Mall pit stuff

There he used to be, standing guard by the door. The four-time world champ, standing but five feet and seven inches yet towering over virtually all the Formula One drivers in history, lording it with Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Like U2’s Bono, he doesn’t need another name; Schumacher will do nicely, thank you. Brother Ralf? Ralf who?

Too bad he’s no longer there, though. Some lucky fellow must have spirited him away. His cardboard standee, to be precise. The one standing guard over the Racegear Pit Shop store entrance.

Located at the third level of the posh Power Plant Mall at Rockwell Center in Makati, Racegear Pit Shop has been a virtual pit lane, garage and paddock rolled into one for Pinoy F1 enthusiasts/mallers for almost a year now. It’s the place to get all those fancy F1 bits like shirts, caps, scale models, and cuddly Ferrari shirt-garbed stuffed toys. The place to find F1 race videos and magazines and framed photographs. Got this unnerving urge to relive the ’87 F1 season all over again? Racegear is the place, Schumacher standee or no.

The store is a "dream" for them, says Valerie Santos, who owns the place with hubby Mike. "At first, we didn’t even know if there was a market for this kind of merchandise," she continues. "Basically, we were just F1 fanatics enjoying ourselves."

A point Santos can’t stress enough. Because long before all this hoopla with things F1, the couple were already diehard F1 enthusiasts.

Santos said they decided to put up Racegear to serve as some sort of a hobby for them, but one that would hopefully also earn them a buck or two.

Racegear initially opened its shop doors in February 2000 with its first store on Katipunan Avenue, along the row of restaurants and bars and used car dealerships. A year later, the couple were able to get the Power Plant place as well, all by a stroke of good fortune. After several months had passed, they deemed only one store was needed, so the Katipunan branch had to be retired from the race.

In a row of fancy, megabuck stores, Racegear can hold its own, catching the eyes of not a few mallers who can’t help but be drawn to enter the store. With red Ferrari goods and multicolored merchandise everywhere, the place has that F1 fiesta atmosphere about it. There is even a replica of the trademark Sepang grandstand roof above the area where the sales counter is. The experience is like walking along the pitlane and circuit grounds on any race Sunday, minus the cars and pit babes in various states of undress, of course.

Sandwiched between hip clothing stores that cater to teenage kids on one side and a cellphone shop on the other, then opposite a music store and a video arcade, Racegear appears right on the spot where their market is – seemingly, youths armed with their Dad’s and Mom’s credit card extensions. Santos, however, clarifies that there is no clear age bracket – or even gender – that could define Racegear’s customers. Apparently, fat wallet-toting teens, twentysomething office people, thirtysomething yuppies and gift-shopping women alike frequent their place. Even mid-life crisis-afflicted men are not beyond buying those blinding red Ferrari shirts or dazzling yellow Jordan caps – which, come to think of it, are quite useful in concealing equally shiny pates.

Also, Racegear is the country’s authorized ticket agent for the Malaysian Grand Prix. By extension, the Santos couple have unwittingly become a tour group organizer of sorts, serving as virtual tour guides to the 40 or so folks who bought tickets to the Sepang race last March. They have been in this business in the last few years too.

In these days of fake F1 merchandise scattered in every tiangge, Greenhills stall and even SM stores, Santos is confident that Racegear will continue to get good business, taking comfort in the fact that theirs is an entirely different market altogether. As Racegear’s pitch puts it, it’s Formula One passion for real.