One man is changing one life at a time, with customised designs on socks to help inspire more Māori and Pacific to get active.
Paul Muliaga, co-owner of The Hype Lab, prints customised socks in Sydney, and has ambitions to improve the stats for the youth of Tagata Moana in health and fitness.
“You know you’re not just trying to buy a pair of socks. You’re trying to inspire the next generation to get out there and move, especially our young PIs (Pacific Islanders), our young Pasifika kids. They might be struggling with things like mental health and obesity.
"But, if we can try to push releasing happy chemicals through movement, walking, or going to the gym and doing anything. It’ll help so we can tackle these problems that we are having in society and issues with our kids," he says.
Muliaga runs this business venture with his best friend, Marc-Marsha Taivairanga. Ten years ago they started an underwear brand named Mummy's Boy.
'Happy hormones'
Tavairanga also owns a cross-fit gym called BHD Fitness in Sydney where they work out regularly.
Muliaga says the happy hormones of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins are the inspiration for their company name.
“You know we were always saying ‘Bring the hype’ at our gym, and then one afternoon my business partner Marc asked: 'Why don’t we call it the ‘Hype Lab’.
"It's as if we’re in the lab cooking up socks, cool designs that could promote happy chemicals. Then we did some research and we found out the four main happiness chemicals add up to DOSE and DOSE aligns with the lab, the dosage," Muliaga says.
New Zealand-born Sāmoan Muliaga started his entrepreneurial journey by selling men's and boys’ underwear from the boot of his car.
Key lessons
Although the Mummy's Boy enterprise no longer exists, he says there were some key lessons he learned from it: “Having a marketing and business strategy for one. Two, not spending all the profits and paying your tax bill.
"We can laugh about it now, but me and my business partner when we get together, we think back 10 years ago. We’re like 'you were so naïve' and we just didn’t have the business nous that we have now,” he says.
Muliaga has helped family members to start their own business journeys too, with his father helping run a concreting company and his sister running a private disability support service in Sydney.
He says he has also changed the way he promotes his customised socks from how he marketed his underwear brand over a decade ago.
“We went to a marketing agency one time, and they asked: 'How did you get all these players? That’s like a $10 million payment.' I just said 'Oh we just gave them some underwear, gave a handshake and they said they’d do it for the brothers'.
"I think for Hype Lab we don’t want to go down the route. I mean it’s cool to have celebrities and sports stars wear your product but, if you hit the core of the community and who we want to hit, you've got to be out there on the frontline, going to markets and stores and community groups like rugby cubs,” Muliaga says.
In future The Hype Lab will be looking to explore more avenues for the business as the partners look to partner with promotional companies, start a podcast and organise their own CrossFit games.