Whether it’s on the basketball court or behind the barista bar, Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler is determined to be the best. That’s why he has involved himself in every step of the process when creating his own coffee company, the Bigface brand.
“I want to be on every Zoom call, every meeting, every sourcing trip, wherever it is, wherever I am around the world,” Butler told CNBC Small Business Playbook on Dec. 14. “Just because I want to tell people, yes, my name is in it, it’s a part of it, but I’m really in it, I’m really in with it, I’m going to these places and I’m doing more every day.” I’m learning more than.”
Like many others at the peak of the Covid-19 quarantine, the six-time NBA All-Star said he finds himself bored. With his newfound downtime, Butler decided to combine his love of both competition and coffee into creating his own coffee brand.
The brand began to gain traction when the NBA was forced to move its operations and games to Orlando to play its “bubble” season, where Butler found the coffee substitutes unsatisfactory. Taking matters into his own hands, Butler began selling $20 cups of coffee to fellow NBA players, cups he made himself from an espresso machine he brought in using beans from El Salvador to use in his Orlando hotel room. Make.
“Since [NBA] When Bubble started, I wanted to be the best barista,” Butler said. “Now the Bigface brand, Bigface Coffee, is a real thing, and I’m trying to get the best coffee and the best experience out there for the world.”
Jimmy Butler
Source: Bigface
Servant officially launched bigface In partnership with e-commerce platform in October 2021 Shopify and through its Maker Program. As part of the program, Butler receives all benefits, and Shopify is able to leverage the athlete’s name, image and likeness. Earlier this year, Shopify announced deals with six high school basketball players to help build their direct-to-consumer brands.
Bigface currently offers four different blends of coffee and is in collaboration with coffee brand Onyx Coffee. The brand sells more than coffee beans—Bigface’s site also includes apparel like hoodies, crewnecks, and T-shirts, and accessories like coffee mugs and tumblers.
“Shopify really shaped my view of myself as an e-commerce [platform] Makes sense,” Butler said. I had all these different ideas and I didn’t know how to actually bring it up. … They made that change valid and everything is looking great. I was very comfortable with the way our business model was progressing and I think they helped me bring this entrepreneurial idea to life.”
Butler said the idea for Bigface began when he noticed how people connected to cups of coffee. As the brand grows, he said he hopes to open Bigface Cafes all over the world.
“That’s what this whole thing is made of, trying to bring people together, laughing and having a good time, whether you’re getting an iced coffee, hot coffee, cold coffee, cold brew, and Sit down and have a conversation and realize how similar you are as individuals,” Butler said.
Butler’s advice for anyone interested in starting their own business: Surround yourself with a team that inspires you to be the best you can be, and don’t compare yourself to others.
Butler said, “Just do what you do, remember why you’re doing it, stick at it, and success is actually going to be very, very hard on the other side, because it’s been very, very hard.” “But that’s the funny part of it, because nothing that’s worth having is easy.”