Small footwear company moves into spotlight with Bears QB Caleb Williams wearing its cleats

It all began with a phone call. Dr. Tom Gormely reached out to Caddix last year. The sports performance coach told the startup company he had a quarterback who wanted to try its cleats."We said, ‘Who?’" Caddix CEO Jack Rasmussen recalled. "And he said, ‘I’ll tell you later.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, this is a fun conversation.’"It turns out the fun was just beginning.Gormely's client was Chicago Bears star Caleb Williams, and the call marked a watershed moment for Caddix — even if no one knew exactly how it was going to go at the time. Williams started using the cleats this season, and he was fined $11,941 by the NFL for wearing an unauthorized logo in Week 6 at Atlanta and $23,882 for the same infraction in Week 7 against New England.It was quite a moment for Baltimore-based Caddix, which has four employees and earned just under $2 million in revenue last year."To be able to turn around with this press from Caleb Williams and to get what would be tens of millions of dollars in free advert