Show #168 – Austin Pomerantz of The Players Trunk on Knup Sports Show

Today we get to chat with Austin Pomerantz of The Players Trunk to hear about their “Shark Tank” experience showing off their awesome platform that helps athletes make money off of their NIL.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Hey what’s going on everybody, RyanKnuppel here, Knup Sports Show Episode #168. Man, we’re making it up to nearly 170 episodes of this awesome show. Really appreciate the, uh, support and viewership and everything, the comments we get after these shows. it’s been an amazing ride. Today we have a little different of a guest. We have, uh, a special guest that’s gonna be not in the sports betting space, you know, not in the gaming space that we typically bring on, but I think you may recognize his face, and I know you’ll recognize the brand once I bring him back on here. I’m excited to hear what he has going on, doing some great, great stuff in the NIL space. Let’s bring on

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

of The Players Trunk to the show. Austin, how are ya?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Doing well, how are you? Thanks for having me on.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Oh, I’m doing amazing, uh, here in Orlando, Florida. Where do you reside at?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Ah, Long Island, New York.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Oh, very nice. So up in the Northeast. Well, let’s, uh, let’s get the elephant out of the room here. I don’t know if anybody has, uh, seen your face, or, you know, just recently you guys made an appearance on Shark Tank. I mean, congrats on that first of all, but before we dive into you and kind of everything you got going on, just tell me about that experience. Just as a person walking into the tank, I mean, how was that for you?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, growing up I watched the show every weekend with my family. Even in my high school business class, like, we always loved when our teacher put it on, so it was a dream come true, just to even, you know, the doors open up, you walk right out, you’re standing on that carpet. It was surreal, like, my heart was definitely racing the whole time. But, you know, it was nice to feel like a local celebrity for a few, uh, a few days there.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That’s very cool. Are there, is their presence just larger than life? I mean, is that how you feel in front of them, you know all staring at you? I’m assuming there’s some level of intimidation. I’m assuming they’re just larger than life, right?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

A hundred percent. And even just all the cameras, the lights beaming down on you, I’m like trying not to sweat the whole time. [Laughs]. But it was awesome.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Well, cool. Well I had to start there because I think that that is just so cool and not very many people in this world can say they’ve been on Shark Tank. But Austin, first of all, tell me a little bit about yourself before we get into The Players Trunk. I want to hear a little bit about you. um, maybe where you went to school and kind of some of the experiences you’ve had leading up to what you’re doing now.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

For sure. So, I graduated from University of Michigan, I was a sports management major, um, back last May. And I was a student manager for all four years for the basketball team. And that’s kind of really how it started. As a team manager, you’re pretty much in the gym 24/7 with these athletes, helping them out with workouts, and I was fortunate enough to form close relationships with Charles Matthews and Zavier Simpson. So pretty much the second Charles was done, he turned to me and my college roommate, Jason, who’s one of the other founders. Um, my brother, Hunter was at Syracuse, so it was a similar thing. But he pretty much said “Raid my locker, take whatever you guys want out”, so I do have a Charles Matthews practice jersey and a nice pair of Michigan slides. But after that, “Help me sell it”, and we did that on his Instagram page, Twitter, um, and the whole point was to take the hassle out of it for our friends, but we knew there had to be a more efficient way, and that’s sort of when peak-pandemic came around, we were sort of sitting around at home, weren’t sure about jobs, internships, stuff like that. And then fast-forward to today, we were just on Shark Tank, you know, a week or two ago. So, it’s been a crazy ride.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That is a crazy ride, and, and a crazy story I want to hear all about and how it came about, but first of all, you know, let’s, just give us the 10,000-foot view of what The Players Trunk is.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, so The Players Trunk is a platform that allows college athletes, at first it was former athletes only, sell, like, their team-issued or game-worn apparel. So, you know, game-work jerseys, helmets, cleats, any of those items, practice jerseys. But it sort of transformed, the gear is still a huge part of the business, but we’ve also incorporated signed memorabilia, so whether it’s like signed 8×10 photos, mini footballs, mini helmets, and then now, signed trading cards. So now it’s like a, almost a pre-rookie card. It’s a lot of these college athletes like a first-ever trading card. It’s a really unique collectible, as you can see right there.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Yeah.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, that’s sort of how, um, we’ve transformed over the past, I guess, 18 months.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That’s interesting to me, you know, the timeline of this all is interesting to me, and I want to hear a little bit more about this because, I mean, the whole NIL thing wasn’t really even a thing up until, I don’t know when that actually happened. It couldn’t have been 18 months ago, so,

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yep, it was last [inaudible]

