The Wingman Life Jacket Update | Shark Tank Season 9

Andrew Smith October 23, 2022June 11, 2023

The Wingman is a redesigned life jacket brand that was featured on Shark Tank Season 9. Mike Fox and Pat Hughes, two friends from Milwaukee, were seeking $200,000 in exchange for 12.5% equity in their life jacket company. Let’s see if they managed to get a deal before we jump ahead to the Wingman update.

Shark Tank The Wingman Update

Entrepreneurs: Mike Fox and Pat Hughes
Business: Life Jackets
Ask: $200,000 for 12.5% equity
Result: No deal
Sharks: None

At the time of the pitch, The Wingman was just one of Mike and Pat’s early ideas of how to redesign the life jacket. While they believed they already had a better version of the traditional life jacket, these two entrepreneurs told the sharks that the longer-term vision was to create technology that automatically inflates the life jacket when it is detected in water.

Hyde Wingman Inflatable Life Jacket - Black

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This would be a smart life jacket system that would have to eventually be developed by The Wingman down the road. The sharks were intrigued by that idea, however, they were more focused on the physical product that was already created instead of the long-term vision.

Mike and Pat told the sharks that the landed manufacturing cost was approximately $65 and that the product could be sold at a price point of $250. In the last ten months, the company had generated more than $100,000 in revenue.

Many of the sharks had concerns about just how small the market would be for this particular product. Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and guest shark Sara Blakely all dropped out fairly quickly because they were intimidated by the niche and competitive market that The Wingman was exposed to.

Mark Cuban dropped out as well, but Kevin O’Leary was willing to make a greedy offer.

Kevin offered $200,000 for 50% equity in the company. After realizing that it was too much equity to give up at such an early stage in the company’s growth, the offer was ultimately declined.

Now, let’s quickly get a The Wingman update to see how the company has been doing since rejecting Kevin O’Leary’s offer on Shark Tank.

It looks like things are going well for Mike and Pat, as it can be purchased online through the company’s official website. It can also be purchased on Amazon, and has tons of positive reviews.

Additionally, Mike and Pat also managed to cut costs enough to lower their price point under $199. While we don’t have any updated sales numbers to offer, it seems that our The Wingman update is a success.

You can find the other company updates from Season 9 Episode 19 here:

Don’t forget to take a look at our Season 9 products page! We’ve got more company updates from Shark Tank Season 9.

Andrew Smith

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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!