How the Stars Behind Dude Perfect Made YouTube Their Day Job

At least one estimate pegs the value of the Dude Perfect brand in the millions.

ByABC News
May 15, 2015, 5:16 PM

— -- They are the highflying, gravity-defying, trick-shot-making men behind the YouTube channel, Dude Perfect.

In fact, Garrett Hilbert, Cody Jones, Tyler Toney, Coby Cotton and Cory Cotton have become the very definition of “dudes.”

Their videos, which feature tricks involving basketball shots, football spirals and golf chips, have turned them into Internet megastars. Dude Perfect has more than 12 million fans on Facebook, 5 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 600 million video views.

But they just think of themselves as regular dudes from Texas who are in constant, hyper-competitive mode.

"I think it's a little bit natural. We're all super-competitive. As soon as one of us does something, the rest of us are trying to top it," Coby Cotton told ABC News' "Nightline."

In fact, their first video, which went viral, was a compilation of trick shots the guys made when they were just a bunch of college buddies. They said the secret to their videos is a lot of practice, despite people thinking it might just be tricky camera angles.

"I think we take that as a compliment, because you have to be really smart to be able to do that. We just don't have that capability," Hilbert told "Nightline."

The five friends hold onto their Christian values and are careful with their brand. They've turned down an alcohol sponsorship and have avoided being featured in certain men's magazines. That family-friendly business plan has helped them bring in big money from YouTube, merchandise and even their own iPhone game.

"There's things that we got to decide do. We want to be associated with that and more. So do we want to push that to our audience that we know a lot of them are a lot younger?" Toney asked "Nightline." "It's a decision that we've made that we're not going to go down that direction."

"One of the things we celebrate the most is when we get tweets that say, ‘We're waiting for our parents to get home so we can sit down on the couch and watch together,'" Coby Cotton said.

They also have endorsements with companies including Nerf and Pringles, with at least one estimate pegging the Dude Perfect brand to be worth millions.

The Dude Perfect stars say they're far from billionaires but make enough money to support their families. Three of the five dudes are married, and Hilbert is even a new dad. But they say there's a lot of hard, behind-the-scenes work that goes into every single video they make.

"You know, everybody always says it's the easiest and most fun job in the world," Toney said. "It's definitely the most fun, but it's not the easiest."