Top News
Fan helmets could go global after World Cup
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-18 10:52
 |
Large Medium Small |
|
 A worker paints a makarapa fan helmet at a factory in Wyneburg May 14, 2010. [Photo/Agencies] |
GLOBAL CRAZE?
The Baloyis hope the exposure of makarapas during the world's most watched sporting event will turn the helmets into a global craze for international football fans.
"We are looking forward to selling in Brazil because we know they are hosting the 2014 World Cup. We are going far," Lovemore told Reuters.
"People around the world will know the makarapa was started in South Africa. Whenever there is an event in the world they must come to buy makarapas."
Around 35 people recruited from all over South Africa work in the factory, which reeks of paint. They sit round tables and are divided into teams of base painters, cutters, primer painters and artists.
The cutters heat the plastic helmets over gas burners to make them easier to mould.
The shelves of the factory are stacked with helmets for various South African companies and foreign fans, with Brazil, Germany, Spain and Italy the biggest customers.
U.S. helmets carry U.S. President Barack Obama's election slogan "Yes We Can" and an Uncle Sam hat.
Most of the factory helmets are less complicated and fantastical than the "signature range" produced in Baloyi's original Germiston township workshop near Johannesburg.
Some Brazilian helmets, though, sport a stand-up figure of Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue and others have Baloyi's trademark witchdoctor on top.
Prices range from 250 rand ($33) for simple South African helmets to 1,500 for the more elaborate corporate or foreign designs.
