Doing what you love and loving what you do are two different things. Others can only enjoy one or the other, but some are lucky enough to enjoy both. Both Greggy Yang and Matt Nierras agree that doing what you love does not necessarily arrive in the shape or form you expected.
Cutz Apparel was established in 2018 by former Green Booter Yang and UP Women’s Football player Kaira Dimalutac. Meanwhile, Yang’s former teammate, Nierras, takes charge of the company’s designing process as the Head Designer. It is a brand that utilizes sublimation as it conceptualizes and crafts high-quality sportswear utilizing fabric engineered with Cool Cutz Tech. The LaSallian sits down with the two former teammates turned business partners who continue to make their name known in the field of sports.
A mix of opportunity and passion
The duo goes way back. Before becoming business partners, Yang and Nierras were teammates in highschool for PAREF Southridge, and eventually, they tarted their collegiate careers playing for the DLSU Men’s Football Team.
For Nierras, being an athlete means that you’re always interested in sportswear. Given the fact that he always wore jerseys while training, it was not a big surprise that he got into designing them. When the football player graduated, he started asking his former teammates if they had uniforms or team shirts for training that he could design. Coincidentally, he got a message from Yang. “He told me that he was going into sportswear with his dad and asked me if I was interested in joining them. I said yes, and about a year later, which is about now, here we are. I helped Cutz with designing uniforms for whoever comes in,” shares Nierras.
Yang, on the other hand, never imagined himself making sports apparel. But the former athlete knew that he wanted to be involved in sports for a long time. He explains, “It was really more of a mix of opportunity and passion. Opportunity in a sense that I had a friend who was looking to expand into this business and approaching me as a former athlete.” As for passion, Yang mentions that there was a certain spark thinking about teaming up with Nierras again, this time with a different goal, “[We’re] driving through our sports passion through a different avenue, I suppose.”
What sets Cutz apart
The sportswear business is immensely competitive, making it difficult to penetrate the market and gain brand loyalty. For a brand to gain traction, it needs to stand out. Yang identifies two main things that make them unique: the quality of their fabric and Nierras’ talent for design.
“We feel [that our fabric] is at par with many other top sports brands in terms of the weight and the ability to repel moisture,” shares Yang. Additionally, Nierras believes that cutting costs for fabric is something that Cutz Apparel would never do, as he states, “I think a lot of people just import fabric from China and do whatever with it.”
Nierras plays a huge role in the design aspect of Cutz Apparel, citing that his experience in designing jerseys for his team Stallion-Laguna F.C. sparked his interest in the craft. “My girlfriend at the time, who is my wife now, took up Industrial Design in [De La Salle-College of St. Benilde], and taught me the basics of Photoshop and Illustrator. From there, I started playing around with stuff, and the next thing I know, I started designing jerseys just for Stallion,” he recounts.
Aside from the quality of their fabric and the design of their products, Nierras says that the quality and attention to detail that Cutz Apparel offers is another aspect that makes them special. “We don’t like [the] whole concept of ‘pwede na’. It has to be perfect because this is what the client is paying for,” he expresses.
Setting goals
Cutz Apparel has set its sights on expansion; -they know that setting short-term goals is the road that will take them there. Cutz prides itself in being one of the few sportswear brands that provide customization, and according to Yang, they have to capitalize on that strength. Cutz prides itself in being one of the few sportswear brands that provide customization, and according to Yang, they have to capitalize on that strength. “Short term is to stay realistic, work on the weaknesses we know we have so that we can reach the long term going into international and being the first choice when it comes to customized apparel,” he states.
Leaving a lasting impression of product quality on their clients is one strength of their business model that will take their company to greater heights. “We’re really involved in making a good product, being in customized sportswear. It’s one of a kind. That’s what we’re going for,” adds Nierras.
Yang and Nierras epitomize the attitude of looking into everything that comes your way, no matter how bad or how good it sounds. “In the beginning, if [the opportunity] presents itself, take a second. In that second, you realize that it’s something that you might want to pursue, then take a minute and look into it further until you end up doing it in your life,” Yang concludes.
