Bago Lumaban: From the Ground Up
By Coach Jus
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
—1 Corinthians 13:11
Some of us grow up fast. Some of us take the long way around. Either way, the lessons come—through pain, through movement, through time.
In January 2010, after my Lola passed away, I visited the Philippines for the first time. That trip answered questions I hadn’t even asked yet. A planned vacation became an extended stay. A side trip to a retreat in Palawan brought me into silence and stillness. Clean air, clean food, and space to feel things I had kept buried for years. On the way back to the airport, I half-joked that I’d return for good. But somewhere over the Pacific, I knew I meant it.
🧭 Spend time in unfamiliar places. Get quiet. Let stillness show you what busyness can’t.
By March, I was gone from Toronto—hitchhiking across the West, still unsure what I was chasing. One thing led to another, and I ended up five minutes from Wild Card Boxing Club. I spent the next nine years in and around that gym, learning and unlearning, just trying to stay afloat. A story I will blog about in the future.
🥊 If you don’t know what to do next—train. Movement creates clarity. Show up, even if you're not sure why yet.
But life in America got heavy. The immigration climate tightened. Rent got higher. I was juggling three jobs and still couldn’t see a way forward. So on September 11, 2018, I left. Back to Manila. No grand announcement. Just the next step in the path.
Once I got here, I started training and saw a gap—good fighters, dire conditions, but not enough support. Gear was either overpriced or unreliable. Having seen how smaller brands in the U.S. made quality gear affordable, I couldn’t unsee the need. I figured maybe we could build something similar here.
💡If you can’t find what you’re looking for, build it. Start small. Solve a real problem.
I was writing for a film director at the time. Long days in cafés. On a night when the words weren’t coming, I started sketching instead. That’s when the Lumaban logo first came out. It wasn’t meant to go anywhere. But it stuck.
✍️Creativity shows up when you stop forcing it. Follow the detour—it might be your new direction.
We never planned to launch a brand. We were just trying to make decent gear for those who needed it. We were trying to give our fighters something to wear with pride. Something that says, "we come from struggle, and we carry it well."
Since then, we’ve had the chance to support grassroots boxing programs across the country. And in late 2022, we started our own. The numbers—15 municipal and provincial champs, 3 regional, 1 national—are something we’re proud of. But what we’re more grateful for is the community that’s helped us grow. The coaches who vouched for us early. The fighters who gave us feedback. The customers who trusted a local brand.
🤝 Never forget who helped you get started. Stay close to the ground. Gratitude builds momentum.
Maraming salamat to everyone who believed in us before the name Lumaban meant anything. We're still building. And we haven’t forgotten who helped us get this far.
– Coach Jus
👊 Follow the journey @Lumaban.Boxing
#coachjus #handsdownchinup #lumabanboxing #boxing #blog #boxingblog #staytruetothegame