Visit The Urban Sneaker Society, Erick Thohir Invites Young People To Dare To Work

Erick Thohir (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir fully supports the implementation of the Urban Sneaker Society (USS) at the Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan, Jakarta. According to Erick, this event shows that the work of the nation's children is no less good than foreign brands.

Furthermore, Erick assessed that USS was an event that showcased so many creations and innovations. Especially in clothes and shoes made by the nation's children.

"The Urban Sneaker Society is really cool, the fruit of the creativity of our young people who are not inferior to foreign brands," said Erick while visiting the Urban Sneaker Society (USS) at the Jakarta Convention Center, Senayan, Jakarta, Friday, December 3.

Erick considered the USS event to be proof that the young generation of Indonesia has the ability and great will to advance and develop. Therefore, Erick also invites young people to be brave to work.

According to Erick, pride in using local products must continue to be echoed through various means, including the USS event.

"Young people must have the courage to work and so that we can also make the pop culture of our own country," he said.

In addition, Erick also appreciated PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) which since 2019 has supported the USS event. Mandiri support, said Erick, is a tangible form of BUMN's alignment with local brands.

Erick said that the sneaker brand is an example of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that continue to innovate in creating products that are in line with the times.

"If local brands are appreciated in this country, MSMEs will definitely continue to grow," he explained.

USS Networks Cofounder and CEO Sayed Muhammad said he was proud and appreciated Erick's presence at the USS 2021 event. Sayed was not surprised by Erick's enthusiasm for the USS 2021 event because Sayed knew the former Inter Milan president was a local sneaker fan and collector.

Sayed said that Erick was also very excited to buy a number of products, such as jackets from the Raw Type Riot brand from Bandung and Compass shoes which are currently popular among the younger generation.

"Mr. Erick is a local sneaker collector, that's why friends were very happy, Mr. Erick was also happy because he continued to chat," said Sayed.

Sayed said Erick's presence had a huge impact on local sneaker brands affected by the pandemic. Sayed said that local sneaker sales, which are usually carried out during events, had to stop and only rely on online sales due to the pandemic.

Furthermore, Sayed sees Erick's support as an injection for local sneaker brands to be able to compete with foreign sneaker brands.

"Mr. Erick's presence is even more encouraging. Earlier, Mr. Erick interacted and listened to local brands vent about the obstacles they faced during this pandemic," said Sayed.

The local brands, Sayed continued, also thanked Erick for encouraging the association of state banks (Himbara), one of which was Bank Mandiri, to help finance capital with special loans for local sneaker brands.

Not only that, Sayed continued, Erick also invited local sneaker brands to fill the space in the Sarinah shopping center which will become a showcase for local products for Indonesia.

"Essentially, Mr. Erick said that there are many solutions that can be synergized between SOEs and local sneaker brands," he said.

Sayed targets the total transactions for the USS 2021 event, which will be held from Thursday to Sunday, December 5, 2021, to reach IDR 20 billion. Sayed said there was a decrease in the target compared to total transactions in 2019 which was above Rp20 billion, due to restrictions on the number of tenants and visitors for this year.

"This Urban Sneaker Society has been since 2017. Initially, almost 100 percent of goods were from outside. Since 2018 the portion of local brands has continued to increase and in 2021, more than 50 percent are local brands," said Sayed.