(upbeat music) - [Narrator] This unique ball cap, with a leather patch made from a game-used football, can be found all over North Platte.

In the historic downtown shop, in the high school store.

and on the heads of residents all around town.

And although these hats are made in the city limits, the business named Hide Park Apparel started its journey back in Texas with a childhood passion for the sport.

- [Josh] I was at home in Texas at my folks' house over Thanksgiving and kind of had this idea when I was looking through our old garage and seeing some really dusty old footballs that hadn't been played with for a long time.

That kind of sparked the idea of what if they didn't just collect dust in the garage?

What if you could repurpose them into something?

- [Katelyn] Honestly, I think he was kind of playing it it off, I don't know if this is a great idea, but what if we took game used footballs and cut up the leather and made patch hats out of 'em?

And I mean, I remember looking at my friends and being like, "That's actually a really cool idea."

- [Josh] Our first prototype, if you will, was kind of this old, rubbery, nasty football that I thought, okay, if I just cut something out by hand and slapped it on a hat, would that even look cool?

So me being a true Texan, I cut out the shape of a Texas.

And I thought it looked really cool.

And then even my other friends from Georgia and my wife from Nebraska, even though they, they're not from Texas, they still thought the Texas patch looked cool.

So that first one made the cut, if you will and we decided from there, what if we made more?

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] As their designs expanded, So did the business.

After long days at the office, they were supporting Hide Park Apparel late into the night.

Then, in 2020, the spread of COVID-19 affected Josh's 9 to 5 in Georgia.

The Sperle's decided it was time to move their family and business back to Katelyn's hometown, North Platte.

The community wrapped their arms around the family business, helping Hide Park grow even more.

- They reached out to me over Facebook for the chance to put their hats into our school store, unknowing that I also run a small business here that sells clothes and accessories.

I kind of worked with him to get not only our high school store on board with their hats, but also our store, and people loved them.

- [Katelyn] They really rallied behind us, which has been great.

I mean that's the Nebraska spirit behind just the good old people that want to support local.

- [Josh] I was in small business banking here in North Platte.

Most nights and weekends from nine to 11, nine to midnight, I'd be cutting leather patches and attaching hats.

I had a number of folks in my corner just say, "Hey, when are you going to take the big leap?"

And so while I did enjoy what I did in banking, it was like, I'm not getting any younger.

If I want to follow my dreams and do an entrepreneurial venture, (upbeat music) there's no time like the present.

So I took that leap and haven't looked back.

(upbeat music) Completed hat.

Just like that.

- [Katelyn] I thought when he quit his job that I was going to stay put with my full-time position where I was for a while.

You don't just both jump ship.

Well, it grew fast enough where it was kind of in my mind I was like, he needs help.

We met working together.

We know the pros and cons, and we've walked through the pros and cons, and the rollercoaster it can be, but it's been a good thing and I enjoy working with him.

- [Narrator] With both Josh and Katelyn working the business full-time from home, their daughters get to be a part of Hide Park.

The love for football that started in Josh's childhood, now gets to be shared first hand with kids of his own.

- [Katelyn] Part of the reason we took the jump to doing this full-time was because we want to put our family first and so with football being tied to that, it's really cool.

-[Josh] Our six-year-old, Joy, I mean she can play a part where she loves to put our stickers on our hats to mark our brand, and she likes to take pride in putting it on there the right way every time and that sort of deal.

Our three-year-old I don't know if she knows a ton of what's going on a lot of times.

I hope she thinks it's neat that, you know, daddy's following his dreams and owning a family business, and trying to kind of control our own destiny on, if you put in the hard work, hopefully that will pay off.

(upbeat music)