Investors can be won over by an 8-year-old on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
Gavin Batarse, the CEO of Glove Wrap and an enthusiastic baseball player, was the child featured in Friday’s show. Gavin pitched his invention, which helps baseball players break in their stiff new gloves by making the leather more malleable and bending its pocket to the curve of the ball, alongside his father Jon and sister Morgan Batarse.
He said, “Glove Wrap is an elastic band that has precisely the right amount of width, length, and thickness to form a perfect pocket and break in your entire baseball glove.” “Just put some Glove Wrap around a ball and seal it inside a glove.” That’s all there is to it.
The business is located in Orange County, California, and competes with a wide range of homemade cures that have been produced over the decades. The family demanded $50,000 for 20% of the company. The methods used by baseball players to break in their gloves vary greatly; they can include anything from hot water and a “glove mallet” to a variety of lubricants and conditioners.
Some baseball players stuff their gloves beneath couches or wrap them in rubber bands. Some swear by a more straightforward technique: just keep hitting baseballs with your new glove.
Gavin charmed the Sharks with his enthusiasm as he discussed the origins of Glove Wrap.
“I recently bought a new glove with my dad, and we were going to break it in with rubber bands the old-fashioned way, but we ran out of them,” he remarked. “My dad used this piece of rubber when he injured his leg, so I found it and I asked if we could use it to wrap the entire glove.”
Similarly, Gavin didn’t panic when it came time to discuss the numbers.
More than 1,000 glove wraps have been sold. [Since introduction in 2022] lifetime sales have exceeded $19,000,” he stated. “The total cost of production is $3, including all expenses. We charge $10 for wholesale and $19.99 for retail sales.
With millions of children and Major League Baseball players in the United States alone, there is a sizable potential market. According to Gavin, he needed assistance getting his goods into stores like Dick’s Sporting Goods.
A larger concept came to Mark Cuban.
“I reasoned that every baseball team in the nation, professional and minor league in particular, would want to give their own to their players and supporters,” Cuban remarked. Thus, you might sell a number of them at once rather than just one at a time.
The majority of Sharks withdrew their bids, citing their best matches as Michael Rubin, the CEO and founder of sports retailer Fanatics, and Cuban as special guests. Rubin remarked, “I think you’re going to be successful and I want to be able to invest in anything you do going forward.”
Rubin insisted that he would only make a proposal if Cuban also participated. Cuban accepted and told the family, “We have to be Sharks, you realize that?” to set up the offer.
$50,000 was exchanged for a 22% ownership share in Glove Wraps. Gavin welcomed with joy.
Morgan stated, “I was expecting 40% or 50%, not 22%, when Mark said, ‘I have a Shark-y deal.'”
Gavin is not the youngest youngster to receive an offer from “Shark Tank.” For instance, in 2020, Sofi Overton, then 13 years old, negotiated a $35,000 investment offer for her “socks with pockets” business, Wise Pocket Products, from Lori Greiner and Daymond John.
At the time, Barbara Corcoran live-tweeted on X, then known as Twitter, saying, “I always love to see a #kidtrepreneur in the tank.” “Being young when you launch your firm has advantages. There is nothing to lose and just upward movement.
