T-shirt makers prepare for election orders
T-shirt makers prepare for election orders
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta
Awaiting for the news as to who will qualify to contest the
presidential election, T-shirt makers at Senen Market, Central
Jakarta, said they had yet to see an increase in orders for the
next campaign period.
The General Elections Committee (KPU) will announce on
Saturday which candidate pairs are to join the July 5 polls,
while the presidential campaign period is slated to start on June
1 for one month.
Several T-shirt makers, however, have prepared samples and
stockpiles of T-shirts for the most likely candidates: the
Democratic Party's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla.
Rizal, owner of the Limbre T-shirt kiosk on the third floor of
the market, said on Friday that he had made a sample T-shirt with
a picture of Yudhoyono and Kalla printed on its front, in case
any orders for such shirts arose during the campaign period.
"We are offering this SBY-Kalla shirt for Rp 7,000 (77 US
cents)," he said, referring to Susilo's popular nickname while
showing the shirt, which has a collar and sleeves in the blue of
the party color.
Asked why he had readied only a sample of the Democratic
Party's pair and not others, Rizal explained that Susilo-Kalla
shirts were the ones most sought.
"Besides, at the time we made the shirt, from what we heard on
the news, only SBY and Kalla had completed their registration
with the KPU," he told The Jakarta Post.
Ade, owner of a T-shirt and souvenir kiosk on the ground floor
of the market, told the Post that he had yet to receive any
confirmed orders from any campaign team.
Some campaign officials who had come to his kiosk, Ade said,
had just browsed around to ask the price of such shirts.
"They also asked if a down payment was required and whether
the shirts could be delivered," he said, explaining that he would
only receive minimum orders of 1,000 shirts, and that down
payments and delivery fees would depend on the size of the order.
As with Rizal, Ade said he had also prepared 2,500 Susilo-
Kalla T-shirts. Besides selling the shirts for Rp 5,000 to anyone
interested, Ade said the one-size-fits-all, self-designed shirts
were also samples.
"I received an order from an official of the SBY-Kalla
campaign team last week for 1,000 pins at Rp 1,000 (11 U.S.
cents) each. Who knows? Whey might be interested in ordering T-
shirts next time," he said.
Ade, however, was careful to stock just enough shirts to
ensure that he would not suffer losses from unsold stock.
"You can see for yourself that I still have a pile of unsold
party shirts from the previous (general election) campaign," he
said, pointing to a stack of yellow T-shirts on his display rack.