BearTek Smart Glove Update | Shark Tank Season 7
Controlling your smartphone while you’re on the slopes (or just wearing gloves to keep your hands warm) can be a pain. What happens when you want to change the track you’re listening to in the middle of a ski hill? That’s where BearTek comes in. Willie Blount and Tarik Rodgers created a glove that helps control your smartphone without having to touch the phone at all. Will the sharks love this product as much as they do on
Shark Tank BearTek Update
- Entrepreneurs: Willie Blount and Tarik Rodgers
- Business: Bluetooth smart gloves for controlling devices
- Ask: $500,000 for 5% equity
- Result: No deal
- Shark: None
Willie and Tarik are both avid outdoorsmen, especially on the slopes or while riding their bikes. Neither of these activities makes it simple to use your smartphone, especially if you want to change music tracks or change the volume without stopping. They created the Beartek glove to create a link between your fingers and your smartphone while the phone is still in your pocket.
Deluxe drum dyed leather palm & fingers. Made in USA and Imported. Wireless control of action camera (GoPro camera).
The module they used inside the gloves helped you control any device. However, the gloves weren’t the only product that could use the module. Willie and Tarik revealed that they want to be in the module business, not the glove business. In the 15 months before filming, they had $200,000 in sales. However, Tarik put in $500,000 to start the business, and they were presenting a valuation of $10 million. The sharks were not happy about this high valuation.
Robert Herjavec said they needed to move beyond gloves at that valuation, and Daymond John just doesn’t believe the company is worth that much. They tried to reassure the sharks that voice recognition, a competing technology, makes mistakes. However, Kevin O’Leary thought the market might have advanced beyond the need for this technology. He went out.
Mark Cuban didn’t think there was enough reward for the risk, so he went out, too. Daymond followed because the valuation was too high. Robert said he didn’t want to be in the glove business for this much money, so he went out. Lori Greiner thought Willie and Tarik were smart and had something, but they need to figure some things out. She went out, too.
Even though BearTek walked away without a deal, how is the company doing now? Find out in our BearTek update.
Unfortunately, it’s bad news for BearTek. Though they had a successful IndieGoGo campaign (which raised $60k), the company refunded all backing. The website is currently dark. It looks like company is nearly out of business, but our BearTek update research revealed that you can still purchase the gloves on Amazon.
But what about the other companies featured in Season 7 Episode 16? You can find our company updates for those products here.
Before you go, be sure to stop by our Season 7 Products Page for more on companies and products.
Andrew Smith is the founder and owner of Shark Tank Recap. He is a longtime Shark Tank fan that has been watching it for years and has seen every episode multiple times. His friends know him as the Shark Tank expert, because he can answer any question about the show! His favorite Shark Tank products are Bertello's pizza oven and Bug Bite Thing!