13 seasons in the NFL taught him to read labels. Now he's an investor in the chip that passed the test.
DeAndre Hopkins is 13 seasons into his NFL career, and his latest move has nothing to do with football. He just put money into Vaca Chips, a beef tallow and organic corn tortilla chip brand, joining a growing list of athlete investors betting on better-for-you snacking.
"This league will teach you that being healthy and available for games is the key to success," Hopkins wrote. "So I started reading labels and being cautious about what I put into my body."
That habit led him to Vaca Chips, made from just three ingredients: organic corn, beef tallow, and salt. No seed oils, no filler, nothing hiding behind a "healthy" label that doesn't hold up.
Hopkins didn't invest in an idea. He invested in traction. Vaca was doing $10K a month in revenue when he came on board. About a year later, the brand is on track to top $1 million in sales in August alone.
Vaca recently closed a $1.5 million seed round led by BAM Ventures, with a strategic angel lineup that reads like a locker room crossover: Hopkins, Nyjah Huston, Shane Bieber, Mark Canha, Shelby Miller, plus Brian Lefler, Nic Jammet, Justin Mares, and Troy Bonde. The new funding is going toward product development, team expansion, and retail distribution.
"Owning part of a company I believe in means more to me than any check I could've taken," Hopkins said.
The brand was founded by Brian Gibb and Joshua Haddox in April 2025. Gibb's origin story is a familiar one: a guy who loved chips and salsa but got tired of every option on the shelf being fried in seed oils, including the ones marketed as healthy. By the end of 2024, he decided to stop settling and started testing tortilla styles and cooking methods until he landed on a chip finished in beef tallow for that rich, taquería-style flavor without the junk.
"It became an obsession, creating a chip that tasted like it came straight out of a legit taquería, but without the junk," Gibb said. He brought in Haddox as a full-time partner, and the two spent months in late-night test batches chasing the same goal: bold flavor, clean ingredients.
Hopkins isn't the first pro athlete to trade a paycheck for equity in a food brand that actually matches how he eats. It's part of a bigger shift: athletes who spent their careers reading nutrition labels are now backing the companies rewriting them. For Hopkins, it's less about the snack aisle and more about putting his name behind something he'd actually hand to his own kids.
The Bottom Line
DeAndre Hopkins just proved that "investing in a bag of chips" can be a serious business move when the chips are backed by real revenue growth and real ingredients. Learn more at vacachips.com.
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