Clean Bottle, the water bottle that unscrews at both ends for easy cleaning, received an offer to invest $60,000 from billionaire, Mark Cuban, on the season Premier of ABC's Shark Tank. Clean Bottle owner David Mayer teamed up with his biggest supporter, NBA Champion and sports commentator, Bill Walton, who surprised the panel of judges by dressing up as a gigantic water bottle in a show of support for the product.
“Ride clean or die!,” exclaimed Walton as he removed the giant bottle lid, revealing himself to the panel of 'Sharks.' The season premiere of 'Shark Tank' aired this past Friday, January 20th, 2012 on the ABC Television Network. The segment can be found here: http://abc.go.com/watch/shark-tank/SH559076/VD55164942/week-1
Clean Bottle was designed by David Mayer, Ironman triathlete and Stanford graduate from Silicon Valley, California. After constantly struggling to clean out the gunk and mold from the bottom of his water bottle, Mayer came up with the idea for Clean Bottle.
“As an athlete, I was always using water bottles, but they were impossible to clean,” Mayer explained to the panel. “One day while I was on a bike ride the idea hit me – if I could unscrew the bottom as well as the top, then the bottle would be much easier to keep clean.”
Mayer's simple invention was well received.
“It's so simple, it's one of those ideas that when you first showed it to me, I thought – of course…,”said judge and technology mogul Robert Herjavec.
Working from his garage and entirely self-funded with limited resources, Mayer launched the Clean Bottle's path to success through unique and sometimes wacky grass roots marketing. In 2010, Mayer debuted “Bottle Boy”, donning a giant water bottle costume to chase riders in the Tour de France. In just 2 short weeks, Clean Bottle sold over $70,000 in bottles and today, can be found in over 4,000 retail stores and major distributors throughout the US and Europe including REI, Performance Bicycle, Dicks, 24 Hour Fitness, Sports Chalet and GNC.
