Muddy Water Camo Goes into the Shark Tank
OutdoorHub 02.11.13
Forbes magazine called the “Shark Tank” reality show “a picture of what the American dream is all about.” That’s why Madison, Mississippi’s Muddy Water Camo is a perfect fit for the show. Muddy Water Camo’s developers, Steve Maloney and Stephen Kirkpatrick, were chosen from more than 30,000 applicants to make a presentation to the show’s panel of “shark” investors during the fourth season of “Shark Tank.” The episode is scheduled to air on Friday, February 22 at 8:00 Central time on the ABC television network. The popular show is drawing 6.8 million viewers an episode.
After more than four years in development, Muddy Water Camo officially launched in February, 2012 with a full line of products available for duck hunting. Products include jackets, caps and hats, masks, waders, gear bags and more, all in the most realistic camo pattern ever created.
The idea for Muddy Water Camo began with the company’s founder, Steve Maloney, an obsessed duck hunter who had spent more than 30 years wading through marshes, waiting in blinds, and explaining to his wife why a duck hunting lease was, indeed, a necessity. During all those years in the field, Maloney spotted a need as big as the outdoors that was going unmet.
“I realized that every available camouflage pattern seem designed for hunting deer in the woods,” Maloney says. “None of those patterns looked like the marshes and flooded fields where I was hunting ducks. And it seemed to me that if you’re hunting a bird with webbed feet, your camo really ought to feature water.”
When he couldn’t find a pattern designed specifically for hunting waterfowl, Maloney decided to create his own, partnering with award-winning wildlife photographer Stephen Kirkpatrick to create a revolutionary new concept in camouflage. Four years, 1,059 photographs, and 103 pattern drafts and redrafts later, Muddy Water Camo was born.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the duck pond.
“We set out to create a better duck hunting camo, but we hit upon a better way to make any kind of camo pattern,” Stephen Kirkpatrick said. “We can make realistic camo for the mountains, the prairies, the forests – any kind of terrain, for any kind of game.”
Muddy Water is photographic camouflage created outdoors, where hunting happens, instead of indoors on a computer screen. The entire pattern is 100 percent in focus, 100 percent realistic, just as nature appears to animal’s eye. No matter what the terrain, Muddy Water’s patent pending, creative process delivers the most realistic camouflage on the market. To prove its point, the company kicked off its second year of production with a new pattern, “Timber Tantrum,” that’s ideal for hunting ducks or deer in a wooded environment.
Maloney and Kirkpatrick went into the shark tank hoping the sharks would agree that the opportunities for licensing their one-of-a-kind camo patterns for use on clothing, gear, vehicles, boats, home décor, and other items are limitless.
Will Muddy Water Camo walk away with an investment or become shark bait? Tune in to “Shark Tank” on February 22nd on the ABC television network to find out.
