Watch more News on iWantTFC

In the midst of guns and gears at the recent TACCOM Gun Show in Mississauga, exhibitor Maharlika Gear and Studios promoted Filipino innovation, sports, arts and culture.

The annual TACCOM event is considered the largest Tactical & Competitive Shooting Sports Show in Canada where thousands of people, from hunters to sports shooters and gadgeteers, come to celebrate and explore the gun culture.

This year, MGear, a manufacturing company founded by Robeco Clarete, proudly showcased their multi-purpose gadgets like the Gadget Wallet 3.0 and their multi-tool magnetic belt.

"It also has a utility knife that you can use... and it's even featured in Mandalorian. We got featured in Star Wars so they’ve actually sought out the Mgear multi-belt and they had it as one of their props as part of the costume and it even made it to the action figure," MGear founder Robeco Clarete shared.

Among their headliners at the event was the holodeck which is a 3-D scanning system using photogrammetry technology that takes a full 360-degree image of a person and turns it into a 3-D printed figurine, or a 3-D model for gaming or VR/AR application.

With a background in mechanical engineering, Clarete talked about his passion for innovation.

"The idea is how can we have a setup that will allow us to continue to innovate. And many of what you see here [in the show], many of the things that I built, the gadgets that I made, it’s all about having the resources and equipment to turn an idea into a product."

It was also a nice surprise for fans of Michaelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle 3 to see the man behind the shell, Filipino Canadian Datu Shishir Inocalla, at the show.

Having used arnis in his movie stunts, Inocalla has been travelling the country to increase awareness and support for Sports Arnis.

"I actually used a stick to do my nunchuck but that became my calling. Our Arnis martial arts is actually used by almost, I would say, all martial arts from Taekwondo to Kung Fu. Even Bruce Lee was doing Arnis. So I decided that let's start here. I am a Canadian and there's a lot of Filipino martial artists here. I'm going provinces to provinces. We need 1,000 members per province to be considered, not even approved yet, to be recognized as a sport in Canada," Inocalla said.

Martial artist Sean McNabb lauded who the Filipino culture in Canada is growing.

"I'm also a practitioner in the FMA [Filipino Martial Arts] world. I've done a couple of knife work here and there. It's really good. We're trying to get it sanctioned down here in Canada and hopefully, we'll get some exhibitions going on," McNabb said. "It's good to see the culture's growing and it's coming down into this part of the world."

The Maharlika team is committed to promoting their brand and advocacies while elevating our Filipino culture in Canada and around the world.