GetBlued traces its origins to 2007, when Ateneo de Manila University students Kirk Damasco and Ken Andrew Sy participated in the Ateneo Management Association’s Entrepreneurial Challenge. One of the competition’s activities involved designing and selling T-shirts. Recognising an opportunity in merchandise that expressed Ateneo identity, the two students decided to develop the idea into a business.

The venture began selling officially branded merchandise at the Loyola Schools Bookstore in January 2008. Early products focused on straightforward, recognisable expressions of Ateneo pride, with one reported bestseller being an “I ♥ Ateneo” shirt.

The founders continued developing GetBlued after graduating in 2008. By 2011, contemporary reporting described the company as supplying shirts and merchandise to nine Ateneo schools nationwide, including Ateneo communities in Davao, Zamboanga, Cagayan, and Cebu.

The company’s origins are somewhat unusual for a fashion label: GetBlued emerged from university entrepreneurship and community identity rather than from a conventional fashion-industry startup.

Kirk Damasco

Kirk Damasco, a BS Management ’08 graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, was one of GetBlued’s co-founders. According to The GUIDON, Damasco described the Entrepreneurial Challenge as the event that inspired him and his partner to pursue the merchandise opportunity. He focused primarily on the business side, particularly sales and marketing.

Ken Andrew Sy

Ken Andrew Sy, also a BS Management ’08 graduate, co-founded the company with Damasco. He took responsibility for much of the creative side of the business, including shirt design and production.

The division between creative/product development and sales/marketing was part of the early operating model that allowed the student-founded venture to develop into a continuing business.

GetBlued’s central proposition is essentially wearing and expressing Atenean identity.

The brand’s own web-development case study describes GetBlued as being for people who are “proud, bold and one with the community” associated with the Ateneo spirit, while describing its products as celebrating Atenean culture.[1]

This distinguishes GetBlued from a generic Philippine streetwear or university-merchandise retailer. Its product language frequently revolves around recognisable elements of Ateneo culture, including:

• Ateneo
• Team Ateneo
• Ateneo Blue Eagles
• One Big Fight (OBF)
• Ateneo 1859
• AMDG
• Ateneo Law
• Ateneo Graduate School of Business
• Ateneo alumni identity
• Ateneo athletics and individual athletes

The brand consequently functions not only as an apparel label but also as a vehicle for institutional and community identity.

GetBlued’s current catalogue is considerably broader than its early T-shirt-focused offering.

Its online store organises merchandise into categories including Tops, Kids, Accessories, Dri-Fit, Active Fit, Ateneo Alumni, Hoodies & Jackets, and Tote Bags.[2]

Apparel

Major apparel categories include:

• T-shirts
• Oversized and box-cut shirts
• Sweatshirts
• Hoodies
• Jackets
• Varsity-style jackets
• Dri-Fit athletic apparel
• Jerseys
• Kids’ clothing

Recent collections include Ateneo-themed American football jerseys, embroidered shirts, classic Team Ateneo tees, OBF merchandise, and Ateneo AMDG athletic apparel.[2]

Accessories

The accessory range includes:

• Caps
• Snapbacks
• Dad caps
• Tote bags
• Lanyards
• Pins
• Magnets
• Stickers
• Scarves
• Other small Ateneo-themed items

The accessory collection alone contains dozens of products, including Ateneo caps, lanyards, scarves, and collectible-style merchandise.[2]

A significant part of GetBlued’s identity is its relationship with Ateneo athletics and the culture surrounding the Ateneo Blue Eagles.

Its catalogue includes Team Ateneo apparel, Blue Eagles products, OBF merchandise, and collaborations featuring prominent Ateneo athletes. The current store, for example, lists products associated with Alyssa Valdez, Bea De Leon, and Deanna Wong under its “Collabs by GetBlued” collection.[2]

This sports-oriented merchandise gives GetBlued a role beyond ordinary university souvenirs: clothing becomes a way for supporters to participate visibly in Ateneo’s sporting culture.

GetBlued has developed collaborations around Ateneo athletes and personalities. Its current catalogue lists:

• Alyssa Valdez – Phenom
• Bea De Leon – Beast Mode
• Deanna Wong
• Other athlete-related merchandise

These collaborations extend the brand’s identity from the institution itself towards the personalities and sporting culture associated with Ateneo.[2]

GetBlued’s products generally combine contemporary casualwear with traditional university symbolism.

