Viral Surabaya Shoe Brand Confirms It Will Not Participate in People's School Procurement

The owner of the local Surabaya shoe brand Stradenine, Reynaldi Kurniawan Daud, has emphasised that his company has no intention of getting involved in the Ministry of Social Affairs’ (Kemensos) People’s School shoe procurement project.

Reynaldi made this statement even though the government has promised to conduct an open and transparent tender process. He admitted that he prefers to continue with regular sales and distribution.

Reynaldi adopted this stance after his brand went viral due to its association with the allocation of Rp27.5 billion for shoe procurement in 2026. Reynaldi admitted he is worried that involvement in a government project could bring risks to his personal business in the future.

“Personally, no, sir. I mean, we’re focused on just selling to this group. As entrepreneurs, we’re afraid of getting dragged into anything,” Reynaldi told CNNIndonesia.com on Tuesday (5/5).

Furthermore, Reynaldi expressed disappointment over the public opinion that has already formed regarding his shoe brand being linked to the People’s School procurement. According to him, the spotlight on Stradenine in recent days has dragged it into political affiliations and sensitive procurement projects.

“It’s regrettable, really. We never hoped to be known in this way. So, we’re also regretting why we’re framed like that. First, with the shoe procurement, second, that we have affiliations with the government. We don’t want that,” he said.

Reynaldi explained that netizens on social media Threads connected his brand, which appeared in a 2025 documentation photo, with the government’s procurement plans for People’s School in the 2026 fiscal year.

The photo that triggered the speculation shows East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa and Social Minister Saifullah Yusuf smiling as they put Stradenine product shoes on a representative People’s School student.

Reynaldi emphasised that the presence of Stradenine shoes in that photo has no connection to the procurement project for tens of thousands of pairs of People’s School shoes that is currently under scrutiny.

“I have no relation to that image, sir. Actually, I’m surprised by that picture too. Because there was no direct purchase from me as the brand owner for that [Stradenine shoe type],” he said.

Furthermore, Reynaldi added that on business principles, Stradenine is more comfortable operating in the offline market by reaching the public directly through distributors in various regions, rather than joining government procurement programmes.

“As a brand, we’re actually an offline brand because we reach all segments outside Java. We’ve already distributed across Indonesia,” he said.

Previously, Indonesian Social Minister Saifullah Yusuf, or Gus Ipul, provided clarification on the polemic surrounding the budget for procuring shoes for the People’s School programme, amounting to Rp27.5 billion.

The budget has come under public scrutiny due to allegations that the People’s School shoe price could reach Rp700,000 per pair.

Gus Ipul explained that the figure is only an initial plan and not final. According to him, the planned budget will go through a transparent procurement process.

“So, every budget is planned beforehand. Planned and then there’s a procurement process. The procurement process will be tendered openly, and the result will definitely be cheaper than the plan,” said Gus Ipul during a visit to the construction of People’s School Kedung Cowek in Surabaya on Sunday (3/5).

According to Gus Ipul, once the tender and procurement process is complete, the budget and shoe prices will be much lower than the initial plan.

“So if now it’s said to be Rp700,000, the result could be far below that,” he said.

Although he did not detail the technical aspects of the tender process, Gus Ipul admitted he has warned all ranks in Kemensos not to commit deviations in implementing one of President Prabowo Subianto’s priority programmes.

This two-term Deputy Governor of East Java also pledged his commitment to be the first to report if any manipulation or illegal practices are found in this project.

“Let’s learn from the bad things in the past. Let’s make it a lesson, and moving forward, we must be truly clean from corruption. If there are violations, if there’s manipulation, if there’s collusion, I and Mr Deputy Minister have committed to being the first to report colleagues in the Ministry of Social Affairs who mess around with goods and services procurement,” he said.

Accusing shoe price markup issue as slander

Two days later, through an official statement with Deputy Social Minister Agus Jabo Priyono, Gus Ipul accused the viral social media issue of markup in People’s School student shoe prices as false information or hoaxes containing only slander.

“That’s slander, hoax,” said Gus Ipul in a press conference at the Ministry of Social Affairs Office in Jakarta on Tuesday (5/5), quoted from the official statement.

Gus Ipul then showed excerpts of narratives along with photos on a digital screen featuring a photo of himself and East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa giving shoes to People’s School students. The photo is a snippet from the documentation of the Malang Raya Social Pillars Dialogue activity on 2 May 2025.

Meanwhile, the shoes given were gifts from Governor Khofifah to 10 People’s School students sourced from the East Java Provincial Government APBD, not from Kemensos procurement.

“The shoes from Mrs Khofifah are gifts, assistance from Mrs Khofifah for People’s School students in East Java,” he said.

According to Gus Ipul, comparing one photo of a certain branded shoe circulating on social media with the overall shoe procurement for students