- Have you ever wanted to lick your cat?
Now you can without the fur balls. What?
I've known a scam or two in my day.
But today we're taking a look at Kickstarter scams
to see exactly how real they are
or if they're a complete waste of money.
I like how I started the video
by calling them scams preemptively.
That's what I expect, everything is a scam today.
But we're gonna find out.
Oh my God.
"LICKI Brush, lick your cat like a cat."
I'll tell you what, this is not the next big thing.
- [Jared] What's wrong with it?
- "Lick your cat like a cat" is never a phrase
I ever want to come outta my mouth again.
(Jared laughing) What? Okay.
- [Jared] What's wrong?
You've never wanted to lick your cat?
Okay. Now that I've said it, it does sound very...
- Yeah. Ah, I'm not okay.
I've licked too many cats this morning.
No, that sounds worse! - Austin.
What're you doing to your cat? - That sounds even worse.
No, no, okay. (clears throat)
"As a human,
you're left out of the intimate licking ritual."
Bro, I hate this.
"Invite your friends and their cats over for a LICKI party."
- Dude, no. - This is not a real...
- [Jared] If anyone invites me to a LICKI party,
I'm blocking them.
- I'm actually gonna say this is not a scam.
There's all kinds of weird pet toys.
I actually think that this is a real product
that was successfully funded.
I don't know if it's gonna be super popular,
but I don't think it's a straight scam.
Oh, good...
So much bigger than I thought it was going to be.
What kind of tongue is this?
Lick your Cat! - So, this item
was funded by 2,000 backers
and raised $52,000,
and is now readily available on Amazon.
- So this is... Okay, so this is a real product.
So, can we say this is not a scam then?
- [Jared] This is not a scam, it is real.
- So I get a point for this,
but I don't know if I want the point for this.
Oh no, wait,
"Gently grasp LICKI's bite portion with your teeth.
- [Jared] Did you not realize that?
- I thought you were supposed... Like, it was a...
- [Jared] You put this in your mouth.
You need to like actually lick your cat with it.
- I've done a lot of things for videos,
this is gonna be up there
for one of the most GIFable things that I regret doing.
I'm definitely gonna be on, like, a list now.
(Jared laughs)
How does that make you feel?
'Cause it makes me feel degraded and like less of a human.
- It was kinda soothing.
But I think it's just
because I get to see you so emasculated.
Here, here. I don't like watching it.
- I'm disturbed on every possible level with this.
I'm happy that this was not a scam, that I was correct.
I'm not happy that this exists in the world.
Boy, this is gonna be a video, isn't it?
(Austin and Jared laugh)
Sorry too much Jared licking.
Oh God. - Oh no!
Why would you say that? (Austin screams)
- No good part. There's no good part to this item.
I hate everything I'm doing right now.
"ElevationDock, the best dock for iPhone."
- This seems familiar, I actually kind of remember this.
This was, like, 2010, 2011.
This was, like, one of the early Kickstarters, right?
"The dock Apple should've made in the first place."
It's exquisitely milled from solid Apple-esque aluminum, AKA
- Aluminium. - Oh God.
- This doesn't seem impressive by today's standards,
but back in the day, these iPod docks were really annoying.
Like, it was legitimately like
you would have to put a hand on the thing
and like rip it out, like, it was a whole thing.
Very confident this is not a scam.
I do kind of remember the ElevationDock.
I never had one,
because I wasn't a weirdo who was obsessed with docks.
I gotta stop saying the word docks, man,
this is sounding so sus. (Jared laughing)
Hey, all right.
So- - This-
- Oh, you got a new one,
the Dock 5 for iPhone, with Lightning.
- [Jared] This was, as you said,
a very early Kickstarter product.
It raised $1.5 million from 12 1/2 thousand backers.
- That's a lot of docks.
- [Jared] Yeah, it is.
- The copyright date on this one is 2020,
so this is clearly still a successful product.
I got the point for that one, right?
