The pitch that most resonated with me from Shark Tank Season 15, Episode 7, was the product called “Rekkie”. The product they sell is smart ski goggles, with a built-in heads-up display that shows, among other things, where your friends are on the mountain. The reason this product appealed to me is that I could identify with the problem they presented: multiple family and friends on a mountain and not being able to find them all after a run. It results in a lot of time just waiting around for everyone to gather. Since the problem that their product was solving seemed very personal to me, I was excited about the product that offered a solution.
The goggles work by projecting information onto a heads-up display that seems to float in front of your eyes, without being distracting. The information that is shown includes, your speed, your elevation and where your friends are, and it also allows you to control your music or read your texts. The gap that this product fills is that there is no “hands free” way to find your friends on a ski slope. Taking out your phone and looking for them is usually not feasible when either on a lift or when skiing and often you do not have service on the slopes, so your phone does not even help. These goggles help fill that gap and creates a hands-free, no phone way to stay connected.
The segment of consumers will want this product are people who ski or snowboard, or who do other extreme sports where holding a phone is not possible and they will seek out Rekkie because there is no other product like it on the market. In the same way that it is hard to imagine life without a smart phone today, consumers will realize that this product just extends their phone to a place where it was not practical to use. Therefore, they will realize that they need this product.
In terms of branding and packaging, this product is more of a “specialty” product and as such, it would probably be best sold in ski shops and on ski websites. It can also be profiled in tech magazines to promote the technology aspect of the goggles. The price point is not much different than other high-end goggles, so why would anyone buy a “dumb” pair of goggles, if they could get these for a similar price? I was not so sure what the name of the brand came from so I looked it up online. It seems that “REKKIE” is British military slang for reconnaissance. I really like that name but it should be explained more upfront so consumers can understand right away what these goggles are intended to help with. I think that the consumer who wants to buy these goggles probably likes to think of themselves as an explorer, and so owning a pair of goggles whose name links to a reconnaissance term, would be appealing.
One interesting thing that was mentioned at the end of the segment on the goggles was that it could have applications for military and police use. I thought that this was a fascinating use of the product and the technology. However, I think that if they were going to market to the military, they probably should only license the technology rather than supply the actual goggles, because many people would not want to purchase something that has a military application.
