OUR STORY

Sunika is built on three things: steady work, faith, and the guts to burn it all down and start over when necessary. There were no shortcuts, no overnight success stories, and no special advantages. Just two people who refused to quit and put in the work, every single day.

Before Sunika became a trusted supplier in the country for customers and resellers, it was RK. A side hustle. A Facebook group. Two founders grinding through long hours, learning from mistakes, and understanding exactly what people needed.

This is how it all began.

The Work Behind Bashi's Beginning

Bashi didn't start with a business plan. He started with survival.

For years in Japan, he worked jobs that broke most people: manufacturing Canon lenses in 2010, assembling Fujitsu mobile phones in 2012, and filling the gaps in between with whatever paid. Hotel cleaning, construction sites, painting walls. Every job demanded the same things: show up, work hard, don't quit when your body begs you to.

Nothing was handed to him. But those years forged something unbreakable: a work ethic built on grit and discipline.

Then in 2016, everything changed with a single pair of shoes.

During a casual trip to a Nike outlet, Bashi bought a pair and posted them online. Within hours, his phone exploded: 132 inquiries. One post.

Most people would've been overwhelmed. Bashi saw an opportunity, and he moved fast.

He started taking pasabuy requests, meeting customers during his commute, teaching himself live selling, sourcing products from Japan and the US. It was grueling, manual, relentless work. But every order built momentum.

That momentum became RK.

The Work Behind Reg's Contribution

From 2012 to 2017, Reg worked in Human Resources. Documentation. Systems. Processes. The unglamorous backbone work that keeps organizations running. When she joined the business, those years became their secret weapon.

While Bashi was out there hustling, Reg was building the foundation. She organized chaos into operations. She turned inconsistency into standardized procedures. She built the infrastructure that could actually handle growth without falling apart. Her HR background brought something the business desperately needed: balance. Structure. Stability in the storm.

Bashi brought the hustle. Reg brought the system.

Together, they became a well-oiled machine.

The result wasn't luck or timing. It was two skill sets colliding at exactly the right moment, compounding with every order, every process, every late night spent building something that could last.

This was how RK evolved from a side hustle into something built to endure.

When Hardwork Turned Into a Real Business

By 2017, the numbers didn't lie, this was no longer a side hustle. This was a business with real, lasting potential.

But here's the kicker: In February 2020, just weeks before the world locked down, Bashi and Reg made a leap most would call reckless. They quit everything else and went all-in on RK full-time, no safety net, no crystal ball.

While the pandemic brought the world to its knees and forced businesses to shutter, RK did the opposite. They doubled down. As online shopping exploded and uncertainty reigned, they didn't just survive the chaos, they leaned into it. More orders. More customers. Stronger systems.

They couldn't have known what was coming. When the world closed its doors, theirs swung wide open. 

By the end of 2020, while others were still reeling, Bashi and Reg opened their first physical store in San Pedro, Laguna. 

FROM RK TO SUNIKA

RK officially launched in 2016—humble beginnings with used items and luxury pieces sold through a private Facebook group. As word spread and customers multiplied, they went public. But the growth wasn't some viral fluke or lucky break. It was pure consistency. Show up. Deliver. Repeat.

And Bashi showed up everywhere. Hotel lobbies. Bus stop waiting sheds. Empty restaurant tables at odd hours. He hand-delivered every product himself, sitting through the wait, meeting customers wherever they were, because that's what it took.

Then the pandemic hit. Borders tightened. Shipping from Japan to the Philippines became a logistical nightmare. Supply chains choked.

Most would've folded.

Bashi and Reg didn't blink. They hustled harder, stripped their process down to the studs, rebuilt it tighter, and pushed forward with relentless force.

By December 2022, they weren't just running a business anymore, they were building a brand.

This was the birth of Sunika.

Birth of Sunika

Reg knew RK had outgrown its Facebook roots. It needed more than an online presence. It needed a physical store where customers could walk in, see the products, and build real trust.

But she didn't just want any location. She wanted visibility. Foot traffic. A mall spot.

They started applying, but kept hitting the same obstacle: the name. "RK Branded for Less" didn't resonate with mall operators or their target market. It didn't communicate what the business had become.

They needed a rebrand.

During a brainstorming session, someone threw out Sunika, the Japanese pronunciation of "sneaker." It was simple, memorable, and tied directly to their roots in Japan.

The response was immediate: yes.

Core Pillars of Sunika

Quality Work Every product is sourced carefully. Standards are strict and consistent, ensuring excellence across the board.

Service Mindset From day-one communication to after-sales support, the focus is on reliability and accuracy in every interaction.

People and Community Customers, resellers, and partners have played a major role in building the brand into what it is today.

Building What Comes Next

Sunika didn't happen by accident. It's the result of years spent doing the work nobody saw: sourcing products overseas, meeting customers wherever they were, building systems that could handle real scale.

From hand-delivering sneakers to managing nationwide distribution, every bit of progress was earned through consistency and accountability.

The story's still going. Same principles that started it: show up, deliver, keep getting better.

What started with 132 inquiries on a single post is now a name people trust. But Bashi and Reg aren't stopping here.

There's more ground to cover.