- [Jared] You got the point.
- Let's go. All right.
Oh, this is actually kinda cool.
Obviously, in 2022,
I think most people prefer a wireless dock
or even something like MagSafe,
but there's some cool stuff here.
So if I connect my phone here,
and then I can adjust the back plate
so I can pull the phone forward.
And I can adjust where the actual Lightning port is.
So you can basically raise or lower the Lightning,
or you can raise or lower your phone.
- [Jared] Their biggest claim to fame for it
is that it's one-handed.
You should not have to
hold a finger on the dock or anything.
You should be able to just lift your phone up
and it comes right off the port.
- Okay, okay, so let's actually try this.
So I'm gonna just use one hand to...
Try it one more time. (clears throat)
Take one hand... (Jared laughing)
- Firmly grasp it.
- All right, and then I wanna drop it in, pick it up.
Nope, okay.
- [Jared] Originally it launched for $60.
Luckily they've lowered the price down to $40.
- 40 bucks on this? I don't know, man.
I'm happy that this is a real product.
I'm happy that I got the point for this one.
I don't think I can tell anyone
to go buy an ElevationDock now.
This just feels like it's a step behind for most people.
Man, I'm feeling good right now.
Oh, what the...
"Volterman, the world's most powerful wallet.
The wallet with built in Powerbank, distance alarm,
global GPS tracking, worldwide hotspot,
and anti-thief camera."
I want a camera and GPS tracker in my wallet,
in my pants all the time?
- Get out! That is the dumbest idea you've ever had.
You have had some doozies.
- Highly sus.
They're trying to explain what it is.
And they just say the words, anti-thief camera,
instead of actually showing you a photo of the camera.
That's not suspicious.
They do the same thing here,
global GPS tracking, like, they just have photos,
or, like, slides of it.
This has scam written up, down, left, right, and center.
- So, this one's a little interesting.
- [Austin] It seems interesting.
- I don't have a product to give you.
You see, this product,
when it originally launched on Indiegogo,
raised almost $3 million.
- A lot of money. - 19,000 backers,
a lot of people.
And it seems like some people did get their wallet.
And when I went to buy it, they took my money,
all $200 worth.
- [Austin] $200?
- $200.
- Okay. - They said shipping time
was from seven to 20 days.
- Okay. - It has now been 23 days,
and I've not received the product.
I did reach out to them via email to see what happened.
And I basically got, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry,
just give us some time, we'll eventually get it to you."
Almost nobody has actually gotten it.
Anybody who actually has gotten it says it's pretty crap.
I, under no circumstance, would give this company my money.
- I'm gonna think I'm a winner and a loser,
'cause you threw away $200,
but I was right that it was a scam.
Is my pride worth $200, Jared?
- Yeah. Yeah.
- Whoa. Okay, what is this?
(angelic music)
If you ask someone, "What does it mean to be confident?"
They might just say that, "I don't give a damn."
Lemme tell you exactly what it means to be confident.
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Being confident also means not having to settle.
Not only can you choose to preview your box,
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or skip a month entirely.
Being confident is making your own coffee
on top of a mountain,
giving me plenty of energy to answer the question
of what does it mean to be confident?
The answer is to give a damn.
And I give a damn.
So if you give a damn, definitely be sure
to go check out the link in the description,
where you can get yourself 20% off
your first Bespoke Post box.
All you need to do is head over to BespokePost.com/evans20
and use the promo code Evans20 at checkout.
It's... Jared the... (clears throat)
And thank you to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video.
Next we have the GENKI Covert Dock for the Nintendo Switch.
GENKI definitely make a lot of Switch related products.
Not to be confused with "Denki,"
the high quality Overclock production
made by our one and only Ken Bolido.
So the idea here
is that your charger for the Switch
can also have like an HDMI out and everything?
Brilliant idea, if they can actually pull it off.
So they do talk a lot about GaN.
These are very powerful, small chargers.