RYAN KNUPPEL

Did you guys actually start this before that, um, before that was a thing?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Exactly. We didn’t really even have NIL in mind when we started the company. It sort of just fell into our laps. It was something we were obviously preparing for, um, but then once it did happen it was just such a natural progression for our business, like, it was so seamless to add, and like I mentioned, the trading cards are even customized merchandise. So, for example, like Buddy Boeheim, his nickname is “Buddy Buckets”, so we’ve helped him release that, um, Hunter Dickinson, another popular player at Michigan, “Big Dickinson Energy”, so just like funny play on words there that I think the fans really gravitate towards.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Sure, that’s amazing. So how’s it going? I mean, how’s the app, or not app, but how’s the site treating you? How’s the viewership, and is there sales? I mean, are you guys doing a good job of getting the word out there?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

100%. I think that’s been the greatest thing, is just the word-of-mouth on both the athletes’ side, but then also the customer side. So for example, when we started out, a lot of the time we would have to do the outreach to bring athletes on board, but now it’s sort of the like the roles have reversed, and it’s like, you help the star point guard at Duke sell their stuff, and the second after, you know, the center’s reaching out to us. And I think vice-versa, even with customers, um, with the marketing, like, they pretty much are finding us which is a beautiful thing. And, I know you mentioned sales, like 100%, and also Shark Tank, I’m sure helped with the visibility with that, but I definitely think the brand is getting out there more and more, which is great to see.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Sure. Everybody, I think, always thinks, oh man, after Shark Tank they’re gonna have this spike. Is, is that what you saw? Did you see a massive spike after that, uh, you know, that exposure you got on the show?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

It was definitely funny, like, I was on the backend, just seeing the visitors definitely increases right when that happens and it airs. So, it definitely has a, a pretty large effect.

RYAN KNUPPEL

“The Shark Tank Effect”, I think they call it or whatever. That’s amazing. That’s cool. Um, let’s talk a little bit about getting athletes, right? I mean, I think you said now it kind of starts to trickle down and people start coming into you, but let’s talk a little bit about how that’s going, ‘cuz I’m assuming all the athletes, right, I mean, people don’t understand what this NIL, you know, is, you know. They’re now allowed to make money on their name, image, and likeness, so all of these athletes are looking for ways to monetize themselves, but how do they connect with you? I mean are you guys, like, out there trying to outreach to athletes, or is it just kinda hope they find you? What are you guys doing in that space?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

So, yeah, I think a lot of it comes from our previous relationships. So whether it’s former teammates, players, we also, two of our founders were former athletes like I mentioned, Charles Matthews and Zavier Simpson, so they’ve been instrumental as afar as opening doors for us whether that’s with coaching staffs, administrations, um, anything like that. We also do partnerships with INFLCR and Opendorse, so they’re sort of two of the leaders in NIL compliance where they work hand-in-hand with the schools. It’s almost, imagine like, um, I’m trying to think…pretty much like job postings for athletes in a way. So we’ll have our opportunity right for them where the athlete can click and then they’re sort of funneled straight to us. So that’s pretty much how the athletes find out about us.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Now, is the, you know, you guys seem to be pretty heavily just into the college market with the college athletes, but is there, is there thought, or are you already doing stuff with professional athletes and people in the professional space?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, we’ve definitely done some work in the professional space. I think our niche has been in the collegiate space, but I still think there’s tremendous opportunity with the professional athletes. if if it’s just with, let’s say, they don’t necessarily need to sell their game-worn gear for a few thousand dollars, but, if it’s like a charity component where they’re like donating it to a cause that’s near and dear to their heart, which we’ve done, um, we’ve worked with like Larry Nance, Jr. and Andre Drummond both to auction sneakers off, and then donate the proceeds to charity, so I think it’s a really cool, um, angle that we can provide.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That’s cool, that’s cool. We have a lot of business people watching this. Tell me a little bit about the business dynamic of signing an athlete to your platform. I mean, is there a contract in place, are they exclusive with you, or is it as simple as like, “Hey, we wanna help you”, and it’s kind of this unofficial-type deal with them. How does that work?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, I mean, there is sort of like a standard contract, um, that they sign just highlighting like percentages, how it all works, but it’s not really exclusive, like we’ve always been for the athlete. We don’t want to restrict them from any opportunities.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Right.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

For us, it’s just, “Listen, let’s help you make a ton of money, let’s help you build your brand, capitalize, while you’re playing at school”, so that’s been the biggest thing for us, and I think athletes really like that. And especially, like, we’re pretty young guys, like, we can relate to them, we were just in college about a year or two ago, like, it hasn’t been that long, um, so again, it’s not exclusive, but we want the athletes to make the most money possible.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That’s what I love about you guys’ story, you know, young, “young kids”, I’ll call you, but young kids out of college that are just grinding, hustling, trying to find that niche, and that platform, it seems like you’ve done it here. Let’s talk a little bit about Shark Tank again, and I want to get your opinion on, ‘cuz you guys, you guys got an offer, right? You got an offer, you kind of had some back and forth going on, but at the end of the day, you ended up declining an offer from, what was it, Kevin Hart…