Instead of treating Ateneo branding purely as formal institutional merchandise, the company places recognisable symbols and phrases onto modern clothing silhouettes such as:

• oversized T-shirts,
• embroidered shirts,
• hoodies,
• sweatshirts,
• varsity jackets,
• athletic jerseys,
• caps and streetwear-style accessories.

For example, one current Eagle Icon shirt is described as an official GetBlued design, using a 70% cotton / 30% polyester construction and regular fit.[2]

This approach allows university symbolism to function as everyday fashion rather than simply ceremonial or souvenir clothing.

GetBlued originally sold through physical university-related retail channels, including the Loyola Schools Bookstore.

Today, its direct-to-consumer presence is centred on its online store, which offers a substantial catalogue of products and allows customers to track orders and browse dedicated collections.[2]

The brand also operates a Shopee Philippines storefront. The marketplace listing currently identifies GetBlued as a highly followed shop, with more than 100,000 followers and a 4.9 shop rating at the time of the search.

One of the more interesting aspects of GetBlued’s history is the speed with which a relatively small student project developed into a commercial enterprise.

According to Philstar, Damasco and Sy initially put their own money into the venture after seeing positive results from selling shirts. One early school-bazaar experiment reportedly allowed them to double their capital within four days, reinforcing their decision to continue the business after graduation.

The story illustrates a classic university-entrepreneurship model:

student project → identification of a niche → campus sales → community demand → independent brand → nationwide Ateneo market

A Philippine Intellectual Property Office gazette record from 2019 lists “GETBLUED ESTABLISHED 2007” with Kcube Incorporated as the applicant/owner associated with the registration.[3] The same record separately lists Kcube Incorporated.[3]

This provides documentary support for the brand’s 2007 origin, although the company’s first reported commercial sales occurred in January 2008.

GetBlued can broadly be positioned at the intersection of three markets:

1. University merchandise
Traditional Ateneo-branded clothing, accessories, and souvenirs.

2. Lifestyle apparel
Everyday clothing designed to be fashionable rather than merely institutional.

3. Sports/fan merchandise
Products connected to the Ateneo Blue Eagles, athletes, and the One Big Fight culture.

Its competitive advantage is therefore less about competing as a generic clothing manufacturer and more about owning a strong cultural niche: Ateneo identity.

The brand’s natural customer base includes:

• Current Ateneo students
• Ateneo alumni
• Ateneo faculty and staff
• Parents and families of Ateneans
• Ateneo sports supporters
• Fans of Ateneo athletes
• People connected with Ateneo’s professional schools
• Collectors of Ateneo merchandise

The catalogue’s separate products for Ateneo Law, Ateneo Graduate School of Business, kids, alumni, athletics, and general Ateneo supporters demonstrate how the brand addresses different segments within the wider Ateneo community.[2]

GetBlued is particularly interesting as a Philippine brand because its product is partly emotional rather than purely functional.

A T-shirt bearing “Ateneo,” “Team Ateneo,” “OBF,” or “Ateneo 1859” communicates membership or affiliation. In that sense, GetBlued monetises school pride, nostalgia, community belonging, and sports fandom.

This helps explain why the brand can maintain demand for relatively simple products such as T-shirts, caps, lanyards, and stickers: the underlying value is not simply the physical garment but what the garment represents.

GetBlued currently operates its own e-commerce website, with product discovery organised around collections and categories. Its site includes new-product releases, featured products, accessories, activewear, kids’ products, alumni merchandise, and collaborations.[2]

The company’s website was also developed with UI/UX design, mobile responsiveness, and e-commerce integration, according to the development agency’s case study.[1]

The evolution of GetBlued can be summarised as:

2007 — Concept develops through an Ateneo entrepreneurship competition.

2008 — Official merchandise sales begin at the Loyola Schools Bookstore.

2008 onward — Founders continue operating the business after graduation.

Early 2010s — Brand expands its distribution to multiple Ateneo schools around the Philippines.

Later development — Product offering expands from basic shirts into athleticwear, hoodies, jackets, accessories, children’s apparel, and collaborations.

Today — GetBlued operates as a multi-category Ateneo lifestyle-merchandise brand with its own e-commerce operation and a major Shopee presence.[2]

1. XScribe
2. Collections – GetBlued
3. Microsoft Word – REGISTERED_20190710