RIT alumnus Joe Burke brings his innovative Ollyball toy to ABC’s Shark Tank

Rochester, New York – For Joe Burke, the path from the creative studios of Rochester Institute of Technology to the national television stage of ABC’s Shark Tank has been a long one, built on years of experimenting, working and believing in an idea that began with a very ordinary family moment.

Burke, who graduated from RIT in 1989 with a degree in graphic design, remembers spending early mornings in studio spaces and staying at school late into the night. Music would play while he worked, and the goal was always the same — take an idea and figure out how to make it real.

That creative mindset stayed with him after college. Decades later, it helped lead him to Ollyball, a lightweight indoor toy that Burke developed after watching his daughter play with a ball inside the family home.

Burke will present the product on Shark Tank on Sept. 30, giving the RIT alumnus an opportunity to pitch the business to a panel of investors known for considering products and companies looking for their next stage of growth.

Ollyball is designed to be used indoors without the concerns normally associated with throwing a traditional ball around a house. The inflatable ball weighs less than one ounce, making it light enough for indoor play.

The idea came to Burke in 2014 after his daughter was tossing a ball inside and accidentally knocked over a plate of spaghetti. Rather than simply treating the incident as a household mishap, Burke began thinking about whether there could be a ball that was fun to throw indoors but was unlikely to cause the same kind of damage.

That question eventually became a product.

Ollyball is made with a lightweight flash-spun olefin material, similar to Tyvek, over an aluminum-nylon composite. The design allows the ball to remain extremely light while still being suitable for play.

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What began as an idea has since grown into a business with millions of products sold. Burke and his wife, Ellen, have sold about 3 million Ollyballs through Target stores across the country, online retailers and more than 1,000 toy stores in eight countries.

The product also received industry recognition. In 2019, Ollyball won the Rookie of the Year category at the Toy of the Year Awards.

That award brought an unexpected opportunity. A producer from Shark Tank contacted Burke and invited him to appear on the program. He declined.

The reason was not a lack of interest in the show. Burke simply believed the company needed more time to develop.

“We just weren’t ready yet, I just got out of the gate,” Burke said. “Three years later, they contacted me again. And again, the timing wasn’t right. We built this company one rung at a time, one ball at a time. I put about $100,000 of personal savings into it for patents and original inventory. I just wanted to ride organic growth and build an authentic brand.”

Burke had a long-term plan for Ollyball and wanted to grow the company carefully rather than rush into a major partnership. His goal was ambitious — to make Ollyball the best-selling playball in the world.

At the same time, he understood that reaching that goal would eventually require additional help.

His professional experience also gave him an understanding of what a larger consumer-products operation could offer. Burke previously worked for the Disney Store as a marketing executive in 2006, where he saw firsthand the scale involved in selling toys and other consumer products.

“I used to work for Disney and know the team we had there and the volume that we did in terms of toys and consumer products, and I knew at some point for us to really grow to have the impact that we really need, we need to partner,” said Burke said, a former marketing executive with the Disney Store in 2006.

When Shark Tank contacted him again, the circumstances were different. This time, Burke agreed to appear, with one condition. He wanted his 11-year-old son, Jameson, to join him on the show.

The episode was filmed in June, although viewers will have to wait until the broadcast to find out what happened inside the studio.

Burke is not permitted to reveal whether any of the investors, known as sharks, agreed to invest in or partner with Ollyball. That information will become public only after the episode airs.

His appearance also gave Burke a chance to talk about his education and the role RIT played in his development as a creative professional and entrepreneur.

During the taping, one of the sharks asked about his background. Burke mentioned that he had received a scholarship and graduated from RIT.

“One of the sharks really liked that,” he said.

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For Burke, however, the television appearance is about more than selling a toy or finding an investor. He also hopes his story can encourage people who have been told that their ideas are unlikely to succeed.

His own experience took years. The product started with an accident involving spaghetti, developed into a business, survived several decisions to wait before appearing on Shark Tank, and eventually reached millions of customers.

Burke wants others to keep pursuing their ideas even when the first response is not encouraging.

“I don’t care where you are in life, you’ve got to dream,” he said. “Don’t let anybody talk you out of it.”

Now, after years of building Ollyball one step at a time, Burke is preparing to see how the sharks respond. For an RIT graduate who once spent long nights in a studio turning ideas into reality, the appearance represents another opportunity to do exactly that on a much bigger stage.