Aframe Clothing: Friendship and sports spell business success

“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” This was what Babe Ruth in her famous business quotes once said.

It’s interesting how the new generation is mixed with the pro in the business society. Carlo De Asis,21, Lawrence Gochoco,22 and Boeing Paras,31, three young entrepreneurs and surfers who started the Aframe clothing line.

“We always go out… find a spot to surf, then in the long run we just realize nga mag-buhat ug apparel.” Boeing said. This is how Aframe started not yet as a business but as a plan.

“First, we made the shirts and wore them whenever we surf, so others saw it and asked us where we got them.” Boeing added. With a modern designs and catchy- color prints, they figured out that the plans of having a clothing line would sell since a lot of people are asking about the apparel.

“Like Adrenaline which manufactures the surfboards and skim boards, we also wanted our apparel to start with an A, so we came up with Aframe.” Carlo shared. For surfers, aframe is a term that actually means a certain kind of wave that breaks at the center forming an A where surfers can ride it either facing the wave or back side facing the shore; from there the clothing line was born.

“Aframe was introduced in the market last May 2005, where we started with 10 shirts and we also bought the basic materials. What we did was, nag-amot-amot mi sa mga kailangan. ” Lawrence said. Since he and Carlo was still a student back then they got their initial capital from their own pockets. The three of them are the ones who produce the design and print, they use the resources they have since they have a limited budget.

“It’s an innovation; a new clothing line so dili basta-basta if mo invest ka.” Carlo added. Yet, the three of them still took the risk of establishing the new business despite the tough competition in the market.

The business has been going on for two years now, the three of them are rest assured that the business they have is now stable, from supplying two boutiques in Ayala, one in Banilad Town Center and one from Parklane hotel, down to marketing it out to Dumaguete.

“Youth” Lawrence said. With the clothing line they have, the youth is actually their number one target. “People usually purchase Aframe because they want to be in that particular lifestyle.” He added. The product is not exclusive to surfers but also for those people who feel that they are linked to the product.