POV: I’ ve Been Racun’ d by APM
Asian paintball retail has lived a full life cycle in It started, as the best ideas often do, in the most unexpected place- a bedroom in Malaysia. No storefront, no warehouse- just RM30,000(~ USD 7,500), three partners, and a calculated read on a market that everyone else had written off during a pandemic. That bedroom is where Asia Paintball Market( APM)- today one of Malaysia’ s most prominent paintball retail businesses- was born.
Dharma Danial Logan, 31, is the co-founder and sales engine behind APM. Former investment banker and insurance professional. Paintball retailer. Team owner. Filmmaker. He wears all these hats simultaneously. When asked which one fits most comfortably, and the answer is immediate.“ Working in the paintball industry is the most comfortable. It is my passion. They say it doesn’ t feel like work if you enjoy what you do.”
Spotting the Gap It was 2022, and Malaysia was slowly emerging from COVID-19 restrictions. Most people were relieved to simply return to normal. Dharma was watching something else entirely- the
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American paintball market.“ The US market or paintball scene were back in action 6-12 months before us Malaysians were able to go out and do things,” he says.“ By then, brands in the US were rushing to come out with new products. A lot of paintball stores here in Malaysia closed except one, Raskal Sports.”
That single observation told him everything. A market was reopening. Demand was bottled up. Supply had dried out. He and his two cofounders- Khairul Adzweri( marketing and media) and Nazim Suzaly( operations and finance)- moved quickly. Their first brand was Infamous Pro DNA, an American premium paintball line. The products were gone within one to two weeks of arrival in Malaysia.
“ It was not a grind at all, to be honest. Every time we brought in products, they would be gone within one to two weeks.” The hardest part was not demand- it was logistics.“ The hardest challenge was storing RM100,000(~ USD24- 25k) worth of products in my bedroom. We didn’ t want to take the risk of renting- we were afraid COVID might come back.”