I'm a big fan of these,
I pretty much just swapped out
all of the chargers in my life with GaN chargers.
And one of the nice things about this is that,
theoretically with this product,
it will shrink the actual charger down so it's small,
And then the rest of the actual charging brick
can have your HDMI and all your other circuitry
to make this thing actually work.
They say it's 1/10 the size of the original dock.
This is a great idea.
I hope that this product is a real functioning thing
that you can purchase.
This company has a track record of cool accessories.
I'm gonna say not a scam.
(bell dings) Whoo. Okay.
So at least it made it
to the point in which I can actually have it in my hand.
- [Jared] This is legit. It became very successful.
In fact, the Kickstarter was so successful.
It raised almost $1.8 million.
- Oh my God. - From 26,400 backers.
- How much is this?
- [Jared] So this is now only $75.
- So expensive for a charger,
not really expensive compared to a Switch dock.
Wow, that actually is really small.
So this is everything you need.
So, you got the fold out prongs here, so you plug it in.
And then on the back you've got your USB-C,
which connects to your Switch,
delivers power, data, all that kind of stuff.
You've got a USB-A port,
which will function for accessories.
And you've got the HDMI,
which gonna give you that full 1080p out.
This seems like pretty much the perfect kind of Switch dock.
Why are you quiet?
- [Jared] Well, we have to make sure
it doesn't fry a Switch.
- Does this actually fry Switches?
So I have a Nintendo Switch here,
however, it is super duper dead
and needs a few minutes to charge.
So, while we let that charge,
I'm gonna try this with the iPad.
Okay, so I'm charging...
Oh, instantly. That's it, it's just that simple.
HDMI works, audio works.
Yo, this is actually really cool.
You can see, if I just go and unplug it here,
so we've got the iPad connected via USB-C, HDMI outgoing...
- [Jared] Whoa, what? Excuse me, what?
- (gasps) It works without being plugged in?
- [Jared] That's so amazing, actually.
- This thing is running on power...
The iPad is powering the charger.
- That's so cool. - What?
So it just functions like a regular USB-C hub now?
So maybe it wouldn't work with the Switch,
but theoretically with other devices,
you could just use this like a...
I just definitely did not think that was gonna work.
I just unplugged it to show it.
Wait, so if I plug it in,
I think it's probably gonna flicker
'cause it restarts, obviously.
Oh no, iPad just starts charging.
- [Jared] Dude, that is actually the coolest.
- This just went from cool to awesome.
This is my favorite product in this video.
This is gonna stay in my bag now.
This is gonna be my USB-C charger.
So now the Switch has actually charged up enough
to actually turn on, I'm gonna unplug it.
I'm gonna unplug the iPad.
And then if I plug this into the Switch,
theoretically, it just works.
Yay. (crowd cheering)
Okay, I'm sold. this GENKI Covert Dock
not only is not a scam,
one of the coolest products I've taken a look at
in a long time.
This thing is absolutely rad. (stamp thuds)
(laughs) Oh no. Oh no.
"Transform your iPod Nano
into the world's coolest multi-touch watches
with TikTok+LunaTik"
Okay, I know this one, I remember this one.
So if there was an iPod Nano, it was a little square.
And it was basically the Apple Watch
before the actual Apple Watch.
And with this, you can essentially drop it into the band
and use it.
I may have actually tried one of these,
like seven or eight years ago.
It's been a long time.
All right, I'm just gonna 100% say,
with no shadow of a doubt,
this was a successful Kickstarter.
It exists, and while it might not be successful today
it was absolutely a real, non-scam product.
- [Jared] What do you know? You'd be right.
- Yay.
"The LunaTik multi-touch watch band
for the iPod Nano sixth generation."
- [Jared] Might want this to go with it.
- Oh, you got it. Yes!
Oh dude, I haven't tried one of these in so long.
You can see it's actually pretty equivalent,
a little bit bigger than an Apple Watch
but not by a huge amount.
Oh, look at that. Look at that.
