Fil-Canadian hoops exec juggles side hustles

Abby Albino, Canada Basketball, Director of Brand and Partnerships, in her Toronto women’s sneaker boutique Makeway, one of her side gigs.  ELAINE FANCY

A recent that post-pandemic survey found as many as nine out of ten women aged 18-34 want to pursue a side career. Abby Albino, already a basketball executive, is among them.

Albino, 38, loves her new job as director of Brand and Partnerships  of Canada Basketball, the National Sporting Organization for basketball in the country. But she also loves her side hustles as co-founder of the Toronto store MAKEWAY, “North America’s first and only sneaker boutique for women completely run and funded by women,” and also the non-profit organization Rise Tribe, “a youth mentorship platform for Filipino-Canadians.”

Albino opened MAKEWAY at Toronto’s Stackt Market, near Bathurst and Front Sts., with partner Shelby Weaver in November 2020.

Born in Toronto to parents who immigrated from the Philippines in the late ‘70s, Albino, says like most Filipino-Canadians, she is passionate about both basketball and sneakers.

Albino opened MAKEWAY at Toronto’s Stackt Market, near Bathurst and Front Sts., with partner Shelby Weaver in November 2020. SCREENSHOT

“I’m very fortunate to have a career that I love and in basketball. But starting a side hustle allows streetwear culture and it allows me to make that side hustle into a reality,” she told Vervetimes.com.

She juggles MAKEWAY with mentoring “ at Rise Tribe. I’m very passionate about paving the me to do the things that I want. Like I love sneakers and I love sneaker culture and way for the next generation and making sure that there is representation inall careers for Filipino-Canadians,” she added.

Albino isn’t that surprised by online/mobile banking Simplii Financial’s finding that 90% of young women wanting to do more than one job because women “are very complex,” “problem solvers,” and “multi-faceted humans.”

Although the survey found that one in four women felt finances were a barrier to having a side hustle, it didn’t daunt Albino, though she felt unprepared.

“You just have to get started. Because if you sit around and you’re just, ‘Well, I just need $5,000 extra dollars, $10,000 extra dollars,’ that means you’ll never start it,” she told Vervetimes.