‘Shark Tank’ preview: Man-Pack, The Natural Grip, Bottle Breacher, Priority One Canine, and a RuckPack update

Friday night’s new episode of “Shark Tank” is going to be a little bit different than most. With Veteran’s Day right around the corner, all of the businesses in the Tank are going to have ties to the military in some way courtesy of their entrepreneurs. Hopefully, the show finds a way to honor them, while also give us the same show that we’re accustomed to as viewers. An overly-sentimental Tank is never a good Tank.

As always when we do a preview article, we start with sharing the official synopsis that has come in courtesy of the folks over at ABC:

“Entrepreneurs with military backgrounds appear on this episode airing during Veterans Small Business Week 2014. Sharks Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavec and Daymond John, along with the successful entrepreneurs behind jewelry line Stella Valle and energy drink Ruckpack, were invited speakers at a ‘Champions of Change’ event, offering advice to veteran and active duty entrepreneurs. In addition, in this episode, a Captain in the Army Corps of Engineers who is based in Louisville, Kentucky has a great solution for those who, like her, are fans of physical training but need a non-slip protective glove to safely shield hands from injury during weight and bar work; a former Marine and his wife from Columbus, OH, seek a $75,000 investment for their elite canine training program; a young Army vet from Front Royal, VA has designed the perfect carrying case for men; and a former Navy SEAL and his wife from Tucson, AZ have a unique bottle opener made of recycled .50 caliber shells. Do these accomplished entrepreneurs have the right stuff to convince a Shark to invest?”

Here are some of the specific products that you can expect to see in the episode. Update: Check out our review of tonight’s episode here.

Bottle Breacher – An innovative way to make bottle openers using dummy ammunition that is hand-crafted, unique, and of the highest quality. This is a great gift product, but we cannot see it scaling to be a business so large that the sharks will want to bite on it.

Man-Pack – It’s hard to know just based on a superficial look if there is anything that special about this modified version of a backpack compared to other products out there. Still, it seems well-designed, and could become a popular brand with the right marketing behind it.

Priority One Canine – Basically, they train and sell guard dogs, to put it in the simplest terms. We understand that there are many benefits here and we’re a longtime dog lover, but we cannot get behind their price tags. These probably are the best trained dogs on the planet, but since they cost as much as some people make in the year, this really cannot be scaled at all.

The Natural Grip – Probably great for weight training, but it has the same problem as every other product here, save for Man-Pack. There is not a whole lot of crossover potential present here, and it is a specialized product for a specialized group of people. Still, we do think this one has a slight chance of making some money.

We’ll of course have more coverage of Friday night’s “Shark Tank” here, including our review for this particular episode. Also, you can sign up to get even more update on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via ABC.)