Kilometer 30. The last climb. The final rep.
That is where most race-day stories get told. A finish-line photo, a split time, a medal. What the photo leaves out is the 5 a.m. alarm, the long run in July heat, the trainer session after a full workday and the brick workout nobody posts. Races are won and lost in that unseen work, months before the start gun.
SPG is a new Filipino sports nutrition brand built around that idea. Its tagline is three words: Fuel the Work.
Made By An Athlete, For Athletes
SPG stands for Strength, Performance, Growth.
The brand SPG was started by Luis Padilla, an athlete who wanted the same thing many local endurance athletes want: fuel he could rely on without paying imported prices every time he trained.
“We started SPG because the fuel we needed cost too much or was hard to find. So we made our own,” the brand says in its launch message.
The first product is the one Padilla uses himself: an energy gel. The brand is not starting with a full shelf of powders, bars and drinks. It is starting with one product, tested in its founder’s own training, and building from there. “Energy gels are first. More is on the way,” the launch message says.
Who It Is For
SPG is aimed at the people who fill the start lists of local races and the early-morning roads: triathletes, runners, cyclists and the growing crowd doing hybrid fitness races, the events that mix running with stations of functional work.
These athletes have a lot in common. Most hold down jobs. Most train before sunrise or after dark. Many fund their own race entries, bikes, shoes and travel. For them, nutrition is not a single race-day purchase. It is a recurring cost that shows up in every long session.
That is the gap SPG says it wants to fill. “Good nutrition should be within reach of every athlete who shows up and does the work,” the brand says.
Affordable Enough For Every Session
The thinking behind the brand is simple. An athlete who only opens a gel on race day never learns how their body handles it. Fueling is a skill, and it gets practiced in training. Coaches commonly tell athletes to rehearse their race-day nutrition in long sessions. That advice is easy to give and harder to follow when every packet feels like a splurge.
A single SPG packet costs Php 90 and a box costs Php 849.
SPG’s pitch is that the fuel should be priced so athletes can use it on a Tuesday interval session as readily as on race morning. At launch, a single packet costs P90 and a box costs P849. Both are introductory prices. SPG’s products are FDA-registered in the Philippines.
Gritty, Not Glossy
The brand’s voice matches its audience. Its launch line reads: “You brought the work. We brought the fuel.”
There are no promises of podiums or personal records. SPG does not claim the gel will make anyone faster. The message is narrower and more honest. The athlete does the work, and the brand’s job is to make sure the fuel is there and affordable when they do it.
That tone suits a local endurance scene that has grown on grit more than glamour. Triathlon, road running and cycling have pulled in thousands of weekend athletes across the country, from Metro Manila to provincial race weekends. Hybrid fitness has brought gym-goers into racing too. Many of these athletes learned to fuel by trial and error, often with whatever products they could find or afford.
Where To Get It
"You brought the work. We brought the fuel."
SPG gels are sold through the brand’s Shopee store at shopee.ph/wearespg. The brand’s other channels are listed on its Linktree at linktr.ee/wearespg.
What Comes Next
The gel is the first product, not the whole plan. SPG says more products are on the way, all aimed at the same athletes and with the same promise to keep prices within reach.
For now, the brand is betting on one product and one idea: the work that happens when nobody is watching. The early alarms. The extra kilometers. The last rep when your legs say stop.
You brought the work. SPG brought the fuel.