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, and Mark Cuban, yeah.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Correct, and so, reflecting on that a little bit, are you still good and comfortable with where that ended, or you kind of second-guessing that, I’m curious?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

No, it’s definitely a good question. I’m not really second-guessing it at all. Going into it, like we knew, I think everyone thought going into it, like, we would get an offer from Mark Cuban, of course it seems like a match, you know, a perfect match. But, this is our baby and for 30% equity in the company, it was just too much for us to give up. So I don’t necessarily have regrets about any of it to be honest, um, but again, it was a dream come true, like, like I’ll have a fun fact for the rest of my life, being on Shark Tank, but I don’t have any regrets about not taking the deal.

RYAN KNUPPEL

The Shark Tank couch watchers always think they know best, right? Because I’m sure you had this said a million times, “Why didn’t you take the deal? You should’ve taken the deal”, but like, it’s easier said than done when it’s your baby, it’s your business, you kind of have a line in the sand of where you want to be…

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Exactly.

RYAN KNUPPEL

It’s probably close to that, “Yeah, sure, I would love to work with these people”, but like, ah, I’m sure it’s easier said than done, and it’s easy for me to say “Dude, you should’ve taken it”.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, trust me, I was getting that from a few of my friends right when they were watching the show, my phone was blowing up with some text messages, but it’s exactly what you said. It was just too much at the end of the day, and we had to stay firm.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Yeah, yeah. So, so does it end right there, or I mean are you guys anticipating a possibility of maybe it could circle back around with those guys, you know, maybe Mark again in the future once you guys get more traction. I don’t know how that works, I mean, are you guys um, still in contact with the sharks?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

No, not really. It’s sort of just once you’re out, you’re pretty much out. Yeah, you’re not in communication. But again, I don’t necessarily know if doors are closed, I’m not a big believer in that, we never know. Maybe they do circle back years down the road, but we’ll take it as it comes.

RYAN KNUPPEL

So where are you guys heading? Where are you guys heading in the future? What’s, uh, what’s the future look like for you guys? I mean, is it just to continue to sign more, you know, high-level athletes and continue to help the athletes? Really it, or what’s any big plans in the future for you guys?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, I think it’s 100% about continuing to onboard new athletes, um, even on the merchandise side, like, we do have licenses with about 10 major universities, so you can actually use the school marks on merchandise designs. And then what I touched on a little earlier, like, the trading cards, we think that’s a tremendous growth opportunity. We’ve done it for a few months now, but this will be, like, the first full college football season because last year we released it pretty much around bowl, the bowl game schedule, so it was like a little bit later in the season, um, but now, you know, you have that full season going into it, and we do have a bunch of athletes signed up. We just released with Tyler Van Dyke, a potential Heisman candidate, top ten pick I think for sure next year, so, we do have a lot of exciting things in the pipeline in the next, even 3-6 weeks.

RYAN KNUPPEL

That’s amazing. What’s your guys’ stance on NFTs? I mean, are you guys doing anything in the NFT space, ‘cuz it seems like this could be a decent fit, you know, trying to tie NFTs into some of this. Uh, are you guys looking at that as a possible future expansion?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, I think we’re definitely looking at it. Um, it’s come up a bunch, but we haven’t done anything thus far, but I think in the future for sure we’ll definitely get into the NFT space. I’m not sure what that looks like right now, like we’re still trying to figure out the best strategy to do it, but I definitely think it could be a possibility.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Awesome, yeah, I seem to give it a lot of buzz, right? I mean, that’s the buzz of the last 12 months is the NFTs so, interesting to see how this would play into that with those relationships, and selling things around them, so uh, I definitely am, I’ll keep my eye on what you guys are doing there for sure.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

