Our news about our life and Marapulai

Our news about our life and Marapulai in 2014

Me (Ilham) and my wife (Saskia) are doing our business as a start up since 2011 to built up our dream of being creative entrepreneurs. I am a studied product designer and product maker. I have a bachelor degree from Indonesia and master degree from germany. I am living in germany for the last around 9 years and married with my wife in 2010 in germany. First I am doing my handmade business as a side job and now I am already quit my dayjob and trying to live from our handmade brand Marapulai. My wife is doing her last 3 month of studying cultur science and is helping me every minute she can to do the marketing, advertising, client connection, udating the online shops and writing the story about our business. So I can concentrate on the shoe designing and making process.

We have planned to move to Indonesia to live there for a while. We have there our shoe working space and we want to fully concentrate on making Maraulai Shoes. So now I am already moved to Jakarta, Indonesia since one week and my wife is moving here in three month after finishing her study in germany, too. That´s why we have some of our items shipped from Germany and some from Indonesia. Also I have handcrafted the leather tablet bags, purses, luggage tags and so on by my own in my living room, because in germany our appartement was too small for a whole room as a working space.

The process of making the shoe design, pattern, buying the leather and making the shoes with the help of a learned shoemaker in our own working space to sew on the machine. The shoes are handmade in our working space: We attached some pictures of our working space and our working process. Step by step you see how the single parts of the shoes are fitting together.

Here are some impressions...

pattern making

sewed shoe with shoes lasts

Our reck for shoe material and shoes lasts

sewing the upper leather

Final control

almost finished shoed with shoes lasts

Monday Urban Moments - Art in Bali

After a week in Bali I have many impressions of the handkrafted things on that indonesian island. Which I want to share with you. When you drive throuh the countryside, everywhere you can see things we don´t have in germany. Whether at the beachside or on the hills in direction to Ubud, on every traffic circle is a high statue. 

Unbelievable what art can do to make a city look nicer. From history of Hindiusm saga, every statue stands for a story. And Bali makes a statement, that it is a hindu island. The monuments are about 12 meters high. Maybe we should take a few ideas from Bali to make our Countryside nicer. What do you think?

Monday Urban Moments - Marapulai @NGADUide12

Today we report of the NGADUide#12, which was held on 7th September 2012 in Bandung, Indonesia. The Topic "Opportunities and Culture in Europe" - Opportunities in the European market.

Because the Talkshow presents Muhammad Ilham Nirwan, Marapulai Clothing and Björn Waßmann, Global Management student and a friend of us.

Here a few snapshots of the event.

NGADUide - A place to chat about world business and to share experiences and inspiration. 

Monday Urban Moments - Ride a motorcycle in Jakarta

For a new Monday topic I choose motorcycling in Jakarta, because it was really an experience for me. I never ever drove on a motorcycle before, well let´s say I was afraid and always had the possibility to get a car in Germany. :-) But in Indonesia the problem is the traffic jam. If you drive with a car, you need so much longer for a route than with a motorcycle. And that´s why... Ilham requested that I just try it, to sit on the motorcycle with him.

There we go!

You see some impressions, how it is to be on the street with a bike. In Indonesia to wear a helmet is an obligation. Don´t wonder, I need a scarf on my nose and mouth, because there is so many waste gas. In the raining season you have also the problem of flooded roads and holes in the asphalt. But you cannot go fast anyway, like you see on the speedo it´s about 30 km/h. So, maybe take a break and have something to drink in front of this small colourful shop?!  

In the end... I survived a 4,5 hours (one way) trip!  And like to go again! ;-)

Monday Urban Moments - Transportation

When you are on the way through Jakarta, you see really weird and funny transportation variations. Here in Germany you think, you always need a car for transporting a washing machine?! No you don´t, but if you try this in Germany, I think you have to pay.

In Indonesia, no one says, it is impossible to carry anything on a motorcycle.

And for animals of course you need a bigger vehicle. A pick up car is enough, just like you can see here a cow and three buffaloes.  Just watch and enjoy!

Building up an own homeindustrie

Today I will write about the last two to three weeks of Ilham´s adventure to build up an own homeindustrie in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

First of all we have to explain, that for designers it´s really needful to have an own home industry. Because it´s depending on the other homeindustrie and the shoemaker there, how long you it takes till your new prototypes are manufactured. And this can take long. You have to wait until they finished other orders and push yours between. Mostly priority is not the prototypes.

Also the distance between Ilham´s place and the other homeindustrie was very far. He has to stay there over night to discuss and show all the details personally, whats the designers imagination. Here Since a short distance makes the working easier. Especially in Jakarta, where you need maybe two hours for a drive, which you normally you can do in 20 minutes, if there is no "macet", means traffic jam.




The best what can happen was at this time was, that Ilham´s family has an empty "ruko", which is a working, retail and living space / house. And we can use it. It just has to be cleaned a bit and need some furnishing and equipment. Thank you mama & papa & family!

So and that´s where we started to think about... to begin!

Let´s go!

