When Dugout Mugs launched in 2016, the company offered a single product—a mug carved from the barrel of a baseball bat—and brought in about $70,000 in sales that year.
Everything changed when CEO Kris Dehnert joined in early 2017. Within a year, sales hit $1.1 million, and the company went on to double revenue three years in a row, scaling from a handful of hand-crafted mugs to a facility capable of producing more than a thousand units a day. Today, Dugout Mugs tops $55 million in sales, with products sold in all 50 states and major-league stadiums.
That growth didn’t come without challenges. When the pandemic shut down live sports and tailgates—its core market—Dugout Mugs pivoted fast. In the following interview, Dehnert shares how the company’s adaptability, manufacturing evolution and customer-first strategy have fueled its rise.
Tell us about Dugout Mugs and how the company has evolved over the years.
Dugout Mugs creates high-quality, customizable, premium gifts for baseball fans. Our flagship product is the Dugout Mug, a 12-ounce baseball bat barrel, hollowed out and converted into a mug. We’ve expanded our roster to include wine mugs, whiskey mugs, home plate coasters, bat handle shot glasses, half-baseball bottle openers and more.
The company started in 2016, and I joined as CEO and partner in January 2017. Prior to my involvement, the company had generated about $70,000 in sales. However, in that first year under my leadership, Dugout Mugs hit $1.1 million in sales.
We then doubled year over year for three consecutive years before leveling off. Today, we’ve exceeded $55 million in sales, operate in all 50 states and major league stadiums and partner with hundreds of athletes, influencers and celebrities.
Our growth earned us recognition with three consecutive years in the INC 5000—2020, 2021 and 2022. We’ve been featured on FOX & Friends, World News Tonight, The TODAY Show, Good Morning America, CBS Morning and The View. Major publications, including Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Entrepreneur.com, Tampa Business and Wealth, and Fast50 have covered our story as well.
Why did you need to pivot several times?
COVID required our most significant adjustment due to national restrictions. We previously marketed products for tailgates and baseball games, but when live events shut down, we pivoted to showcase products being used for backyard grilling and living room entertainment.
This required completely reshaping our marketing campaigns, partnering with home-focused influencers and adjusting product photography from stadium settings to residential lifestyle shots.
Economic uncertainty has repeatedly tightened consumer spending. We adjusted pricing and offered more value during difficult times, focusing on smaller price point items that encouraged impulse purchases rather than considered buying decisions.
This strategy helped us continue building our customer base, which we’ve leveraged multiple times to maintain operations without inefficient paid traffic spending. We introduced bundle deals, loyalty programs and limited-time promotions that maintained margins while providing perceived value to cost-conscious consumers.
Your manufacturing operations have also evolved. Tell us about that.
Our manufacturing process has transformed dramatically as we scaled from small-scale operation to a major production facility. Early on, we handcrafted each mug with basic equipment. The difference between shipping 20 mugs daily versus 200 today represents a massive leap, with current capacity exceeding 1,000 units daily during peak seasons.
Manufacturing begins with “turning” mugs on wood lathes—spinning wood at high speed while introducing blades to shape the desired form. After turning, mugs are bored out using a custom three-headed drill gun we specifically fabricated, achieving consistent interior dimensions and smooth finishes impossible with standard equipment.
Shaped and bored mugs ship to our Florida headquarters for the finishing processes. Our facility handles sealing for durability and moisture prevention, laser engraving for precise permanent designs and careful packing for fulfillment across all states.
How have you dealt with scaling challenges?
Raw materials procurement became increasingly complex with scaling. We maintain relationships with multiple regional suppliers, ensuring consistent supply chains and competitive pricing. Our warehouse management system tracks everything from blank inventory to packaging materials with automated reorder points preventing peak season stockouts.
We implemented comprehensive training programs, detailed standard operating procedures, multi-point quality checkpoints and rejection protocols maintaining our excellence reputation. AI-powered quality control now identifies potential defects early, reducing waste and ensuring consistent output. Dedicated teams handle printing, finishing, packaging and quality control, each with specific expertise and performance metrics.
Cash flow remains a major focus in e-commerce. When we needed significant inventory without available cash, I negotiated manufacturer terms and secured creative financing, avoiding excessive interest.
We successfully executed pre-sales campaigns, using incoming funds to facilitate actual purchasing. These campaigns often generated 150 to 200 percent of target funding within 48 hours, demonstrating strong customer loyalty and accurate demand forecasting.
What does the future hold for Dugout Mugs?
Our next phase focuses on scaling retail presence. Products are currently available in notable stores including Hallmark, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Rally House and Hudson News. With dialed-in processes and strong brand reputation, securing retail partnerships has become easier.
We’re exploring additional verticals—corporate gifting, weddings and travel ball—to avoid cyclical e-commerce buying patterns. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, playoffs and Christmas create sales spikes while other periods remain flat. These new verticals will smooth revenue fluctuations moving forward.
I’m also focused on finding companies with complementary products, seeking roll-up opportunities that support our efforts, while offering customers more unique items. Examples include wooden baseball board games, serving trays, baseball leather cufflinks—essentially high-end baseball-related novelty products.
This strategic approach positions Dugout Mugs for continued growth while diversifying revenue streams and strengthening our market position in the premium baseball fan gift segment.
