S10.E06: Vade Nutrition, Lockstraps, Bottlekeeper, Nui

[GoldenGirl90]

November 25, 2018

Former professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez; a dissolvable protein pack product; a dual-purpose strap that keeps valuables safe and secure; a solution to keep a beer bottle cold; a healthy alternative treat; an update on Ice Shaker.

[CrazyInAlabama]

A-Rod was cute with the cookie remark.    

Vade Nutrition-I hated this guy, and his girlfriend or whatever she was irritated me too.    I'm glad they got a deal with A-Rod and Mark, but I suspect this product will be knocked off very soon.

Lockstraps-That man didn't have a clue, and if anyone had given him a deal I would have fainted.    He didn't worry about his own business, licensed to people without checking the quality.   I wonder how many people will think they're buying the good quality strap, and get the bad one instead?

Bottle Keeper-I think it's a great idea, and Lori and Mark will be great partners for them.     If they can keep others from knocking off their product, then they'll do very well.

Nui-keto cookies, are fine, but what will happen to their business in a few years when everyone moves on to another nutrition plan?     A-Rod will be a great partner for them, but the two men came very close to screwing up the deal.   

The Ice Shaker update was good, but why do all of the fitness related pitch people have to yell?  

[Diana Berry]

The Price on the cookies are outrageous. I wonder if that deal will actually go through.

[slowpoked]

12 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

 

A-Rod was cute with the cookie remark.   

 

I was waiting for A-Rod to say, when the guys were questioning his equity share, “Dudes, didn’t you hear what I just said?! I just said JLo eats cookies before sleeping. THE JLo. That alone is worth a 25% equity share. Maybe even more!!!”

Seriously though, if that deal goes through, those two guys wouldn’t be able to get a better spokesperson than her.

[Amarsir]

5 hours ago, Diana Berry said:

The Price on the cookies are outrageous. I wonder if that deal will actually go through.

The price on most things that come through this show is pretty shocking. I liked the Bottle Keeper enough to look them up. It's $35 for the cheap one and $50 each for the "improved" model - plus shipping unless you order multiples. I'm sure they know what they're doing. With all the publicity the show gets they might as well go for premium buyers at lower volume. But for me personally it's usually out of range.

[Jersey Guy 87]

14 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

Bottle Keeper-I think it's a great idea, and Lori and Mark will be great partners for them.     If they can keep others from knocking off their product, then they'll do very well.

Maybe it's me, but I don't get the Bottle Keeper.  $35 for a thing to keep one beer cold?  That seems like an awful lot of money to spend.

[hoodooznoodooz]

This episode made me consider deleting this show from my DVR. 

After watching the update on the silicone doodad, after seeing how proud and joyful the entrepreneurs were about how many units they sold, after thinking about all the beer cozies people purchase or receive as promotional items and then tossed, it occurred to me that this show is responsible for many impulse purchases. I can’t applaud how much of this stuff ends up as landfill or is tossed, eternally awaits processing at a recycling plant, or is donated to Salvation Army shops, merely to sit in a bin, gathering dust.  

Yes, I am that Andie McD character from “sex, lies & videotape,” who obsesses about all the garbage we are producing.

[slowpoked]

1 hour ago, Jersey Guy 87 said:

Maybe it's me, but I don't get the Bottle Keeper.  $35 for a thing to keep one beer cold?  That seems like an awful lot of money to spend.

And is warm, tepid beer really that huge of a problem for mankind?! Dudes, just finish the beer before it gets warm. 

[mjc570]

Maybe because I'm not a gym habitue (ugh, I should spend more/some time there but . . .), but this entire episode did little to engage my interest.  I kind of liked the protein shake pod, i can see people taking it to work for lunch, as well as the gym.  I didn't like their logo at all, I shouldn't have to decipher a company's name. 

I didn't care about the rest enough to actually remember anything except the beer keeper thing.  I agree that warm beer is not really a problem for us, nor do we drink and run around outside while doing so. 

This episode pointed out one reason I don't like the celebrity sharks - they are so limited that the pitches need to be tailored to them.  Why would anyone accept any offer from A-Rod for anything other than a gym product?  So he owns a bunch of gyms, but I don't see that as translating to any kind of merchandising expertise.  On the other hand, unlike the other celeb-sharks,  he was a sports guy and is married (?) to J Lo, so I guess he is somewhat famous.  I really hate how they have to keep repeating that, in case we forgot who he is.  At least he doesn't have a huge fake smile.

Thank goodness nothing tempted me at all here.  I have bought a number of items because of the show, and I have to say, use pretty much all of them. 

[Jersey Guy 87]

38 minutes ago, slowpoked said:

And is warm, tepid beer really that huge of a problem for mankind?! Dudes, just finish the beer before it gets warm. 

