, "Dudes!  I'm getting paid for something that I love doing and would be doing anyway!"