‘Shark Tank’ review: Grinds Coffee Pouches, HoodiePillow, My Cold Snap, Green Garmento

Sometimes on “Shark Tank,” we see some small business home runs. The bad news with the products this week is that we’re not altogether sure that any of the ones featured are going to change the consumer world. That’s not to say that we are looking at a field of duds, though: some of these (but not all of them) could create some nice little businesses for themselves thanks to the immense platform that this show provides.

As always, the following is just our two cents on all of the pitches along with the results from the show. Want to pick up the products for yourself? All you have to do is click on any of the links below to head over to their official websites.

The Green Garmento – What a mess this eco-friendly bag turned out to be! On the surface, the product seemed rather brilliant in that it was a green-friendly laundry bag that could save dry cleaners and the consumers money over a period of time. Unfortunately, the innovation of the product just could not compensate for the fact that the business had an enormous amount of debt that it would struggle to pay back. This is not a billion-dollar business that we’re looking at here, and no shark wants to bite on a business that already has some significant money problems.

Grinds Coffee Pouches – We really like the idea of this product, though as someone who has never smoked tobacco before, we have no idea as to whether or not a coffee supplement to chewing tobacco would actually be effective at the end of the day. We applaud these baseball guys for having something out there that could legitimately saving some lives, though, and while Mark Cuban is right in that this is probably not a huge business, it is still something that there is a market for.

The Grinds guys (as we will playfully call them) scored the night’s first victory, as Daymond John and Robert Herjavec went in 50-50 on the deal, taking 15% of the company.

My Cold Snap – This was one of the strangest pitches we’ve ever seen on the show. These two guys did not want to give away a share of the company; they wanted to give away the entire thing, and to make matters ever crazier this business was dead for almost a decade prior to them re-launching it, obviously hoping that this show could help them out.

A portable cooler sounds like a pretty decent idea if you are out by yourself, but why would you carry around four of these “cold snaps” when you could just put the four drinks in an actual cooler? There was little practical value in the business, their lack of interest in owning a share of it was strange, and the presentation was terrible. Consider this a snap back to reality.

HoodiePillow – This was the subject of our preview article for the show, and it’s basically the Snuggie in hoodie form: it’s literally a pillow that has a hoodie attached to it, that way you can relax while lying down, and there’s also a use for it you want to  avoid looking at people or to sleep during the daytime.

The funny thing is that it was actually the TravelPillow companion, designed more for airplanes, that was the more useful of the two products (even though they are both extremely comical in appearance alone). Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran all went in with offers, but Robert Herjavec actually swept in at the last minute and literally gave them exactly what they were looking for. Why? He felt that co-owner Rebecca, who scored big with CitiKitty, would do the same here.

Which of these products were your favorite this week? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can check out some other highlights from “Shark Tank” this season over at the link here.

Photo: ABC