Right - keep your beers in a cooler, take one out, drink it in less than six hours (which is what they rate the Bottle Keeper for) and take out another which will be cold.  A Koozie costs a whole lot less if you're that worried about the beer you removed from your cooler to drink getting warm.

[rhys]

I think the bottle keepers were being compared to Yeti products which are fab& $$$. So the cost/price point is about right. I think it's a great product but I hate beer so I'm not the target plus are all bottled beers the same shape?

protein powders? We Americans ingest far too much protein so I don't get the draw of protein powder. However the delivery system was neat & tidy.

Edited November 26, 2018 by rhys

[slowpoked]

15 minutes ago, rhys said:

protein powders? We Americans invest far too much protein so I don't get the draw of protein powder. However the delivery system was neat & tidy.

I see the value in prepackaged protein powders. When my husband traveled so much this past year and stayed in hotels every week, and was working out at the hotel gym, it was such a hassle to bring some food storage to put the powder in, or maybe buy even a whole protein powder jar. Even if you portion it in storage, then you'll still have to bring over a scooper. It would have been nice to know you could bring 5 or so of those prepackaged powders with you on a trip and still be on your regular workout and nutrition schedule. Depending on the price point, i'll totally be a customer.

[bilgistic]

The protein powder couple's presentation was like the black-and-white beginning of an infomercial. It's really, really not that hard to scoop out a portion of drink mix and put it in a bottle or baggie. It bothered me that they wouldn't answer what the pods/casings were made of ("food-grade ingredient" isn't an answer). Their Amazon listing doesn't say, either. I'm guessing it's gelatin, which isn't suitable for vegetarians or vegans. One of the reviews said that the pods were delivered broken/open, so it's dubious that they would be fine just thrown in a gym bag.

I thought the beer bottle cooler just looked like a way to sneak-drink glass-bottled beer at places where it's restricted, like nearly all pools. Because the cooler looks like a water bottle, no one would think there was a beer bottle inside.

Edited November 26, 2018 by bilgistic

[hoodooznoodooz]

Maybe the beer bottle accessory targets consumers who become so intoxicated that they forget where they left their beer bottles, or that they already have one beer going, so they open a fresh, cold one, then, later on, come across the original, now room-temp beer, that they recognize from the ineffective beer cozy. 

[jcbrown]

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I thought the beer bottle cooler just looked like a way to sneak-drink glass-bottled beer at places where it's restricted, like nearly all pools. Because the cooler looks like a water bottle, no one would think there was a beer bottle inside.

 

I think protein powder is a waste of money so that pitch was totally lost on me. I'm not spending money on packaged cookies to meet the latest diet fad so that one was also lost on me. The strap guy was hopeless from the beginning.

I thought the same thing about the beer bottle cooler--that it was a way not to get cited for having an open container where it isn't allowed by disguising beer as something else. Seemed hinky to me.

Edited November 27, 2018 by jcbrown

[retrograde]

Although I don't think measuring out protein powder is really that hard, having worked sorta in that industry and seen how much people are willing to shell out for convenience, I think it'll do really well so long as the powders don't taste markedly worse than other brands. 

The cookies will do well for a year or two, but I agree with others that people will move onto the next thing faster than you can say "Zone diet."

I was pretty shocked at how well the beer thing had sold, but I guess it probably does great in the "lazy gift" market -- ie, "Ugh, it's dad's/brother's/uncle's birthday... he likes beer, that will seem like a nice gift." Also, it's been my observation that Facebook ads have picked up the mantle from Sky Mall in convincing people to buy gimmicky trinkets they'd never purchase in a real store. I wonder if it would do so well if the company stopped paying millions to push it into people's feeds. 

[Angeltoes]

19 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

After watching the update on the silicone doodad

What was the name of those things?  I wanted to look them up.

[mtlchick]

Quote

It would have been nice to know you could bring 5 or so of those prepackaged powders with you on a trip and still be on your regular workout and nutrition schedule. Depending on the price point, i'll totally be a customer.

I can see Alex and Mark combining the two with the shaker they have: buy the shaker and have a few packs coming with it.  If you bring your shaker to the gym, buy your packs at the snack bar and mix it with the amount of water that you want.  Their presentation was a (literal) mess but that was the only product I saw that had value.  

 

Quote

A-Rod was cute with the cookie remark.    

Heh.  I bet she was like "shhhh don't tell everyone I do like my sweet snacks with the abs I have!" 

[Jersey Guy 87]

19 hours ago, rhys said:

I think the bottle keepers were being compared to Yeti products which are fab& $$$. So the cost/price point is about right. I think it's a great product but I hate beer so I'm not the target plus are all bottled beers the same shape?

They sell three models on their web site.  One for taller bottles, one for bottles that are more squat and one for 22 ounce ("bomber") bottles.  Most 12 ounce beer bottles fit into one of the two standard models.

