Fresh off his recent appearance on NBC’s Shark Tank, Rasmus Barfred one of the co-founders of the innovative new Magic 5 swim goggles discusses their revolutionary new product. One that not only caught his company a couple of sharks eager to invest but is making the world reimagine how a performance swim goggle should fit.

Barfred and his partners Bo Haaber (CEO) and Niklas Hedegaard (COO) successfully pitched their product for investment on the hit TV show back in October. In our one-on-one interview, we asked Barfred how he and his colleagues first got into the competitive swim goggle space.

Behind The Magic 5 Swim Goggles

“It came out of our own frustrations with the existing goggles on the market,” said Barfred, “we both did Triathalon and the idea came upon us when Bo attended a training vacation in Europe and forgot his goggles. He went out and bought whatever he could find but nothing really worked for him. So, he ended up being in this training camp for 2 weeks and not really swimming. That’s where we basically started up with the idea.”

Co-founder, Bo Haaber has a background in software development, while Niklas Hedegaard was a professional swimmer for the Danish national team. Rasmus Barfred brought his experience in launching startups and branding, and the Magic 5 team was born.

In describing how he and his partners came up with the Magic 5 brand name, Barfred said the name applies to the innovative tech which is actually where the magic happens. “We quickly realized that we wanted to make a product that catered to everyone who swims,” said Barfred, “not just triathletes and competitive swimmers. We wanted to make a product that we could sell to everyone and that meant that we had to have a price point that was competitive. We put ourselves in a situation where we wanted to apply technology in the last 5% of the product where we could create a product that fit much better.”

What’s Different About The Magic 5 Swim Goggles?

The product differentiates itself from all others on the market in that the Magic 5 goggles are specifically designed for the end-users face. We took a deeper dive with Barfred who broke down the technology behind what makes Magic 5 so unique.

“All other swimming goggles are kind of ‘one-size-fits-all’. Now matter how big a face you have, or how deep your eye sockets are, you buy a product from a retailer and just hope for the best,” said Barfred, “We turned that around and wanted to make one product for one customer. It is bespoke product and a tailor-made goggle.”

Consumers who are looking for a custom-fit pair of swim goggles, can hop onto the Magic 5 website and download their proprietary face-scanning app. The technology maps every contour of the customer’s face and links that data to their order. This is where the magic happens.

Using AI Technology To Build Better Goggles

“Our AI technology is basically a huge set of rules that we have learned over the course of the last four years. These rules determine and understand how we should produce the product so that it fits your face the best possible way,” explained Barfred.

The end result is a swim goggle that is 100% unique to the end-user and is custom-tailored to only fit their face and no one else’s. The incredibly personalized and precision-made fit, ensures zero leakage thanks to special gaskets used in the product design. This technology allows for better fitting goggles that never leak and don’t leave unsightly suction marks on the swimmers who wear them.

“When people put on the goggles for the first time, they’re like ‘wow, this is very different than what I’m used to’,” said Barfred, “the goggles are molded to your eyes. When you swim, you don’t need to wear the strap as tight. We have a lot of customers who can’t believe how well they work strapped on so loose, but if you dive in you can feel the difference at how well the goggles naturally sit on your face.”

Introduction To The Swimming Goggle Market

The road from concept to completion started off with a grassroots campaign on Kickstarter to crowdsource participation from the swimming community. Generating an incredible response, the founders were able to raise over $100,000 from 1,184 backers who believed in the product. “Today, we have over 70,000 customers wearing our goggles,” said Barfed.

Over 90% reported that the product fit better than the goggles they currently used. Having received rave reviews in SwimSwam, Swim News, and a variety of other journals, it is safe to say that the swimming community is excited about The Magic 5. The product received approval from the International Governing Body of Swimming (FINA) which makes the goggles approved for usage in competition. Most recently, three athletes competed wearing The Magic 5 goggles in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Initial testers of the product included a list of olympic athletes, professional swimmers, pro triathletes, top-tier swim coaches, and regular swimmers from across the globe. In fact, Olympic gold medalists Jan Frodeno and Matt Grevers came on as professional athlete endorsers and investors in the product, adding their passion and value to The Magic 5 brand.

