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MAR 27 - On the Ekantakuna to Jawalakhel is a small shop, which, despite its rather decrepit status, attracts a huge number of customers. That too, only one particular breed of customers: football players.
Suresh Mangrati, who runs the 3 by 3 ft. shop has been mending football shoes for over a decade now. “Footballers from all over the country come to mend their torn boots here,” a proud Mangrati says. “Even officials, linesmen, and referees.”
Mangrati learnt his skills from his elder brother, who adopted the profession after their parents passed away while they were still young. Mangrati used to play football as a teenager. Coming from a modest family, he could not afford new shoes, and so made new football boots from old torn ones. His stint as a local footballer came to an end when his father passed away. “After that I gave up playing football and my studies as well,” recalls Mangarati, “I had to earn a living. I start repairing football boots, learning the trade from my brother.”
He became popular with professional footballers after he repaired Raj Kumar K.C ‘s (of Friends Club) boots. Mangrati and K.C. had played football together as children. K.C., who knew Mangrati made his own football shoes, came to him with his torn boots. Word spread around, and since then, footballers such as Hari Khadka, Upendra Man Singh, Anil Gurung, Jumanu Rai, Dev Narayan Chaudhary, Pradeep Maharjan, Bhola Silwal, and Surendra Tamang have been availing of his services. Mangrati, in fact, fondly recalls the boots he had made for Hari Khadka. Khadka found the boots so comfortable he donned them for three years, and scored many goals of his career wearing them.
Apart from mending boots, Mangrati also makes new shoes, though he focuses mainly on sports shoes.
“These shoes are also for players. They use these ones while training,” explains Mangrati, “And there are some boots meant for coaches.”
Footballers Pradeep Maharjan and Anjan KC came in with their shoes while we were conversing. Anjan wanted to his boots stitched, to which Mangrati asked him to come in the evening with a paltry Rs. 50.
Players often bring the soles of their old boots to Mangrati. He works on the old soles and prepares a new boot for the players in two days. The players tell him the colour and the brand they want, and Mangrati gives them exactly what they want at half the price they would pay in the market. Or, at least he did, before the load-shedding disturbed his working schedule. “It’s a very good bargain,” said Jaggit Shrestha, who had come to collect his shoes.
“Suresh dai knows the level of comfort footballers seek from their boots, and the shoes he makes are very comfortable,” Shrestha continues. This, Mangrati says, is his true earning, and what makes him happy. Satisfaction from footballers is the best reward for this humble man. “I don’t earn a lot, but the compliments from these famous footballers keep me going.” Mangrati is very busy during football tournaments. “On the morning of the match, they come to me. If the shop is not open, they call me.”
Mangrati doesn’t just mend shoes. In fact, he goes to watch matches and see how the players wearing his shoes are performing. “I need to know how my products turn out in order to improve them and watching the players live is the best way to do it.”
He is proud of the fact that his products are indecipherable from the real sports brands, and that no one at the Dashrath Stadium has found him out until they examine the labels well. He gets the leather to make the shoes from Pakistan, and other materials, including the fake labels from China. Using his skills, he comes up with any design and logo that his customers want. Sadly, his skills remain quite unknown, and only players endorse his goods, as Nepali disregard local products. “Tell them it’s a foreign good and they are ready to buy it for any amount,” Mangrati shares his bitter experience with the local customers. “But, tell them it’s made in Nepal, and they will not even look at it again.”
“I have never seen a shoe factory, and do not know how they work,” Mangrati says. “I work with my imagination; if I get to see a shoe factory, I could probably make better shoes.” He says that finding good quality soles is always a problem in the local market. According to him, most boots come from Thailand. National footballers use boots that cost up to Rs. 30,000, which they mostly buy when they go to play abroad. Mangrati is forced to reuse the soles from these shoes.
Footballers are very particular about their shoes and even take them as fashion symbols. A few years ago yellow boots were popular. Now, Mangrati says, says footballers go for green boots. “I had made a yellow boot with a small Nike logo at the front and sides which sold like hot cakes among our national players,” Mangrati said. “Now, though, all of them want green boots.” According to him, the demand for shoes and brands change according to the English Premier League. Adidas is the most popular brand among current Nepali footballers.
Mangrati’s love for the game has restricted him to specialising only on boots and sports shoes. The money he earns from this is barely enough to support his family of four. But, he says he is happy with it. Moreover, his wife is also happy with her ordinary husband, who not only knows the star footballers of the country, but also shakes hands with them from time to time, and even gives them advice. “I had to give up my dream of becoming a footballer, but I try and make up with the close contact I have with the footballers,” Mangrati said, “Had I had a son I would have turned him into nothing but a footballer.”
Posted on: 2010-03-27 08:25
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