First thing is to find a shoemaker for making the pattern and sewing. So Ilham searches two employees and gladly found Odie and Diyan. They are now working in our working room, two men for making the shoe prototypes. Welcome guys!

Marapulai Clothing want to pay faire salary and want to have good working conditions. So we pay Odie for pattern sewing and Diyan as sewing assistent more than the standard of living. Their working day is 8 hours like normal. In addition, they can both stay for free in the empty house. There is a ground floor for working and a first floor for living. Good thing is they don´t have to pay rent and no long commute.

In general the minimum wage for employees in factories is around 1,3 million IDR (approx. 113 Euro). But for the life you need about 2 million IDR (approx. 175 Euro). Most of the factory workers live with their parents, because they cannot afford to pay rent. For this salary, the workers must often work very long, usually more than half a day. But we don´t want to be like this, we want to have good conditions in every part.

So the first day of working, it´s still a bit empty in the room, but next days more working furniture is coming. They are sewing on a "brother" deep sewing machine for sewing applications on leather.

Searching the second hand sewing machines for shoe leather was a challenge. Which is a good one, which is stable, durable and in good condition. So here are a view impressions, how it looks like, in the second hand shops.

After deciding between them, Ilham has to transport a sewing machine. But he was with his motorcycle, so it has to fit on it. In Indonesia it´s totally normal to drive like this. :-)

And more things of need Ilham bought, almost transportet the same way. Some the high sewing machine is coming today. We will see how it works and what we can tell you next week.

Great advertising with the topic of Indonesia

Discovered a great advertising of camel active. 

Topic is Indonesia. Here the pic I made of the front window of camel active shop.

If you click your way through the homepage it´s really nice.   http://www.camelactive.de/

You can feel Indonesia's diversity with real sound of the country.

And you can also watch a short movie. I like the song!

http://www.camelactive.de/ss12/main

 

Marapulai - handmade shoes

Marapulai - handmade shoes, ein Album auf Flickr.

Here you can see the trend colours of Marapulai shoes. First production of handmade sneakers.
We are proud to present it. Our online shop www.marapulai.de

Marapulai sole - The islands of Indonesian map

Marapulai TIGOlightblue, a photo by Marapulai on Flickr.

One of the trend colours of Marapulai shoes is light blue. You can see here the special design of the sole. It´s the concept of the islands of the Indonesian map. You can buy it on our Online Shop.

 

 The sole design idea

The slogan is “Always santai!”

About Marapulai

Marapulai is a clothing brand founded 2011 in Hamburg, Germany. Marapulai clothing is beginning as a small family company. The designer and owner is Muhammad Ilham Nirwan, supported by his wife Saskia. Marapulai is the first clothing brand of the Company Marapulai Clothing and combines ethnic motives of the Indonesian culture with casual style. The design concept continues with the Indonesian map on the sole and the ethnic logo on the back of the shoes.

And the slogan ´Always santai!`, which means ´always relaxed!`, is typical for Indonesian people and an attitude towards life. Marapulai products are for stylish and extroverted people and set fashion trends.

All products are made with carefulness and very good quality. We look for very good workmanship of the product and very good material. The idea Marapulai is born in Germany and the products are made in Indonesia. The planned products are handmade shoes from real leather, especially sneakers, and later clothes and bags. The first we have almost finished now are shoes.

Meaning of Marapulai

"Marapulai" is a word of the language from the culture of the Minangkabau ethnic group of West-Sumatra in Indonesia. In the past it was the word for ceremonial clothing of kings and chiefs. Later it changed to the meaning of sublime clothing for traditional ceremonies, like official big events for people from different regions of Sumatra. Nowadays, the concept has gained in usage as a word for the wedding outfit of the groom. We want to combine abstractly all the meanings in Marapulai, because it contains the ethnic side of culture, the quality of clothes and the young side of modernity.

About the owner and designer of Marapulai

Muhammad Ilham Nirwan

Since his childhood in Bukittinggi (island Sumatra) in Indonesia, his life was connected to art and creativity, like making his toys out of bamboo and wood. So he started to make his dream come true. While his study of Product Design (B.A.) at Institut Teknologi Bandung in Indonesia he successfully created the Shirt brand “Padeh”. But he decided to move further and went to the foreign country Germany for studying Digital Media (M.Sc.) at University Bremerhaven.

Marapulai – our idea and our target

We, as beginning entrepreneurs, want to support other start-ups and company enlargements. That´s why we didn´t want to produce in a big fabric. Therefore, our partners in Indonesia are business start-ups with a small business, like a home industry. Some are not bigger than two by three meters, but even so the quality is excellent and they work very well. So our target is also the social aspect of being an entrepreneur and the responsibility. Our target is that the shoe producer, the seller and the user is happy.

We make sure to comply with the guidelines of the social responsibility concept for companies in our manufacturing process. This means compliance with social standards in low-wage countries, paying fair and living wages, no child labor and sustainable production. And we agree with campaigns like "Clean Clothes". Of course we think on the environment, too. That is why the shoe boxes are made of cardboard.

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Thank you