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Pasuruan 'songkok' cap for Ramadhan
Plenty of choices: Songkok traditional caps come in different models and colors
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Plenty of choices: Songkok traditional caps come in different models and colors.
The silence pervading a building in Ngembe village, Beji district, located some 20 kilometers east of Pasuruan in East Java, is broken by the sound of cell phone music.
Inside the building, which houses the Al-Falah songkok (traditional hat) factory, workers are busy ' sewing, cutting cloth and loading piles of caps into a van.
Set up in 1990 through arduous efforts without workers, 20 years later the factory employs 50 people.
'I used to be a songkok factory worker myself, but I didn't want to remain one and began to save part of my income to buy materials. I sewed my caps at home and sold them along with my wife,' said Al-Falah owner Ahmad, 42.
A cap is made from a mica plate coated with black and white flannel, with its body sewn using motif-adorned fabric. Its cover is layered with motifs by means of a heating device and later stuck to the cap body with glue until it becomes dry enough for further sewing, before being ready for sale.
The home industry's workers are mostly youths, school dropouts as well as school students on vacation.
'I prioritize workers from our neighborhood and only recruit external labor when they [the workers] are absent,' Ahmad says.
During the month of Ramadhan, Al-Falah's cap production doubles as demand increases. With only 25 workers previously, during Ramadhan the company's number of staff reaches 50.
'I'm working during the Ramadhan school vacation to help support my parents' daily expenses,' said Ririn, 17.
Al-Falah workers receive Rp 5,000 for each hat produced. Most make five on a daily basis and receive payment every 10 to 20 days.
The company's products are not inferior in quality to those from major manufacturers, with models and motifs following current trends.
For increased competitiveness, Ahmad is making products with 30 new motifs to attract consumers to the reasonably priced and comfortable hats.
The products' foreign marketing has covered Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. For Saudi Arabia, deliveries are mostly carried out during the haj pilgrimage season.
'I've once rejected requests coming from Singaporean and Middle Eastern entrepreneurs for not using 'made-in-Indonesia' labels,' Ahmad said.
' Photos by Aman Rochman
