Saturday, February 26, 2022 – 09:52 WIB
VIVA – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) that produce socks with the brand ‘Sampean’ from Cihanjawar Village, Sukagalih Village, Megamendung District, Bogor Regency, West Java have been selected to be the official MotoGP merchandise which will be held at the Mandalika Circuit, Lombok, on 18-20 March 2022 next. The socks were produced by a woman named Rika Darmawati (39 years old), what is the story like?
The name ‘sampean’ itself comes from the Sundanese diction which means foot. The name came from Rika who was born and raised in a Sundanese family. Initially, the product he pioneered was called Kaos Kakiku, but the name was later changed when registering the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) for the product brand.
“Initially the brand was my foot but because when I registered the IPR the name was already in use, so I changed Sampean. Sampean is Sundanese which means Foot,” said Rika in an interview. VIVAFriday 25 February 2022.
Rika has been in her socks business since 5 years ago. From the production of tens to now able to distribute thousands of socks. Little by little Rika began to crawl to market her products in traditional markets in Bogor and surrounding areas.
“We produce socks taking materials from collectors, we work on our own, we also print our own,” he said.
The steps for Indonesian SMEs to reach Mandalika are due to the collaboration between SMESCO Inaproduct and the Mandalika Grand Prix Association (MGPA) as the promoter and license holder of the 2021 Indonesian MotoGP. This collaboration invites SMESCO partner SMEs to participate in becoming the Official Merchandise of the Mandalika Circuit. On that occasion, Rika’s socks product also passed when she participated in the November 2021 curation selection and received an announcement in December 2021.
“I registered myself independently. Looking at the posts on Instagram and taking part in the curation for fun, it turned out to be successful. I was also surprised to be able to pass because those who registered in the thousands didn’t really expect much at first. Because of the thousands, only 27 products passed, the chances are slim, right,” he said.