 

Of course, they completely ignore the big trend in craft beer being sold in cans.

[sr49ers2018]

whats with people yelling in season 10. cant they pitch like normal adults. the producers have made this show into a joke. shame on them if they think doing such stupidy makes the show better. infact it turns me off from a good product because the people who pitch com off as idiots.

[eel2178]

8 hours ago, mtlchick said:

Quote

A-Rod was cute with the cookie remark.    

Heh.  I bet she was like "shhhh don't tell everyone I do like my sweet snacks with the abs I have!" 

He did say she only ate one per night.

[TVbitch]

This season is frustrating. Stop tinkering. I like Original Recipe Sharks. 

[roctavia]

I don't know if it's the guest sharks or trying to tailor the products to the guest sharks, but this season has been less than thrilling.... Maybe i'm just over it? I like shark tank to see the new ideas and products people come up with, even if they are ridiculous.... More protein powders/apps/financial tools are just boring. The beer keeper thing was at least something different, even if it's not a product I would buy... but everything else this week was such a snooze... or a broken product... the strap thing could have been interesting, but I wouldn't trust it after the production issues before. 

 The banter and bargaining isn't even interesting to me any more... so I fast forward it all and don't even care if people get a deal :P

Why couldn't the protein powder be in a packet like oatmeal where you rip it open and dump it in? Why does it have to be dissolvable? (Though i'm pretty sure there are some other nutrition/replacement shakes/protein things that are already in a packet like that... so nothing propriety, but also no need to worry about what's in the packet capsule thing... and I can't see why that would be messier, just dump in the powder.

[theatremouse]

On 11/26/2018 at 1:51 PM, bilgistic said:

The protein powder couple's presentation was like the black-and-white beginning of an infomercial. It's really, really not that hard to scoop out a portion of drink mix and put it in a bottle or baggie.

While this is totally true: it's fake infomercial bullshit to suggest scooping is so onerous a task, I think they already have a pretty good answer to that argument.

Scooping detergent (either laundry or dish) is no more difficult either, and yet those pod thingies sell like madcakes. So this is just the protein powder equivalent of Tide pods. Even if they're solving a problem that isn't a problem, the proof of concept it very much out there. People will probably buy this stuff.

[needschocolate]

On 11/26/2018 at 10:05 AM, Amarsir said:

The price on most things that come through this show is pretty shocking. I liked the Bottle Keeper enough to look them up. It's $35 for the cheap one and $50 each for the "improved" model - plus shipping unless you order multiples. I'm sure they know what they're doing. With all the publicity the show gets they might as well go for premium buyers at lower volume. But for me personally it's usually out of range.

Amazon has them for $30-40 (not sure which models).  Other companies have similar beer bottle coolers for under $20.  

 

On 11/26/2018 at 1:08 PM, slowpoked said:

I see the value in prepackaged protein powders. When my husband traveled so much this past year and stayed in hotels every week, and was working out at the hotel gym, it was such a hassle to bring some food storage to put the powder in, or maybe buy even a whole protein powder jar. Even if you portion it in storage, then you'll still have to bring over a scooper. It would have been nice to know you could bring 5 or so of those prepackaged powders with you on a trip and still be on your regular workout and nutrition schedule. Depending on the price point, i'll totally be a customer.

I wonder what TSA would think about these small packets of powder in the suitcase.  Put them in your carry on and you are almost guaranteed to have to go through an extra security check.   I hope the packets are labeled well.  

 

On 11/27/2018 at 9:10 PM, roctavia said:

Why couldn't the protein powder be in a packet like oatmeal where you rip it open and dump it in? Why does it have to be dissolvable? (Though i'm pretty sure there are some other nutrition/replacement shakes/protein things that are already in a packet like that... so nothing propriety, but also no need to worry about what's in the packet capsule thing... and I can't see why that would be messier, just dump in the powder.

I think they said something about how there is less waste because the packet material is dissolvable, but don't they have to wrap the packer in something to keep it clean?  Would people really take an unwrapped packet, that has been sitting in the bottom of their gym bag, throw it into some water and drink it?  Why not throw your gym socks in with it for flavor?

[aemom]

On 11/25/2018 at 10:08 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

A-Rod was cute with the cookie remark.    

I had completely forgotten that A-Rod and JLo were together so when he talked about someone eating a cookie before bed, I asked myself, "Am I supposed to know who he's talking about?"

On 11/28/2018 at 12:21 AM, theatremouse said:

Scooping detergent (either laundry or dish) is no more difficult either, and yet those pod thingies sell like madcakes. So this is just the protein powder equivalent of Tide pods. 

I had a washing machine repair technician tell me that those pods are the worst for front-loader washing machines because there is too much soap in them.  People generally tend to put too much soap in the washers and that's the most common reason for needing a repair.