Editor's Note: Want to hear more from Ike Boettger? He'll discuss entrepreneurship and building the Stally brand during a panel discussion at ENTREFest on Thursday, June 11.
One lesson Ike Boettger learned while playing high school, college, and professional football was the value of teamwork. Now, relying on teamwork is making him a successful entrepreneur.
Boettger graduated from the University of Iowa in 2017 with a degree in enterprise leadership. Before receiving his diploma, Boettger started at right tackle for the Hawkeye football team that won the Big Ten West Division in 2015. The next season, he moved to left tackle and was named honorable mention all-Big Ten. Boettger played 36 NFL games and spent time with five teams, most of that with the Buffalo Bills.
In 2024, as Boettger transitioned out of the NFL, he came up with the idea for an apparel company named Stally. Stally blends country lifestyle, athletics, and entrepreneurial spirit into apparel that fits in anywhere from a county fair to a football tailgate or startup pitch competition.
Shortly after hatching the idea, Boettger benefited from another form of teamwork — the Hawkeyes-helping-Hawkeyes variety. While growing up in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Boettger always had a passion for sports, but even though he didn’t recognize it at the time, he was also inundated with entrepreneurship. His father, a pastor at Nazareth Lutheran in Cedar Falls, had a side hustle of raising pigs so his mother could stay home and focus on her own entrepreneurial venture, Barn Happy, an Iowa-themed gift shop. For the Boettgers, entrepreneurship still is a family affair.
What started as a nickname teammates used for the 6-foot-6, 300-pound lineman (think stallion) is now the name of an up-and-coming apparel brand Boettger hopes can rival alo, lululemon, and Vuori. That’s where a Hawkeye helping a Hawkeye came into play. During a charity golf outing in February, Boettger was explaining his plans for Stally to Chuck Hartlieb, who played quarterback for the University of Iowa from 1984-88.
“Chuck said I needed to talk to his college teammate, David Murphy,” Boettger said. “I found out that David grew up in Dike, Iowa, 10 minutes from my hometown. I went to his showroom in Los Angeles, and it was a match made in heaven from the beginning. He has been helpful teaching me everything I need to know.”
Murphy, who was a letterwinner for the Hawkeye football team in 1985 and ’86, is President and CEO of Spruce International/Jingying Textiles in Los Angeles.
“As a business, we don’t take on many new entrepreneurs because it’s a heavy lift with little return, but Ike was different,” Murphy said. “From the moment I met him it was obvious he wasn’t just dabbling in an idea. He had a vision, a sharp point of view, and a clear plan for what he wanted Stally to become.”
There is another twist to what Stally represents. Not only is it a Western lifestyle brand, but it is also faith-driven. Boettger said 23% of all profits will go to Kingdom Building Ministries, which has already started.
Boettger took several entrepreneurship classes at Iowa, including Foundation in Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Finance, and Entrepreneurial Marketing. He recalls working on a final project with Hawkeye wide receiver Connor Keane, where they completed customer discovery for an idea of a combo seasoning shaker.
“I was swamped by sports all the way through college,” Boettger said. “Being at Iowa in general, you learned how to network. The entrepreneurial program showed you the process and now that I’m doing it, I have really become a generalist. By that I mean, don’t focus to get great at one thing, be dangerous at a lot of things, that’s how you can be a successful founder and entrepreneur.”
In terms of raising funds to scale Stally, Boettger said he has more than 10 potential investors who have said, “Let me know when you’re ready.”
“I’m scaling slowly, organically,” Boettger said. “I’m trying to lay a super solid foundation so it can scale. That is what David has been extremely helpful with. I have a network across the country, and I have the mentors and help to scale it if it gets to that.”
The Stally brand has already been worn by notable NFL athletes George Kittle, Jack Campbell, Desmond King, and AJ Green of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. Country music artists Cole Swindell and Tucker Beathard have also been photographed in Stally gear.
“Feedback has been awesome,” Boettger said.
Ike and his wife, Katie, have children ages 6 and 4, along with a 10-month-old. For now, Stally’s headquarters are the basement of the Boettger house, where dad is passing entrepreneurial lessons to his children who help package hats. Stally is moving into a warehouse to accommodate increased demand.
Murphy said he is proud to work with Boettger and raved about Stally’s potential.
“My team and I feel fortunate to work with Ike and to be part of building something that’s going to resonate far beyond Iowa,” Murphy said.
For Boettger, Stally is about more than sales or building a recognizable brand. While the company gains traction through support of athletes, musicians, and word-of-mouth, he said the long-term mission is creating impact and staying grounded in the values that shaped him growing up in Iowa.
“It’s not just another brand,” Boettger said. “We’re doing a lot of other cool stuff that is more important than making money.”
