By Zac Cornell
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a lot of career pivots and innovative entrepreneurs, but perhaps one of the more surprising new business enterprises being born is Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler’s foray into the coffee industry.
While living In the NBA bubble, in response to many NBA players complaints about subpar coffee, Butler took on the role of coffee barista, charging $20 cash per cup no matter the size, because, hey, his captive customers of basketball millionaires could certainly afford it! Set up with his imported french-press coffee maker, pour-over and grinder, Butler put up a sign for “Big Face Coffee” on his hotel room door and offered every style of coffee one could want from lattes to macchiatos. His one rule? No I.O.U.’s!
Now it appears that Butler plans to bring his coffee business out into the real world, based on the fact that he filed for trademarks for “Big Face Coffee” and “No I.O.U.’s” on September 4th. As reported in Entrepreneur magazine, Butler “dropped $4,125 in fees, seeking trademarks for Big Face Coffee merchandise, such as mugs, hats, coffee beans and assorted baked goods.”
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise to Jimmy Butler fans as he told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols in August that he was using his time in the bubble to work on his coffee skills as “after my career I’m opening a coffee shop.” See the interview here:
We hope that Butler’s basketball career lasts for a long time, so hopefully this coffee shop won’t open any time soon. But perhaps he may want to reconsider his pricing for his coffee to expand his customer base to us regular folk!
Inside Sports Journal 