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Ben Chehebar has been surrounded by soccer from before he can remember.

“I grew up in a household that was really all about soccer,” said Chehebar. “My dad was our coach. My mom is from Manchester, England, so we grew up watching Manchester United play.”

In 2024, Chehebar made soccer his life when he founded his own soccer brand, Eleven. But taking on industry giants like Nike, Puma or Adidas will not be an easy task. The good news is, the sport is growing in the U.S. and Chehebar is looking to other sports for brand inspiration.

“We’re seeing in other spaces like running or trail running or cycling, where there are a number of indie or startup brands that are really starting to break through,” said Chehebar. “And there really hasn’t been a brand in soccer, so I really think there’s a big opportunity to do this for that market.”

But making the shoe a reality, has been a whole different story. From design to manufacturing, Chehebar had to try and try again.

“Our first sample that we got, I got the first pictures of it on Thanksgiving Day, and it was awful,” Chehebar said. “First, we pushed back and said, ‘Hey, here are all the things that you need to do.’ And when it was clear that they didn’t want to put in that effort, we ended up switching factories.”

Since then, progress has been smooth as Chehebar brings his vision to life. He hopes that by the fall of 2025, his shoe will see its first gametime minutes. After that?

“Really get as many players as possible exposed to our product through a lot of in person demos at tournaments and other events in the lead up to the World Cup, which I think is going to be huge in 2026,” he said.