‘Shark Tank’ preview: Sway Motorsports, Spikeball, Shark Wheel, and Gato Cafe
The finale for “Shark Tank” is airing on Friday night, and be prepared for this one yet again to be stuffed full of surprises. Traditionally these are episodes where crazy deals happen, and we would be surprised to see anything different here. Add to that the presence of GoPro’s own Nick Woodman for the second time this season in the place of Robert Herjavec. He’s a guy who likes extreme innovations, and at least three products on this episode feel like potential investment opportunities for him. Also, there’s a cafe with a ton of cats in it.
As with all of our other “Shark Tank” preview pieces, let’s start by sharing the episode’s synopsis:
“Young billionaire Nick Woodman, Founder and CEO of GoPro, returns to the Tank bringing his business and investment expertise as a Guest Shark. A cat lover from Boca Raton, FL hopes to find the purr-fect partner to invest in her idea where patrons can enjoy adorable rescue cats while relaxing at a café; a toy designer from Mountain View, CA has an all-electric compact vehicle that merges the thrill of a motorcycle with an added degree of maneuverability; a Lake Forest, California company claims to have literally reinvented a wheel that they say has scientifically proven performance advantages over the original.”
Shark Wheel – These are made for performance on skateboards and longboards, and we cannot tell you one thing about whether or not they work. They do seem mightily cool in theory, and with Woodman on the panel, doesn’t this seem like a perfect fit for him? GoPros are designed to work in high-octane environments.
Gato Cafe – We’re pretty sure that we saw this on “The Amazing Race” this season in Asia: A cafe where people have a tea or coffee while people spend time with cats, who are all going to be up for adoption. It’s a well-intentioned idea; we just cannot figure out if it is actually good, or actually so terrible that we cannot put it into words. What if the cats start barfing all of the place or fight with each other? Where will the litter be? Also, as a cat lover, we do wonder whether or not these cats would try to constantly dip their paws into whatever you are drinking while meowing at you relentlessly.
Spikeball – Educating people about a new game is never an easy task, even if this seems like something that is reasonably fun and relatively low-maintenance to set up. We would describe it almost as a modified volleyball game with a tiny net in the middle that almost serves as a trampoline. It reminds us somewhat of racquetball. We’d play it, but we are not sure we would invest in it yet.
Sway Motorsports – It’s an interesting idea: An electric-powered, three-wheeled “trike” that is billed as having exceptional performance, while also having an added layer of safety. It can park in motorcycle spots, and in California can be driven with just a regular license. It’s a cool-looking product, but these are very much high risk and high reward.
If you have not seen some other recent highlights from this season of the show, you can do so by heading over to the link here. Also, sign up here to bite into some other TV news on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)