A former NFL player turned a football side project into a business with around $850,000 in sales in under a year

• Kurt Benkert noticed kids had a hard time throwing and catching footballs straight out of the box.
• The former NFL player cofounded The Dime Lab to make better backyard footballs for all levels.
• Benkert uses his social media presence to help with sales and showcase his product.

Footballs are getting a facelift with a redesign for the backyard player.

Former NFL quarterback Kurt Benkert played for teams like the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, and San Francisco 49ers. After retiring from the league, he would throw the ball with kids in his neighborhood.

He noticed a problem: The footballs weren't the right size for their hands, and the laces and leather felt cheap and hard to grip. They tried the Wilson-made footballs that are standard in the NFL and college athletics, but the kids found them too tough to catch.

At the pro and collegiate levels, footballs undergo a lengthy process to prepare for game day and feel broken in, Benkert said. The mudding process, which involves brushing and conditioning the ball to make the leather easier to throw and catch, can take almost three hours for one ball. On game day, teams can rotate through 30 to 50 balls.

"The traditional customer doesn't have 50 footballs," Benkert told Business Insider. "They have one or two good footballs that they like. And if they wear out, they've got to go through the prep process all over again."

Benkert knew firsthand it was important for players to have a football ready to use right out of the box. He, along with cofounder Matt Blakely, developed The Dime Lab. The company's footballs are engineered to have better grip all over the ball and in crucial spots for the quarterback's hands. They have raised laces, proper sizing, and the ability to handle all kinds of conditions, including rain.

Benkert and Blakely started The Dime Lab as a side project but have focused on it full-time for the last five or six months.

Since launching in July, The Dime Lab has sold over 17,000 products, including footballs and training materials, totaling around $850,000 in gross sales, according to documentation viewed by Business Insider.

"I knew I'd be able to sell it through my social media, through YouTube, TikTok, all that, as long as it was good quality," Benkert said, "Once it caught fire, that's when Matt and I decided, 'what do we want to do with this? Do we want this to just be a side hustle, or do we want to really go for it?'"

How much the footballs and training materials earn

The company's bestseller is called The Dime. The leather ball is dyed khaki, touts features like better grip and weather resistance, and is designed for high school and college athletes. It retails for $60.

As of April, The Dime Lab had sold around 4,500 of these footballs for a total of $273,000. It made up about 32% of the company's overall sales.

The company also makes four other balls, which vary in color and size. Some are designed for junior and youth players, while others are in the official size used by high school and college players. One model, the Water Football, is designed for wet conditions.

Footballs made up about 75% of The Dime Lab's gross sales as of April.

The Dime Lab also sells training guides and materials. Benkert wrote a book with insights from his career and the e-book version was among the company's top five sellers with $120,000 in sales. The company sells a football playbook and a notebook for players to draw up plays, as well.

Benkert said The Dime Lab's customers include parents shopping for their kids, adults playing in amateur leagues, flag football enthusiasts, high school coaches, and international fans.

"It's everyone that likes football," Benkert said.

The Dime Lab sells online through its website, but Benkert and Blakely hope to open a storefront in the future.

How The Dime Lab drives sales on social media

Benkert and The Dime Lab's social media presence is a major sales driver for the brand.

Benkert has over 630,000 followers on TikTok and 341,000 subscribers on YouTube. He posts advice and training videos for quarterbacks and has used that content to boost The Dime Lab's business.

On Benkert's TikTok, he features The Dime Lab balls in most of his videos, such as one that introduces a drill for quarterbacks and others with overviews of the products. Most of his videos with The Dime Lab balls have over 100,000 views on the platform, and some have as many as 200,000.

"I knew that if we had the right football paired with the teaching videos, I could make these teaching videos and also sell a product," Benkert said.

Videos from other creators have helped drive sales, too. Sports and business content creator Tyler Webb, a friend of Benkert's, posted on TikTok and YouTube about The Dime Lab balls and helped the company boost sales on Black Friday last year.

Blakely said internet searches drive most of the company's sales, but that is because people see the footballs on social media or in action and search from there.

"Over half of our traffic comes from those sources," Blakely said of web searches. "We certainly have a ton of traffic that's attributed to exactly TikTok."