Mind you, that screen looks absolutely terrible,
compared to an Apple Watch.
- [Jared] I knew a guy in middle school
that had one of these,
and he was the hottest (grunts) around.
- Jared, stop reminding me that you're a child.
- [Jared] Okay, look, that's not the point of my story.
- I was making...
You say middle school,
I was like five years into my YouTube career at that point.
He's so red, see,
he's embarrassed. - Get me outta this,
get me out. - He's embarrassed.
I licked you earlier. - Don't say that sentence.
- [Austin] And you were less embarrassed
than you are right now. - I don't wanna know
how my boss licked me.
I don't know how to explain that to my mother.
- [Austin] What happened there? Ew.
- [Jared] I believe it's just complete in box, but used.
But the fact that it has
everything that you would've gotten originally...
Why would you sniff that?
- So, you do actually have to do a little bit of work on it,
because you actually have to open up the little band.
That's looking like a watch to me.
All right, and you can see now I have
what seems to be an Apple Watch.
So I have some watch faces, which I can change.
Yo, okay, you know what?
They 100% knew.
They made this as a test for the Apple Watch.
Are you sure you're qualified
to run the audio on this video?
Next item, Whipr, a portable multi-sport training machine.
"Whipr is a three-in-one standup paddle, cross country ski,
and rowing machine,
specifically designed for your lifestyle."
They said that they charged between two to $400,
which I mean, seems about right for a lot of workout stuff.
Some stuff is super expensive.
I'm really torn, I could go 50/50 on this one.
It could work, they may have made some,
but did they actually ship it in volume?
Is this a real item?
I'm gonna lock it in, it's a scam.
And that looks...
Well, that looks like it weighs 5.42 kilos.
It's a real item.
Jared, was this a scam?
- [Jared] It was not a scam.
I actually- - Ah! No. (groans)
Okay. - Now, to be fair,
how much did it say it was, on the original Kickstarter?
- Two to $400.
- [Jared] Just the base unit was 650, so-
- Pretty scammy to me, I don't know.
- [Jared] When I first saw it, I was like,
"There's no way this shipped."
And I was shocked to see
that it was readily available online.
It launched,
and received 9,100 backers.
- Okay. - And $3.5 million.
- That's a lot of money.
- [Jared] If you wanted to get every accessory,
and enough base units to do every workout, it'd be $1,300.
I only got one accessory for this,
and it's because I thought it'd be the most fun.
This is the paddling accessory.
- I hate paddling.
I suck at paddling.
It needs three AA batteries.
Please tell me they include three AA batteries for $650.
It does not.
- [Jared] Do you want to get better?
- No, I'm upset right now.
- [Jared] That paddle accessory was $144.
- Why? Jared, you green lit this?
- [Jared] No, the people on Kickstarter did.
- The only way this works
is if I am swole by the end of this video.
I will give them a little bit of credit.
Even though $650 is egregious,
this kind of stuff is not cheap, right,
and a lot of workout gear can be very expensive,
especially something like this
which, to be fair, I've never seen anything like this
that actually is like, you can put in your home.
So now I need to figure out how you actually mount it.
So this thing on the front...
so you see this, like, the back panel.
So you take it out, it's empty,
when I start using this, it pumps it up.
So basically, you put this underneath the door
and it expands until it sort of holds itself in place.
And then you press the top thing and it deflates.
All right, that's actually kind of cool.
Okay, we are on and active.
"Select the desired sport mode."
I'll do, I don't know, say five minutes of rowing.
I'm gonna slay this, okay. So...
Oh, wow, actually that's a real thing.
This actually works.
I will say it actually is staying
underneath the table pretty well.
I've got it cranked to 10,
and I would say that resistance is actually pretty high.
All right, lemme try stand.
This is actually not a terrible workout.
100 watts, let's go.
I can power a lower-end gaming PC right now.
Was I wrong about this product?
Yes. - You sound out of breath.
- Shut up, Jared.