T-shirt maker gearing up for Lao New Year
T-shirt maker gearing up for Lao New Year
Moonphor, a unique Lao t-shirt shop, is set to offer the best quality products to Lao customers for celebrating the upcoming Lao New Year.
“This year we have arranged a total of 10,000 t-shirts for Vientiane customers to select from for wearing during the New Year celebrations,” the owner of the Moonphor brand shop, Mr Souvanny Saleumsok said last week.
He said last year the shop was unable to offer customers sufficient products because only 3,000 t-shirts were produced.
The brand was launched more than three years ago, following the ideas of preserving the uniqueness of Lao tradition and culture.
“ Moonphor is actually a Lao word meaning the heritage of the father, and it became part of my brand when I found many different tools of my father. So finally it was chosen to appear on my t-shirts,” he said.
The shirts symbolise the uniqueness of Lao tradition and culture, comprising the Lao temple motif, cool phrases and pictures.
“Our products aim to promote the uniqueness of Lao style as well as to boost the labour skills of Lao workers and offer our customers high quality products,” Mr Souvanny said.
He confirmed that customers were able to return the products within one week if they found the t-shirts were not good quality.
The Moonphor t-shirts brand is available at the night market on the Mekong riverbank or Thongtoum branch in Chanthabouly district and the newly-launched branch at Nongbone village, Xaysettha district, Vientiane.
Mr Souvanny said he had no plans yet to export his products to other countries with the domestic market his priority.
“The products attracted some Lao customers in the United States after they saw a sample of the Moonphor t-shirts with a cool message in Lao language, ‘ Khoi Huk Meuanglao, Khaoniew Sieng Khaen ' or I love Laos, the land of sticky rice and the sound of the Khaen instrument,” he said.
The products receive constant improvement in terms of design with consultation from the Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Department of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
“We are quite lucky to receive regular advice from the SME sector so the design of the products will always be focused on three categories such as Lao style, Lao modern arts and focusing on the tastes of teenage clients,” he said.
A Moonphor t-shirt normally sells for 60,000 kip each but now they are offering customers 50 percent off until the Lao New Year celebrations.
“The difficult issues Moophor brand faces are the copies of our product and a minority of customers still do not trust the quality of Lao products; however they should try local products to help promote local SMEs before the arrival of the Asean Economic Community in 2015,” he said.
vientiane times