Positioning In The Global Swim Goggle Market

Both competitive and recreational swimmers are incredibly focused on improving their technique. Having a better fitting goggle allows them to focus more on swimming; thereby providing a better experience for the end-user. “The bulk of our customers are recreational swimmers,” said Barfred, “for us, it is important because it is the biggest sector of the market.”

While most Triathletes reportedly spent an average of $48 for a pair of swim goggles, swimmers on the high-end spent an average of $80. The Magic 5 is competitively positioned with goggles retailing for $55-$65 per pair.

Exactly how big is the swim goggle market? “Approximately 70 million people or 9% of the population of the western world, swim for fitness purposes,” said Barfred. “On average, these consumers buy one pair of goggles per year. It’s like a pair of running shoes, you wear them down over time and need a new pair.”

Barfred also noted that recreational and competitive swimmers often buy 2 pairs of goggles, one for outdoor swimming and one for indoor swimming. With a line of different colored lenses to suit both, Magic 5 is appealing to those who are looking for a more satisfying swimming experience.

The Magic 5 on Shark Tank

Capturing a larger portion of the roughly $6 billion dollar swim goggle market is first priority for The Magic 5 and was their driving intention to go on Shark Tank. Appearing on the show to pitch their product to the sharks presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Denmark natives.

“Just having the opportunity to go on Shark Tank was a really big deal for us,” said Barfred, “to put things in comparison, there are as many viewers of each Shark Tank episode as there are people in Denmark.”

The Magic 5 founders were well prepared to pitch to the sharks, immediately winning them over with the tech behind the goggles. “I think one of our advantages is that our business is born in data and technology,” explained Barfred, “everything that goes on behind the scenes is data-driven. From how you scan your face, to how we make sure that every goggle is produced to fit the exact curvature of your eyes and really giving you that next-level experience.”

Attracting The Sharks

“I think that whole narrative the sharks really resonated with,” said Barfred “we really understand the data points in our business. I think we were in a good position to share data and strategy and what we want to achieve. We feel we are solving a genuine problem for swimmers with our product. The most important thing to fix was the fit and comfort of a pair of swimming goggles and we’ve done that,” he explained.

It certainly struck a chord with Mark Cuban who threw out the first offer of $500,000 for a 7.5% equity stake after immediately recognizing the potential of not only the product, but the technology driving it. “You’re not a goggle company,” said Cuban, “this is a technology company, it’s a robotics company that happens to make swimming goggles.”

A Bidding War Erupts Between The Sharks

Ultimately a bidding war broke out with Kevin O’Leary and guest shark Nirav Tolia throwing in their lot together to counter offer $500,000 for 5% equity, plus a royalty of $3 a unit. Sharks Robert Herjavec and Lori Greiner looked poised to counter that with an offer of $500,000 for 5% with no royalty.

That moment was the turning point in the conversation for the Magic 5 founders who would spend additional time off-camera pitching their product. “We were in the tank pitching it for 55 minutes, what you see on television is only a snapshot of that. As soon it was established that we were a technology company that makes swim goggles, we actually got 2 offers from each of them,” said Barfred.

On camera, Robert Herjavec decided to go solo at the last second and dropped a bombshell offering of $1M for 6.5% which the founders were thrilled to accept.

“At the end, we actually wound up making a deal with Robert Herjavec, his daughter was a competitive swimmer in Canada. He actually said at one point, ‘why has no one made this before, this makes so much sense. This is a product that is relevant to all swimmers in all walks of life’ and we couldn’t agree more.” said Barfred.

Ultimately Cuban wound up coming in on the investment with Herjavec after the show aired. “They decided to split the deal and asked us if we were interested in that and of course we were,” said Barfred. Having both involved in the deal would mean twice the firepower and a tremendous show of faith from the two sharks.

The path is brightly lit for The Magic 5. Given the amount of data they are getting from consumers and how applicable the AI technology is in the application of other products, we asked Rasmus whether he saw the potential for other Magic 5 products on the horizon.

“Right now we have a very clear strategy for our business and swimming goggle product. We live and breath the goggles and we think it’s such a good opportunity,” said Barfred, “there is no one else on the market that does what we do and no one that caters to all swimmers on the market. The more customers we get, the more data we get, the easier it is to branch into other products. The swimming goggles are our greenhouse.”

Listen to our entire interview with Rasmus Barfred, co-founder of Magic 5 on the Pool Magazine Podcast