Comfortable with sneakers
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Barring 'traditional' wedding parties, young businessman Winfred Hutabarat wears sneakers on any and all occasions, including to his office in Kemang, South Jakarta.
"It's comfortable and practical," the co-founder of the Aksara bookstore chain told The Jakarta Post recently.
The graduate of Yale University who has 20 pairs of sneakers of brands such as Nike, Adidas and New Balance, said comfort and form were his main requirements when buying a pair of sneakers.
The 34-year-old bachelor usually wears long-sleeve shirts and jeans with his sneakers.
Winfred's laid-back attitude is already being mirrored by some multi-national companies here, which have recently allowed employees to wear casual clothes instead of "formal" dress or uniforms.
Microsoft and IBM are said to apply no tight rules governing the dress code of their employees -- reaching work targets is judged to be more important than one's appearance.
Fashion observer Muara Bagja said dressing smart-casual had become a trend among young people, including working executives in multi-national companies.
"They combine formal long-sleeve shirts with trousers or jeans and sneakers. It probably makes their work more fun," Muara, who also wears sneakers on many occasions, told the Post.
The fashion designer said sneakers were best used to make people look more informal, relaxed and casual.
They could be matched with formal trousers while working in the office and jeans and T-shirts when clubbing.
"I like a casual appearance. I always use sneakers to combine with my clothes," Muara said, refusing to mention the number of his shoes.
Sneakers have become so popular here, they even have their own fan club.
Footurama was founded in Jakarta in January last year and now boasts a membership of hundreds of young people, including fashionable students and well-heeled executives.
"Our members are not only from Jakarta and cities in Indonesia, but also from Malaysia and Australia," Footurama founder Max Suryaganda told the Post.
Members of the club shared their knowledge and new information about sneakers through a mailing list and their homepage www.footurama.com, Max said.
On the homepage, Max, who recently graduated from the private Pelita Harapan University's School of Graphics and Design, writes about his experiences sneaker-hunting in Kuala Lumpur recently.
"We just share our experiences and information. We are not selling sneakers. We would never sell them through the Internet," Max said.
Max and his friends recently organized a sneakers and urban art exhibition at the National Monument in Central Jakarta where dozens of rare sneakers from many countries, including the United States, were displayed.
"Many people visited the exhibition. It was a success. It will become our annual exhibition," he said.
Hunting for rare or limited edition sneakers gives sneaker fanatics that extra-special step up. Most of these kind of shoes cannot be bought at ordinary department stores or sports shops. The coolest sneaker pimps in Jakarta are reputed to be found on Jl. Radio Dalam, South Jakarta.
Max, who has more than 100 pairs of sneakers with price tags ranging from Rp 500,000 to Rp 3 million a pair, usually buys his sneakers when traveling overseas or asks his friends to buy them when they go abroad.
"Many of my friends have more sneakers than me. The prices can reach Rp 20 million a pair and I can't afford that yet. But maybe I will later."