For sure.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Um, you know I know we only have a few more minutes with you, Austin. I know you’re a busy guy, gotta get out there and business develop, but uh, [Laughs], but what uh, let me ask you this: so, business people watching this, what is one thing you guys need help with? What’s one thing that maybe you, the audience is watching, and not an ask of the audience, but maybe just something you’re looking for help with, to you guys are in need of? What’s one thing that you can think of off of the top of your head?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Uh, I mean, not something that we need, but just even, like, future products they would like to see, or if anything is missing, just how you mentioned with the NFTs, if there’s any suggestions as far as, like, future products. Because that was one of the reasons we got into trading cards, was a lot of people were even messaging us like, “Hey, the trading card industry boomed during COVID, like, we think it’s a great opportunity for you guys if you’re able to do it”, and like, sure enough, you know, a few months later, we’re cranking out trading cards for a bunch of the top athletes. We’ve had a few first-round picks in the NFL draft even do trading cards with us, so anything along those lines. Our emails are open, reach out to us on Instagram, Twitter, like, we’ll read it all.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Yeah, how much social are you guys doing? ‘Cuz I’m assuming social is probably a pretty hot area for you guys to get some, uh, some buyer acquisition, right? To get people to understand you guys, how much are you doing in that space?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, so I mean, Instagram is, I would say, our biggest mover, just as far as, like, even the follower count, I think we’re approaching 20k if we’re not there already. Yeah, thank you, so that’s been a big one. Twitter is probably our second one, about like 6k, but we pretty much, uh, each week we highlight, like, what we’re releasing as far as like the gear side of things, so, you know, “Stay tuned for, like, Brad Davison’s Trunk”, or whoever the player is, just to keep all the, um, fans and customers, like uh, I guess give them fair notice. But social media’s definitely huge for us, and even the athletes promoting it too, as well. Um, they’re just such a targeted audience, like, you couldn’t even have paid marketing that’s so specific to their following. Because ultimately, that’s who’s gonna drive the purchases.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Sure.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

People that, you know, love these players.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Sure. Well, cool. Well Austin, I’ll let you go here, but where would people find information, or be able to buy some of the, just on the PlayersTrunk.com, on the website? Is that the best place to send people?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Exactly. PlayersTrunk.com, and just @ThePlayersTrunk for Instagram, Twitter, we’re on Facebook as well, so those are pretty much the main channels that you can find us.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Awesome, we’ll make sure to put all those links in the show notes so that people don’t have to remember. We’ll blast those out as well. If someone wanted to get a hold of you, had questions for you personally, are you available via email, or LinkedIn, or what are you on?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Yeah, LinkedIn for sure, just feel free to always send me an inbox, and I’ll definitely get back to you.

RYAN KNUPPEL

At some point, right, through all the business? I know I understand how owning and running a business gets crazy, so uh, I really give you guys props for what you’re doing, and, and, just putting a dent in this space. Uh, before I go, what are you seeing in the, in the, I guess in the competition space here? Um, so, are there competitors, I’m sure there are, doing similar things to you, and how do you feel about competitors? Do you embrace them, or are you kind of like, “ugh”, you know? How do you feel about that?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

I think you have to embrace it, like I’ve been an athlete my whole life, so I’m used to competition. I think it brings out the best in all of us, like at the end of the day, that’s gonna push us to work even harder, um, to try to create new product offerings, be unique in the space. But, uh, I don’t even think, as far as, of course with merchandise, there’s tons of companies that can produce t-shirts and hoodies 100%. But as far as, like, the gear side to like, the team-issued and game-worn apparel, we, we have been the first mover in the space. Um, and then of course with trading cards, you know, there’s some major players, but I think our specialty is almost in the limited runs, where like the quantities are, they’re, they’re smaller for sure, but I think that increases the collectibility aspect of them. So, I think that’s where we come in with the unique angle, but again, we welcome competition, like I think we thrive off that.

RYAN KNUPPEL

I love that answer, that is, that is the answer of an athlete, of the athlete mentality, of like “Hey, competition, bring it on, let’s go”, and that’s why I think entrepreneurs, I think athletes, ex-athletes, make great entrepreneurs as well.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

Exactly. There’s so many crossovers between sports and then also running a business.

RYAN KNUPPEL

100%. All right Austin, any last words for the audience before I let you go? Anything we didn’t touch on that you wanted to make sure you said?

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

I think we covered most of it. Again, thanks so much for having me on. This was really great.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Ah, I appreciate you giving us some time. So that was

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

of The Players Trunk, Austin, really appreciate your time. Have a great day.

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

You too, thanks so much.

RYAN KNUPPEL

Hey, thanks for tuning in guys, that was

AUSTIN POMERANTZ

, The Players Trunk, ThePlayersTrunk.com, make sure you go out there, check them out on social, grab some collectibles, some memorabilia, uh, we’ll put all these links in the show notes so you can go out and check it all out. I love the NIL space, I love that college athletes are now able to monetize themselves. I think it was long-time coming, and so I love that these guys are really, you know, making things happen in that space, and seeing him, I feel like I just talked to a celebrity, I mean, Austin was on Shark Tank, wow. I mean, it doesn’t get much better than that, so, amazing to have him on. Hope you guys are doing well, thanks for tuning in. If you have any questions, I’m Ryan Knuppel, @Knup out on the social channels, and till next time. Take care and stay safe. Bye-bye.

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