CINCINNATI — Three brothers from Cincinnati are taking their family love of skiing, their prior career experiences, and lots of local help to ABC's "Shark Tank" Friday night.
"We're all fans of the show, we've been watching it for years," said David Pease, who runs operations for Rekkie. "We never dreamed we'd have a product that would go on Shark Tank."
The product is Rekkie, ski goggles that use augmented reality to show your speed, location, direction, texts and calls — and the location of your friends.
"If I hold down on the map, I can drop a pin and then it shows up as a waypoint in the goggles and shows up for all my friends too," said inventor Henry Pease.
The screen sits above your line of sight, near the top of the goggles. It's all controlled by head motion and one big button on the side.
"The idea is that anytime your phone buzzes, you don't have to take your gloves off," said Fletcher Pease, who handles sales for Rekkie.
It was Henry, though, who came up with the idea while making trips to Tahoe as he worked with augmented reality and VR headsets in his job in northern California. He saw a problem: Waiting for his friends or getting separated from them on the slopes.
He inspired to find a way to use the emerging technology to solve that problem.
"I kept thinking, 'Wouldn't it be cool to have all that information right there in a simple heads-up display?'" Henry said. "So, we built it."
The brothers — scattered across the country in established careers — came home to make it happen.
"We'd always talked about starting a company together," David said. "But Cincinnati was the place we were able to actually come home and do that."
And the brothers are doing almost all of it here.
"It's a really hometown effort," said David. "Everything from a buddy we went to high school with helped us design the logo and the app, to Designfusion 3D printing these cases, to DF Electronics helping put all the stuff together to make a really high quality product."
You read that right. The apparatus that holds the electronics on the side of a helmet is 3D printed by a Milford company.
"This is not your average desktop 3D printer, they have some serious machines," said Henry. "It's really easy to assemble, it all just snaps together around the strap and it's such a cool shape. We found [3D printing] was the best way to manufacture it."
And what about the name Rekkie? It came from a friend too.
"Rekkie is British military slang for a reconnaissance mission," Fletcher said. "And we thought that was perfect."
The Pease brothers said they're on their third production run of Rekkie goggles, one year into sales. They've sold hundreds of pairs and are getting ready to ramp up ahead of Christmas and ski season.
"Toward the middle and end of ski season last year, they really caught on," David said. "We had a critical mass of people on the slopes wearing our products. As soon as you tell somebody it's like a head-up video game, they're like 'oh my god, I need that.'"
And they've found the goggles have applications beyond the slopes. The brothers said they've had users reach out to show the goggles' advantages in paintball and other sports — even in the air. David said a guy sent a video of him flying, using them for wayfinding. And they hope future advancements with the goggles could help military and search and rescue teams.
The brothers join a large list of Cincinnati startups and inventors who have pitched ABC's Sharks on the popular show: Grilled cheese restaurant Tom and Chee, a Liberty Township teen's "Touch Up Cup," the Uprising"food revolution," and many more.
On Friday's episode, the brothers caught a shark. Mark Cuban made them a deal, investing $300,000 for a 12.5% stake in the company.
They watched the episode - which had been shrouded in secrecy until air date - with family and supporters in Over-the-Rhine Friday night.
You can watch Shark Tank on Fridays at 8 p.m. on WCPO 9.
