MANILA, Philippines - It's the ultimate example of teamwork between fabric, pattern, letters and numbers. The basketball jersey is an icon of the Filipinos’ coming of age as well as an artifact of the Filipinos’ love for the sport. But cage-crazy brothers Alvin and Andrew Tan have elevated the basketball jersey into an art form and a flourishing business.
Jersey Haven, the Tan brothers’ home-based concern, sells jerseys and other athletic apparel emblazoned with your favorite athlete’s name—or maybe even your own. The big difference with Jersey Haven is that their merchandise is officially licensed by all the local major leagues: the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), the Philippine Basketball League (PBL), the Universities Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Shakey’s V-League, even national teams and Team Pacquiao—yes, that Pacquiao.
Alvin, 24, and Andrew, 21, received many things from their parents, entrepreneurs Henry and Lorraine Tan, but first and foremost, was a love for basketball. “Our dad loved watching PBA and NBA on TV when we were still young. Sometimes we would watch the games live and this is how we were introduced to basketball,” Alvin says. He and his brother are both frustrated basketball players, says Andrew.
It was when the Tans were in high school at Chiang Kai Shek College that they began collecting jerseys in earnest. “We used to ask our parents to buy the items for us or we simply used our allowance to obtain one,” Alvin recalls. “Later, we realized that it’s not practical for us to use our personal money to buy jerseys given its price so we asked ourselves, why not start selling jerseys to our friends and use our income to buy more jerseys? And that’s how everything started. We basically converted our hobby into a business.”
An important consideration for the brothers was getting the genuine article: only licensed jerseys, no knockoffs. Today, their collection features hundreds of jerseys from here and abroad, everything from a PBA jersey Alvin Patrimonio actually wore during games to an autographed Tracy McGrady jersey. It’s an all-star collection, indeed.
The brothers bring a similar passion to their enterprise. Andrew says they “started in 2003, I was in first year college back then, and at first we sold NBA Replica and Swingman jerseys.” Alvin graduated from De La Salle University in 2004 with a degree in marketing management and started his own tech company, Technominds Inc., which develops web and SMS-based applications. Andrew graduated from DLSU-College of Saint Benilde with a 2007 degree in multimedia arts and helps their mother with her TV show “am@IBC,” a program for Filipino-Chinese viewers that airs on IBC-13 Sunday mornings.
The Tans soon realized there was a strong demand for local jerseys, but that the market was looking for quality jerseys from leagues like the PBA and UAAP. They took the next logical step for Jersey Haven by procuring licenses from the various leagues and uniform manufacturers. “We’ve become an authorized distributor of Accel,” Andrew says. “And now we are also an authorized online distributor of Adidas.”
Today, Jersey Haven provides a stunning range of licensed jerseys, enabling anyone to purchase jerseys from teams such as those who met in the UAAP finals (Ateneo and De La Salle), the NCAA finals (San Beda and Jose Rizal University), any of the current PBA teams (predictably Ginebra remains the most popular) to the jackets worn by Pacquiao’s ring entourage and what the Filipino Olympians wore to the Beijing Games. Jersey Haven even produces retro jerseys, such as amazing reproductions of the Toyota and Crispa jerseys from the PBA’s past. “We actually looked for the tailor who made the Crispa and Toyota jerseys and use the exact same material,” Alvin explains. And of course, they make customized jerseys for teams like any self-respecting Filipino uniform maker. The jerseys cost anything from Php800 to over a thousand pesos, while the jackets start from around P1,500.
What has also set Jersey Haven apart is that it is a virtual business; the company has no brick-and-mortar store and instead receives orders through their well-equipped website or through SMS. The Tans then either meet up with their buyers or deliver them through courier services. “We felt that it is more cost-efficient to run a tech-based business because we don’t have to spend on monthly rent or salaries for employees,” Alvin explains
There is a disadvantage to that as well. “Since we don’t have employees, the two of us have to do literally everything from operations to marketing to inventories given the limited amount of time since this is not our full-time work,” Alvin explains. “But we manage to get the job done by proper distribution of work and responsibility.” The brothers make sure they have time to go play ball regularly as well as watch games live. Alvin roots for the Dallas Mavericks while Andrew cheers for the Boston Celtics in the NBA; the brothers are unified in their support for the Purefoods franchise in the PBA and the DLSU Green Archers in the UAAP.
Alvin talks about organizing a group of jersey collectors. Jersey Haven also branched out by staging an event called the “Jersey Haven All Star Hoopla” last June for their fellow jersey collectors. “It enabled the participants to experience PBA-like basketball training and they were also able to interact and play with several PBA and amateur stars,” Alvin says.
Together with their father, the Tans’ newest venture, Pro-Ads Marketing Concepts, Inc., publishes the PBA’s official PBA magazine Offcourt. “It’s the magazine that focuses on PBA personalities’ lifestyle and not about how they play, or statistics,” Andrew says. “Things you don’t see regularly.”
Now, Jersey Haven is on a roll, with estimated sales of from 150-200 items per month. Andrews adds that their best-selling items right now are the Ateneo and La Salle jerseys.
The Tans have an ambitious game plan for Jersey Haven: “Our long term goal is to be able to penetrate the overseas market and supply jerseys and others sports apparel for different leagues worldwide.” Andrew says: “We still have a long way to go but we got the chance to sell our products abroad in places like USA, Canada, the Middle East and Taiwan; most of our buyers are Overseas Filipino Workers or Filipino migrants.”
Alvin and Andrew Tan are employing the full-court press to keep Jersey Haven’s hot streak going. “We learned that you need to have a lot of passion and perseverance when running a business. It also helps that the business coincides with our interest because we enjoy doing it and don’t really feel this is work,” Alvin says. “We believe that the quality of the product should never be compromised.”
It sounds like Jersey Haven’s double team has worked out a winning formula.
For inquiries, log on to www.jerseyhaven.com.ph, e-mail inquiry@jerseyhaven.com.ph, or text 0917-5237742.
Copyright 2009 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![Zoom Image](javascript:popwin("http://images.inquirer.net/media/showbizandstyle/sim/sim/images/pic-10050939070809.jpg", 640, 480))
Zoom
