MANILA, Philippines - Three decades ago, before the globalization boom, being an all-Filipino entrepreneur was the only choice there was. You got your materials from the provinces, did labor in factories scattered all over Metro Manila, and assembled packaging at the main and, often, only office. Outsourcing materials or labor abroad was too expensive and not the rule of thumb back then. Now that the world has shrunk to the click of a mouse, however, keeping a business Filipino-produced through and through has become a challenge.

It is one that 40-year-old Joey Cuerdo, owner of Mojo slippers and sandals, proudly meets every day. Not a single sliver of material in a pair of Mojo slippers is sourced or put together abroad. The rubber is grown by farmers in Bukidnon, the slippers assembled and packaged in Antipolo and Marikina. “Mojo’s advocacy is its belief in its products,” says Joey. “We proudly contribute to the [Philippine] economy.”

Rising from Scratch

Mojo’s—and Cuerdo’s—other advocacy is being outdoors, which is the reason for Mojo’s birth in the first place. As an avid U.P. Mountaineer in U.P. Los Baños in 1991, Cuerdo was frustrated with the lack of efficient but affordable footwear for outdoor use. What was available in the market were imported sandals and slippers, such as Teva and The Northface. These were too expensive for college students like Cuerdo, who had to subsist on a tight budget. So with P350 from his allowance, Cuerdo bought shoemaking tools and materials, and made his first pair of outdoor sandals.

Six months later, he was mass producing (with the help of a small shoemaking shop in Marikina) and selling each pair for P250; his mountaineer friends—who were essentially Mojo’s first sales representatives—got their pairs for use and more to sell at a discount.

For a decade, Cuerdo was at the helm of Mojo as its sole proprietor. Eventually, though, feeling the pressure from competition (Sandugo, Tribu, Reva, Banana Peel), Cuerdo opened house and shopped around for the right partners and investors. In 2006, Mojo was reborn through the corporation Outward-Bound Gear. Since then, Mojo’s monthly production output has been 10,000 pairs of flip-flops (it’s now a slipper market, not a sandal market).

Producing such a huge number is making China’s and Korea’s cheap labor rates more and more tempting. “The pressure to [outsource] labor is big, especially because [the rates are] dirt cheap,” says Cuerdo. “[If we go there], we can also do a price war with our competitors. But we will keep production here [in the Philippines].

BlackWe owe it to our workers.” Because of low labor rates abroad, many shoemaking shops and factories in Marikina have been forced to close down. Mojo provides employment to workers in one of the few shops that are still in operation.

Ironically, what challenges Mojo’s daily production is also the one that works for it: all its other competitors have gone abroad for cheap labor or materials. Mojo is the only one that can correctly boast it is 100 percent Pinoy-made, materials and production.

Mojo on the Road

From word-of-mouth marketing, Mojo has begun relying on actual Boomsales staff to tell the public about its advocacy. Promodizers are on-hand at Mojo’s over-50 concessionnaire stores in Luzon, including Toby’s, Planet Sports and Olympic Village, where Mojo is sold under Outward-Bound Gear or OBG. Specific sales agents handle the 20 or so stores in the Visayas-Mindanao area.

Mojo’s biggest marketing tool, however, is proving to be its sister company, Power Play Events Management. In 2007, Cuerdo put up Power Play to help him organize a weekend surfing event in Bagasbas beach, in the town of Daet, Camarines Sur. With input from the Department of Tourism (DOT), the LGU, and the local surfers’ organization, Cuerdo, through Power Play, sent e-mailed invitations and a detailed itinerary to employees in Manila. He wanted them to go out of town, to Bagasbas specifically, and learn how to surf. In the invite, he included bus trip schedules, resort bookings, activities. And if the participants came to the beach and registered wearing Mojo slippers, they’d get a discount and a Mojo freebie.

“These events are big, and we organize it all for our participants,” says Cuerdo. “We set up the beach, get surf instructors, coordinate with the coast guard, call on the PNP for security, book the participants’ accommodations, even send them directions by bus and by private vehicle.”

The first time Cuerdo pulled this off was three years prior, when he, with DOT’s help, put up the La Union Surf Break. That weekend event put La Union’s beaches on the map as not just an international surfer’s destination but as a tourist destination for people who want to learn how to surf. Since then, the La Union Surf Break has become an annual thing—as the one in Bagasbas has turned out, as well—and has taken off on its own. It’s gotten its own sponsors; however, Mojo has the distinction of being the Surf Break’s first partner sponsor.

These days, Cuerdo is busy installing ziplines and hanging bridges under Power Play, which, incidentally, also runs the wall-climbing gym, Power Up. For his installation work, Cuerdo has found himself in such places as Laoag, La Union, Bulacan, Palawan and Corregidor, for resorts and tourist spots wanting to be more productive. Of course, Mojo is never two steps away from anything Cuerdo does. And many, many Filipinos are grateful for that.