What Happened To PolarPro From Shark Tank Season 7?

Photographers, filmmakers, and content creators are always on the hunt for fresh new ways to challenge their skill sets and improve the quality of their work. Upgrading your camera equipment is a key way to do so, giving your projects a fresh look while making room for new ideas. This desire is apparently abundant in the camera accessory company PolarPro, which is part of what helped the brand and its founder land on Season 7 of the hit ABC reality series "Shark Tank."

PolarPro's specialty is developing camera equipment and technology for people on the go. Its extensive lineup contains products made to work with GoPros, smartphones, drones, and more, ensuring that quality and convenience are of top priority for customers. Among its most popular items include a built-in battery selfie stick, a specialized camera case with an integrated battery dock, and a set of heavy-duty cinematic-quality drone filters. 

Founder Jeff Overall started PolarPro in 2011. While attending the University of California Santa Barbara, Overall joined the school's ski club. He tried filming his skiing exploits but became disappointed by the low video quality. Overall soon discovered how much his footage improved when attaching a DSLR polarized filter to his GoPro, which helped protect it from harsh UV rays. This drew him to create his own line of polarized filters and other equipment for traveling outdoor content creators, using $2,000 of his student loans to start the company.

Jeff Overall sought a $500,000 investment for 10% of PolarPro. Overall entered the tank with his personality on full display, with no attempt to mask his surfer boy accent and donning a pair of flip-flops. Nevertheless, he maintained a bright and professional demeanor when demonstrating the capabilities of his equipment. Speaking with the Sharks, Overall explained that the company had 31 products out on the market, with their items available online and at 12,000 independent store locations. He also revealed their drone camera filters were its best-sellers, pricing — at the time — for between $69.99 and $149.99 and costing around $12 to produce. 

In 2011, PolarPro only made $8,000 in total revenue, which had skyrocketed to $2.8 million in 2014. The team was on track to hit over $5 million by the end of this year and had no debt. Overall credited this growth to the company's reinvestment into its product line which allowed them to consistently stay ahead of competitors. The only downside was that it ate into PolarPro's profitability, with Overall spending $1 million into research and development and only planning to make $300,000 in profits that year. However, with the rising drone market and a desire to get into big box stores such as Best Buy, Overall believed they could get to $40 to $50 million within the next few years.  

Kevin O'Leary exited the deal, worried that PolarPro would struggle against the competition and have its margins decrease over time. Lori Greiner offered $500,000 for 10%, and Daymond John offered $1 million for 17.5%. In the end, Overall went for a deal with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec for $1 million for 20% equity.

PolarPro's "Shark Tank" segment aired on November 13, 2015, as the eighth episode of Season 7. Typically, businesses that appear on the show experience a unique phenomenon known as the "Shark Tank" effect, where they see a sudden spike in sales and website traffic that occurs in the immediate aftermath of their episode airing. PolarPro was no exception, and its founder was surprised to see the "Shark Tank" effect last longer than expected. 

Speaking to Forbes a little over a month following the episode's initial broadcast, Jeff Overall shared that their website went from an average of six to 10 visitors at a time to 9,000 visitors at one point. He added, "Surprisingly, the traffic did not drop off either, we are still averaging 100-150 people on the site at any given time, which is pretty sweet." Along with seeing the increased interest as a way to attract big-name retailers such as Target and Best Buy, he also shared plans to use the capital to scale up production, add new products for drones and mobile devices to their lineup, and hop on recent industry trends. 

The deal with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec never closed, as the investors had lost interest during the due diligence period, and Overall no longer needed the funding as badly. However, that hasn't stopped the company from going through with introducing new products in the years following the show, such as the waterproof GoPro pole, the PowerGrip H2O, and the innovative lens protector – the Defender.

Even without the aid of Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec, PolarPro is still going strong. The company has a healthy presence across various platforms, with its Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and YouTube amassing well over 330,000 followers. Much of the team's content is centered around introducing products and giving handy tutorials for content creators. 

You can currently find PolarPro products online from retailers such as Amazon. It's also available at select retailers in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, France, and Germany. At one point, it seemed that PolarPro products could also be bought at Best Buy, but as of this writing, nothing from the company is in stock at any location. The best place to acquire any of PolarPro's products is its official website. Here you'll find its extensive array of filters, matte boxes, drone and GoPro accessories, adapters, step-up rings, mobile phone filmmaker kits, and more.

Jeff Overall and company have managed to take PolarPro to some exciting places in the years following "Shark Tank," and it's likely they'll continue soaring. With drones continuing to evolve and their usage expected to rise, PolarPro is sure to continue building an audience. And as the brand moves into the future, it's more ready than ever to widen its horizons. 

While PolarPro is mostly known for its outdoor camera products, the company has more recently been dabbling into other areas of camera tech that promise more exciting advancements down the line. In August 2024, PolarPro introduced its first set of DSLR lenses called the LightLeak Series. Currently available in 16mm, 28mm, and 50mm focal lengths, the lenses are specially designed to invoke the essence of film-style photography, thanks in large part to its customizable light leak feature that gives images and videos an added sense of warmth and texture. The few that have purchased them so far have mostly seemed to enjoy them, judging from its four-star average rating on the site. If anywhere near as successful as its other products, it's likely that the company will continue expanding its DSLR lens selection. 

PolarPro's next big release in September 2024 would be more direct in its efforts to appeal to film fans. The FilmVault is a sleek aluminum film canister made in collaboration with world-renowned photographer Peter McKinnon as a simple yet secure method of housing up to five film rolls, with options for 35mm and 120 medium format rolls. With film usage becoming increasingly trendy among photographers, PolarPro is sure to find its place in this market as well.