As you step into Newtown Projects’ factory at The Mills in downtown Johannesburg, you may notice a small piece of paper stuck on the glass door.
The unobtrusive notice, without any sense of irony, states that “safety hats must be worn in this area”.
It’s an appropriate instruction that sounds a lot like a marketing ploy, given that this is the very factory at which the now-famous makarapas are manufactured.
If you want one, you won’t struggle to get one here. There are hats everywhere — lying on the floor, stacked on metallic shelves. Some are finished articles, ready to be shipped out to retailers. Others wait to be given the makeover; so they sit demurely on the shelves, enjoying their virgin state for a moment longer.
Upon arrival I met architect Paul Wygers, one of three people behind the venture. He works with Durban-based fellow architects, Janina Masojada and Andrew Makin; the three also designed the iconic new Constitutional Court complex in Johannesburg.
“We started in April last year,” he says of the idea into which they sank about R750 000. “The business got better at the end of last year.” Newtown Projects employs 35 people and makes up to 50 hats a day, priced from between R120 to R350.
One day Wygers “was listening to a discussion on [Talk Radio] 702 about how few small South African companies were benefiting from the World Cup”. At that moment the three resolved to produce a full range of makarapas for supporters of teams across the globe.
The makarapa — with the vuvuzela and giant plastic glasses — is the most iconic and distinctive of South African football fans’ paraphernalia.
The genuine makarapa, perhaps paying tribute to South Africa’s deep debt to gold and diamonds, is made from a miner’s helmet.
The word’s origins go back to the 1970s — it comes from the colloquial word for an immigrant mine worker, lekarapa, referring to those who wore the helmet for safety.
A Wikipedia entry says Alfred “Lux” Baloyi is thought to be the originator of the makarapa. But today his creation belongs to the football nation. And one suspects that it’s about to get wings.
The hats from Newtown Projects are cut by a robot and then hand-painted by Newtown Projects’ artists. The company uses construction hats, as opposed to the wider-brimmed miner’s hats, when they produce items for international football team supporters. But they use the familiar miner’s hat when working on South African-themed makarapas.
During the visit Wygers’ employees were working on an order from Fifa. Makarapas embossed with the logos and emblems of Honduras, Netherlands, England and other participating countries were on display, waiting to be dispatched to retailers.
Wygers says he is seldom overwhelmed by his workload and manages to divide his time between his architectural practice and the hat factory. At the moment his firm is designing Wits University’s new undergraduate science centre. “I spend an hour [a day] in the factory. I supply the material and the guys know what to do,” he says.
“There are many talented people in South Africa who are out of work,” Wygers says, while glancing at his team clad in orange worksuits. “None of the guys working here was employed when we took them on,” he says, pointing to a youngster called Bathandwa Mlotsha.
When the 23-year-old arrived in Jo’burg from the Eastern Cape he lost his belongings on the streets, but he didn’t lose a file containing samples of his artwork. This helped Mlotsha to secure a job at Newtown Projects.
After a tour of the factory, Wygers takes us to his busy office just above the production space. There, amid the soccer paraphernalia, he confesses to being a football fan. He’s a supporter of Orlando Pirates, Liverpool, England and South Africa.
He has a Liverpool makarapa, featuring the famous mythical liver bird. “We don’t sell them,” Wygers says, “These are samples. We will sell them only when we get licensing agreements.”
When I ask him whether he has been to the iconic Anfield, Liverpool’s home stadium, he looks up and says: “not yet”.
Soon millions of people, among them fans of Liverpool, will descend on us for the main event. They probably won’t know that a fellow Liverpool fan is the new force behind the makarapa.