‘Shark Tank’ preview: Hungry Harvest, Ezpz, Sprëtz, Controlled Chaos, and a LuminAid update
“Shark Tank” is doing a rare thing this week in airing a pair of all-new episodes, and we’re here to provide some of your first information all about Friday’s! There are four new products once again entering the tank, and you know that you have seen a lot on this show when some of the products start to all feel similar. We’ll get more to that a little bit later in this preview when talking about the products.
Before we get into that, the Sharks for this episode are Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary, and Robert Herjavec. (No Daymond John this time.) Take a a look at the attached synopsis:
“Three friends from Oakland, CA try to sell the sharks on a breath freshener that has dual uses; a woman from Parker, CO seeks a huge valuation for a functional kid’s placemat; and a 23-year-old Baltimore man wants to fight hunger and help the environment with his “ugly” produce subscription service — will the sharks find it attractive? Plus, a follow up on the Houston-based founders of LuminAid, inflatable, solar-powered lights in which Mark Cuban invested during Season Six.”
Hungry Harvest – The best way to describe this is that it is Plated or Blue Apron, but with produce. To go into more specifics, they use often recovered produce and package things together for shipments direct to consumers. They also have a package of just organic fruits and vegetables, and also one with just fruits. We’ve certainly seen similar produce-only concepts before, but their commitment to helping those in need is part of what makes them stand out. These are also mission statements that the show tends to love.
Ezpz – Hate the name, mostly because it takes a minute for the consumer to understand, and it looks like someone tried to spell ESPN and failed badly. Also, there’s a toilet product that has been on “Shark Tank” with a similar name. The product line itself is interesting: Silicon “happy mats” and bowls that make feeding a better, easier experience for parents and kids. It’s not the most innovative thing ever, but the products are bright, colorful, and fun. They could be an easy sell right out of the Tank.
Sprëtz – It’s a mint / hand freshener that comes in a couple of different flavors, and it’s all-natural to go along with it. There is an all-natural movement these days, but is that going to be enough to differentiate this from all of the other mints / gum / sprays that are out there? The biggest challenge we see here is mostly that you are entering a category we already consider to be fairly overcrowded. It’s going to be a challenge.
Controlled Chaos – The product itself couldn’t be further out of our wheelhouse. Yet, we love the sleek packaging, the name is a little edgy, and they make it easy to understand what the curl creme is for. and the following description from the website probably explains precisely why it is different than competitors: “Get soft, defined, bouncy, shiny curls with our naturally scented, vegan, sulfate and paraben-free, pH-balanced, organic natural hair products. All of our products contain organic, responsibly sourced ingredients from growers in the United States and are never tested on animals.”
If you missed the “Shark Tank” episode from earlier this week, head over here to read our review all about it! Also, you can sign up right here to score some further TV news on everything we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)