Kurt Benkert and Matt Blakely are redefining what a football brand can be.
After Kurt’s NFL career, they launched DimeLab, a direct-to-consumer company making game-ready footballs that feel perfect right out of the box.

This week, Jake and I sat down with them to talk about building a product from scratch, growing without burning out an audience, and turning 40,000+ bootstrapped orders into a retail movement.

⏰ Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction
00:36 – The Problem with Traditional Footballs
01:39 – Why NFL Game Balls Aren’t Built for Real Life
03:25 – How Kurt and Matt Met
04:31 – Building the First Prototype
05:34 – From Idea to First Product Launch
06:45 – Turning Social Reach into a Physical Product
07:11 – Engineering and Testing the Material
08:26 – What Makes DimeLab’s Football Different
10:15 – Durability and Real-World Testing
10:52 – Why NFL Balls Require Hours of Prep
12:19 – Can Synthetic Replace Leather?
13:06 – When DimeLab Became a Real Business
14:05 – Using an Audience Without Burning It Out
16:42 – Bootstrapping and Warehouse Chaos
18:38 – Scaling from a Garage to Retail Distribution
19:30 – Understanding Their Core Customer
21:43 – Merchandising and the “Sneaker Model” for Footballs
23:48 – Converting Traditional Players into DimeLab Users
27:15 – How the Promotion Strategy Evolved
28:54 – Retail Growth and Expansion
30:03 – 40,000 Orders and Counting
31:27 – Why They Decided to Go into Retail
33:48 – Creating a Self-Sustaining Brand Beyond Social Media
35:30 – The Power of Partnership and Division of Roles
37:29 – What Each Co-Founder Learned from the Other
42:24 – Launching into Shields and Retail Strategy
45:22 – Leveraging Creator Marketing for Retail Success
48:13 – The Future of Football Design
49:44 – Closing Thoughts and Takeaways