{"id":290485,"date":"2018-12-17T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=290485"},"modified":"2018-12-17T06:00:27","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T20:00:27","slug":"tribe-marianas-turns-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/tribe-marianas-turns-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Tribe Marianas turns 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tribe Marianas owners T.J. DLC Manglona and Rob Travilla are focused on chasing the vision of making the Marianas known around the world. (Bea Cabrera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rob Travilla was going through the 8-to-5 daily work grind when he took the plunge in 2015 to make his dream a reality, leaving behind his federal job to create his own business. That gave birth to Tribe Marianas, which he now co-owns with T.J. DLC Manglona and where he is the creative director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my dad telling us that if you really want something, you have to work on it. \u2026That\u2019s why I am used to the hustle. \u2026Little did I know that this would be the fuel to having my own business someday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to wake up to do what you love doing every single day is a blessing.I don\u2019t take it for granted at all because I used to work in a job for 10 years where I clocked in and out every single day and was living from one paycheck to another,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

It now seems like fate had a hand in the collaboration between Travilla and Manglona. \u201cI was running a clothing company called \u2018Salbahe\u2019 and .T.J., who was based in California at that time, said he was going to open up a retail store there called \u2018Tribe Marianas\u2019 that would carry local brands from Saipan and Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen it hit me like a hammer on the head when I was designing the whole layout for T.J., that it could be bigger than just a retail store. \u2026We can create something that people will think is unique only to the CNMI and the collaboration happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

In opening Tribe Marianas, they had to overcome many hurdles. \u201cOne of the obstacles we had to work on was money as we got denied by every bank on Saipan. Then one day, we stumbled upon the Commonwealth Development Authority\u2019s small business program. That gave us a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travilla said he would never forget the name of Oscar Camacho of CDA \u201cbecause he was one of the believers. Until the day I die, I will always mention his name because, without him I wouldn\u2019t be talking about Tribe Marianas right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then Typhoon Soudelor happened in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Saipan had power back on by the end of October, we had one month to finish the store and finally, we opened the doors on Dec. 12, 2015,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Today, Tribe Marianas provide quality clothing, from T-shirts to accessories. They have stores on Middle Road, DFS Galleria, and DFS at the Saipan airport. They sell online and deliver to all the states in the U.S. mainland. <\/p>\n

Tribe Marianas is easily identifiable by its logo: crisscrossing adzes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to carry a symbol that, wherever you are in the world, if you see our logo, people will immediately think you\u2019re from the islands. We chose the \u2018adze\u2019 as these were the tools that our ancestors used to carve boats and we have two that symbolize building and protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery design is well thought of. We try to use personal experiences when we get together to finalize a design for a particular product and we are also blessed to work with great manufacturers. \u2026Our followers since Day 1 know we pride ourselves in quality over quantity so we try to stick to our principles in ensuring that we provide nothing but the best products that are built to last and withstand the elements of the islands,\u201d he added<\/p>\n

According to Travilla, Tribe Marianas is aware that they need the community. \u201cWithout them we wouldn\u2019t be here\u2026 that\u2019s why we also made it a mission to give back.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tribe Marianas is a supporter of Million Dollar Scholars, Marianas Young Professional, and the Marianas March Against Cancer. <\/p>\n

Travilla said his team\u2019s passion and faith have propelled Tribe Marianas to go this far. \u201c We never doubted our products and we always knew that you can take our product and put it beside a product from a company in California and you wouldn\u2019t spot the difference. We pride ourselves with quality over quantity, common vision, dedication, passion commitment and we are so blessed that we have those values instilled in every person in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what a tribe is. \u2026Wherever our products go, it\u2019s a little piece of the Marianas\u2026A person who see our products for the first time is going to Google \u2018Saipan\u2019 and he will say, \u2018I never knew this place existed!\u2019 So the ripple effect\u2026will basically point us back to our mission and that is to spread the Marianas worldwide,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Travilla was going through the 8-to-5 daily work grind when he took the plunge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":290486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12430],"class_list":["post-290485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-tribe-marianas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}