That was my dream as a young boy, back when dreaming was simpler, a few broken racquets and many never-seen-again balls ago. But as they say, closing doors opens new windows. It was 2010 and I had just moved out of my safe space to the south of Spain. Throughout my first weeks, I noticed a curious fact: I was unaware that padel is huge there. There were courts everywhere and, eventually, I got a job at a padel club, being responsible for managing the whole space, not just in Spanish, but also speaking English as there were many people moving from abroad to the city.
Every now and then I had to go to our storage unit, a mini warehouse on the other side of the street, to get boxes with more balls or new racquets. This was the time I first got in contact with the concept of self-storage. Instead of piling up stuff around, having stock safely stored nearby.
Way far from Roland Garros clay slides, but I had found space for a new passion. Alongside two colleagues we started an online business, mainly reselling sports clothing and some merchandise.
Later, we moved to Lisbon, bringing the brand with us. This move opened a big window. An emerging market in Portugal, and ultimately, what allowed us to be doing this for a living: designing and selling racquets. An idea with big potential and a bigger need for storage space, leading us to KUBOO Self-Storage, only 10 minutes driving from our flat in Lisbon’s city center.
We started with a not so big storage unit, just enough storage space to have some stock: a few boxes with clothing, ball tubes, racquets and a couple pairs of shoes.
The demand on our online shop kept growing, and so were our Kuboos. A single unit soon turned into two. Eventually a bigger one, with its space destined entirely for handmade racquets. At some point we’d come to KUBOO around 5 times a week, both during the day and night.
Our Kuboos became and now are, not only an extension of our office, but mostly our operations center. Five yellow doored storages filled with shelves, to make the best out of the available space, stocked with inventory to be shipped daily to padel and tennis clubs, players, enthusiasts, and those who have a small space for the sport in their lives, all around the Iberian Peninsula.