Make no mistake about it — the male grooming industry is one of the best and most lucrative businesses one can get into today! Recent trends have shown that men are increasingly giving importance to how they style and manage their coifs and beards. What’s great about this industry, especially for aspiring Filipino entrepreneurs, is there is a need for the products and services to be localized and tailored to the Filipino man–meaning cuts, styles, and products should suit their lifestyle and their aesthetic.
Taking full charge of better groomed Filipino men is a prime example of the modern, millennial man: Designer and Entrepreneur Brian Corella, the owner of The Maverick PH and a Co-Founder of Folk 1006.
How would you like to be introduced? Tell us something about yourself.
My name is Brian Gabriel Corella, and I’m the owner and head brewer at The Maverick Ph, and also 1/5 of Folk 1006, a barbershop and retail store located at the historic street of Escolta. I am a designer by profession, and an aspiring entrepreneur through hustle, in other words, madaming raket haha.
Tell us something about your day to day.
I don’t really have a regular day-to-day routine, but let me try to enumerate my “usual”. My usual day-to-day is, checking emails after stretching in the morning, and then I cook my breakfast, and watch a series (half-heartedly) while eating. By 11 am, I call the shop to check if all is well and if we’re open. If all is well at the shop, I start packing pomades for delivery, this usually takes up 2 hours of my day (but happens about 3x a week). My days (11am ’til 8pm) are a cycle between meetings, managing the shops, deliveries to barbershops, and more meetings. I spend only about one night per month hanging out and drinking with friends. My other nights are spent brewing pomade, experimenting on new stuff, and packaging pomades. Oh, and answering inquiries online, too (which hopefully will be lessened once our site is up www.themaverick.ph) In between those hours, I get to read, and video call with my fiance who’s staying in Australia now. Most of my days are spent inside the shop, and in Escolta, where I get to shoot the different daily lives of people around with my camera.
What inspired you to put up Maverick and Folk 1006?
Actually, Maverick was not really meant to be “Maverick” at first. It was 2015 then, and I noticed that my hair was damaged and broken (haha!), so what I did was research if there was a healthy alternative hair styling product and that was when I discovered pomade. I found out that there were a couple of local brands selling pomade, I tried my hardest to purchase then, but sadly, pomade wasn’t readily available in shops and was only available through meetups with resellers which my old schedule didn’t have room for. That was when I decided to research on how to make one. When I finally produced a “usable” pomade, I let my friends try some, and they told me that it could be a side business. The designer in me woke up, and I was pushed to make a packaging design for the then bare silver aluminum tin can. The name “Maverick” was a nod to the 1986 film “Top Gun” where Tom Cruise starred as Pete Mitchell, otherwise known as his call sign “Maverick.”
It was, and still is, one of my favorite films because of the overflowing manliness of the film and the character, adding to that was the fact that I wanted to be a pilot when I was little. Also, “maverick” means to be different, to stand out, and promote individuality. I just added the word “the” to have a little bit more impact to the brand name, and now we are 3 years young last September 14! Yay!
For Folk 1006, it has been a dream with my friends since college, to have a place we can call our own, where we can hangout anytime we wanted, and talk about our dreams, aspirations, and plans in life. And one such place where guys get to hangout and talk is a barbershop, and we have been actively looking for a place since 2015 and have had lots of meetings with different building owners, it was just in Escolta that we finally found a place last 2017.
"I love the hustle, the grind, the 24/7 work schedule, pero I get to work in my own time, my own terms."
What do you love most about being an entrepreneur and having your own business?
I love the hustle, the grind, the 24/7 work schedule, pero I get to work in my own time, my own terms. For Maverick, it has been an extension of my personality too, it’s where I get to express myself, while painters get to paint, musicians get to write music, architects get to design buildings, I get to express myself through Maverick. It’s hard to explain but I know you get it. I’m just at a loss for words on how to explain properly.
For Folk, it may be a small shop, but the fact that we get to help people, not just by employing them, but we also get to teach them things that we know, at the same time, they get to teach us stuff that we know. Everything is a learning process, every step of the way is another avenue to learn, the people, the environment, just the whole process of everything is really addictive.
Could you share with us your personal favorite Maverick product and the inspiration behind it?
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Why did you decide to put up your business in Escolta?
It was just by chance that I stumbled upon HUB: Make Lab in Escolta during one of my friend's event. And it was love at first sight with all the beautiful architecture, and the history underneath the streets. When I stumbled upon the place, I wasn't informed about the movement that was ongoing about the revitalization of Escolta. It was through one of my partners, Paul Aniceto, who also happens to be the
architect, who told me about it. Then I realized, as a kid born and raised in Tondo, Manila, in different cities like Makati, there is a creative community that is thriving, and how come in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, seems like nothing is happening. That's when it occurred to me that as young entrepreneurs, we have a responsibility to cultivate our own city through our creativity, and it can start here in Escolta, the Queen of the streets, at the heart of Manila.
What would you like to tell any aspiring entrepreneurs out there?
Find your passion through executing ideas, remember that ideas will just never be enough, you have to have that ‘do it’ mentality and attitude. Act on your ideas, money may be an issue, but believe that the Universe always provides when you need it. You just have to believe and be positive at all times. Also find and curate the people who will be with you through the journey, you need a support group, it can be ten people or just one person, what’s important is that you have someone who will support you. Entrepreneurship is not as easy as it may seem, countless sleepless nights, high-level decision making, failures — these are all part of the journey, and all these are vital to your success.
Brian’s dedication to his business is evident. His products in The Maverick are literally sealed with his personal touch. From the research and design to production and trade, Brian gives his personal seal of approval in every step of getting only the best products to his customers.
For Folk 1006, Brian and his partners prove that creating (and preserving) culture is led by the hardworking and determined Filipino youth. People from all kinds of backgrounds and passions are now taking to the streets of Escolta to build a historic community of creatives set on creating a new golden age for the Queen of the Manila streets.
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People can contact or reach out to Brian through our social media accounts and email.
- FB: www.facebook.com/themaverickphilippines;
- IG: www.instagram.com/themaverickph;
- Email: themaverickpomade@gmail.com
