When Bobby Claudio finally decided to use the mall space he had bought in Greenhills, there was no master plan behind it. He had no retail background, no brand vision, and no certainty that what he was about to do would work. What he did have was an empty unit and the pressure of monthly payments.
“So sabi ko I have to start something.”
At the time, Claudio was navigating a very different retail environment. Imported goods were highly sought after, and consumers were willing to travel far to get them.
“At that time, uso pa yung barter trade.”
The barter trade shaped buying behavior.
“Yun yung pinaka duty-free natin nung araw.”
People chased imported products wherever they could find them.
“Everyone wanted to go to Zamboanga to buy imported goods through the barter trade.”
Despite that context, Claudio didn’t enter retail with a calculated strategy. His decision came from something closer to home.
“So what I did was, as a first instinct, wala naman akong experience in retailing.”
Instead of chasing margins or trends, he thought about what mattered to him personally.
“I just loved kids at that time.”
That detail mattered.
“My son was only four years old.”
With that in mind, he made a simple call.
“I thought, sige, toys na lang so bumili ako ng toys.”
The scale of his first inventory was modest to the point of being almost symbolic.
“I bought six boxes in one hand and another six boxes in the other, so I had 12 pieces of toys that I brought back to Manila.”
The store itself matched the size of the bet.
“Pinaayos ko yung unit sa Virra Mall. It was just a 20-square-meter unit.”
When Claudio stocked the space, the reaction from those closest to him was immediate—and skeptical.
“Nilagyan ko ng items, and my siblings were laughing at me.”
The reason was obvious.
“Sabi nila, wala naman laman tong tindahan mo, ang lakas ng loob mo.”
Claudio didn’t argue with them. He didn’t claim to know better.
“Sabi ko, I have to start somewhere.”
With no retail experience and no supplier network, he had to build everything from scratch. There was no internet to guide him.
“So, I started looking at the Yellow Pages—wala namang internet pa nun—to do sourcing.”
That process led him to small, local manufacturers.
“I found people making stuffed toys and other toys kasi toys nga ang naging focus ko.”
Slowly, piece by piece, the store took shape.
“So I started a toy store.”
What’s striking about Claudio’s first venture is how unpolished it was. There was no grand opening, no marketing push, and no guarantee of demand. The store was small, understocked, and run by someone learning retail in real time.
Yet that imperfect beginning mattered. The toy store was not meant to become a destination. It was meant to be a starting point—a way to turn an empty space into something active.
Claudio didn’t frame the store as a failure or success in advance. He framed it as motion. The goal was not to get everything right, but to avoid standing still.
In hindsight, the toy store would become the foundation of something much larger. But at the time, there was no Toby’s Sports, no sports retail strategy, and no long-term roadmap.
There was only a young entrepreneur learning how to source products, listen to customers, and survive skepticism—one small store at a time.
Many businesses begin with a clear vision. Toby’s Sports began with a much simpler idea: start somewhere, learn fast, and keep moving.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
