It was a great lesson in supply and demand, and how NBA players can just throw around money: In the Orlando bubble, Jimmy Butler started serving gourmet coffee out of his Disney hotel room at $20 a cup. It became so popular he named it Bigface Coffee and started to turn it into a little business.
Now he is launching that business out into the non-bubble world, Butler told Jabari Young of CNBC.After [the bubble], Butler filed for trademarks around Bigface and officially started plans to launch his coffee company. And on Friday he announced that he joined Shopify’s creator program to boost his Bigface coffee brand.
In an interview with CNBC, Butler admitted he isn’t aiming to be “the best at making coffee” but added he’s taking the business seriously.
“I wake up in the morning excited to train and go work out,” Butler said. “Then I want to hurry up and get home so I can practice my bartending,” he said, referring to making coffee drinks. For now, he’ll sell branded merchandise in Shopify like coffee mugs and NFTs. He plans to sell the beans later.
Butler is taking this seriously — as he tends to all things — having flown to Costa Rica to meet with bean farmers and start to learn the business from the ground up. Literally.
That said, basketball still pays the bills — Butler will make $36 million this season and has earned more than $144 million in his career — but he has found his passion project. And you can bet we will see Bigface merchandise all over the NBA this season.
