Ideas & Opportunities

For the month of October, Entrepreneur.com.ph will be featuring businesses that saw the school spirit as a business opportunity. And what venue is there for the school spirit to shine than the annual University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) meet?

While the men's basketball team of the De La Salle University did not make it to this year's finals during the UAAP, the school still teems with pride and continues to stand tall. With 17 campuses throughout the country, other schools can only wonder: how did they do that?

Having friends from different La Salle campuses, Marc Pangilinan, Kenneth Zamora, and Beau Masiglat realized that La Salle shirts weren’t easily accessible to Lasallians in the provinces.

"Most La Salle shirts available were focused on DLSU-Manila, so some students from other campuses feel left out. We wanted to promote unity among all La Salle schools so we decided to come up with shirts that can be worn by all Lasallians, no matter which campus they come from,” said Marc Pangilinan.

Once the demand and vision of the business was set, Marc and his partners made sure that the designs of their shirts revolved around a “One La Salle” theme.

“All our members work together and help each other out. It helps that we’re from different La Salle schools. We put all our ideas together so we come up with shirts that are meant for all Lasallians in the country. We also accommodate designs requested by our customers and we work on that design,” said Marc.

Aside from being entrepreneurs, one of the main reasons that Marc and his group started the business was to promote school pride.

While the De La Salle University does not run short of school pride, the shirts revived the unified spirit of the students.

“We started out designing shirts for our personal use, but when our friends saw the shirts, they persisted on buying from us. Now, we get orders from students of almost all La Salle campuses in the country and alumni based in the Philippines and abroad,” said Marc, beaming with pride about his school and business.

Click here for more articles on business and the UAAP.

Photos by Marie Joyce Siason
Model: Miguelito Morales