Seven years ago, a small group of friends filmed a basketball trick shot battle as a way to bet on sandwiches. They never imagined becoming one of the hottest commodities on the Internet.

The Texas A&M alumni known as Dude Perfect are the proud owners of one of the most popular YouTube channels in the world, with more than 10 million subscribers and 1.6 billion video views.

Twins brothers Coby and Cory Cotton, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Tyler Toney have spent years finding new ways to put balls in baskets, pucks in nets, footballs between goal posts, and much more, and as their fan base continues to grow so too does their ability to entertain.

As the original trick shot videos caught fire, the group began to reach out to some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment and have since worked with Aaron Rodgers, Chris Paul, country star Tim McGraw and most recently, Serena Williams.

“That’s one of our favourite parts about this job, obviously, is anytime we get to work with anyone like Serena or Aaron Rodgers, Chris Paul, Tim McGraw,” Toney told TSN.ca. “I feel like the list goes on and on now that we’ve been doing it so long but every time we film with somebody new it’s like ‘Man, that person was awesome.’”

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Known for their up-tempo attitudes and exuberant celebrations, Dude Perfect often gets more out of their celebrity guests than fans get to see on a regular basis.

From Toney’s two-man band with Pete Carroll, to comparing accents with Australian professional bowler Jason Belmonte, the trick shots are the star of the show but the humanity of it all adds immense value to viewers.

It’s something the group never takes for granted.

“I think that’s also another reason why it’s been so successful … people love seeing that other side of athletes they never get to see,” Toney said.

“You don’t know what to expect when you meet these guys [Rodgers and Paul] that you look up to so much, but they were so down to earth,” Coby added. “They were both just such nice guys, really generally cool guys and the stuff we did with them was fun.”

The videos have gone over so well that the group is now splitting time between reaching out to desired guests and fielding calls of interest to appear.

“That’s been cool as we’ve been doing it longer and longer,” Coby explained. “We have had quite a few [celebrities] reaching out.

“That’s a huge honour for us and you should see us, we’re like kids in a candy shop. We get an email and we’re like ‘Dude, no way, this person wants to work with us.’”

In the fast-paced world of social media, Dude Perfect faces the gargantuan task of staying fresh and trendy on a video-by-video basis.

This reality brought on the birth of their now famous “stereotypes” and “battle” series. In stereotypes, the group plays different characters found at recreational sporting events, the gym, movie theatres, etc., while in battle the guys, well, battle.

Whether it’s the screamer at the gym or the candy smuggler at a movie theatre, we’ve all run into many of the characters seen in the series. Except for Rage Monster, a character played by Toney who is set off by the smallest of circumstances and turns into a tornado of destruction.

“Any time you can throw a TV off a balcony or bust out car windshields with a bat, there’s nothing like it,” Toney said. “You just don’t get to do that.”

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The series has garnered much fanfare and is a new addition to their content arsenal with more than 23 million views over 12 videos.

“I think there’s always going to be that element of us always trying to come up with new series and new content because I think we’re going to have to be able to sustain the type of videos we want to make and to do as long as we want to do it,” Toney said. “You always got to stay fresh and new and unpredictable in that sense, so that’s one thing that I think is always at the forefront of our mind is what types of videos and entertaining content are we going to be creating?”

The next major endeavour for the group was their own TV show airing on the Country Music Television (CMT) channel.

The Dude Perfect Show, which debuted in April, is an extension of the YouTube channel that goes well beyond the art of trick shots. The 13-episode first season follows the guys as they take their craft to a new level with bigger and better trick shots - there’s plenty of fire involved - but also a slew of activities on the side. The guys battle against each other in eating competitions, race lawn mowers, camp out in an outdoor recreation store, and bring many more celebrities along for the wild ride.

For the team of nine - five guys, a panda, a business manager and two producers - a TV show was a whole new world. Despite some early reservations, the group dove in head first and the effort paid dividends.

“It was a very eye-opening experience for us,” Toney explained. “We wanted TV to be something we were really proud of so we spent probably more time than necessary filming this first season, but I think that showed with the success we’ve seen already. It was one of the largest debuts CMT has had for a show, so we’ve got incredible feedback from our fans and I think we’re getting ready to start filming some more episodes pretty quick.”

In the meantime, the show must go on and their partner from the very beginning is the platform that helped them become the brand they are today.

The first ever Dude Perfect video was uploaded to YouTube in April 2009. It was viewed more than 100,000 times in its first week and has collected more than 14 million views over the last seven years.

One hundred and seventy videos have come after the first and the relationship with the video-streaming giant couldn’t be stronger.

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“Anybody can put any type of content out there. We have really tried to focus on content that anybody can enjoy, whether you’re kids, parents, grandparents and I definitely think that YouTube has embraced that,” Coby said. “YouTube corporately has embraced that because it is a message that everybody can get on board with. So we’ve really appreciated YouTube supporting us throughout this whole journey of seven years.”

The group has also partnered with a plethora of other major brands, including Nerf, Marvel, Bass Pro Shops, Fiat, Callaway and Whistle Sports.

“I feel like if we didn’t have those people it would be a lot more challenging,” Hilbert said. “We definitely have help outside of the nine that definitely makes it a little easier to streamline, but all the guys put in a lot of work, our business manager puts in a ton of work, and [that] kind of allows us to be the creatives behind it and be able to film and play golf.”

Dude Perfect has matched the demand for content stride for stride and fans continue to come to their channel and watch their videos in droves.

But while they continue to evolve with the times, they are also trying to stay the exact same.

“We are just trying to continue to be on as many platforms as possible,” Coby said, “and just continue to entertain people in the way that we started as much as possible.”

Dude, perfect.