Ionic Ear has gone down in "Shark Tank" history as one of the show's most infamous presentations, with the sharks picking it as one of the most outrageous pitches they've ever sat through. Yet, in entrepreneur Darrin Johnson's mind, his strange concept was a window into the future.
Johnson pitched his idea on the first episode of "Shark Tank," where he sought an investment of $1 million for 15% of his company. Johnson's hope was that his product would help stop the annoyance of Bluetooth technology falling out of the user's ears. But his solution was a drastic one — his plan was to surgically place the Ionic Ear just underneath the user's ear lobe. The skin-crawling idea turns the sharks off immediately. As if that wasn't baffling enough, Johnson also informed them that users would need to place a long needle directly into their ear every night in order to charge the device. Additionally, if you ever needed an upgrade, you'd have to get another surgery.
Johnson stated that safety features will be implemented and even tried comparing the concept to breast implants, saying that the product will require additional research and testing to get the public to buy into it. But it did little to save him; every shark went out, with all of them finding his product disturbing, to say the least. Unsurprisingly, the Ionic Ear has not advanced much since then; in fact, work on Johnson's invention appears to have stopped entirely.
