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The reverberations from last week's Jakarta bombings struck people throughout the city, including small business owners.

Just hours after the bomb blasts, Manchester United canceled a much-anticipated friendly match in Jakarta. Unlicensed T-shirt vendors who hoped to capitalize on Indonesia's football frenzy were left with mountains of unsold -- and now largely unsellable -- shirts.

Yayan Sofyan, who runs a small T-shirt store in Bandung, has an inventory of 1500 shirts he planned to sell in the streets in Jakarta around match-time. He still owes money to a material vendor and an embroidery maker. He had planned to pay them out of his sales. Yayan estimated his losses at Rp 25 million ($2500).

Yayan and some other vendors tried to recoup some money by selling their shirts at Senayan when fans came to get their ticket refunds.

“But the police impounded our products, and we had to pay Rp 200,000 to get them back,” he said ruefully.

Enter advertising freelancer Glenn Mars. He figured he could add value to the unsold Manchester United shirts by putting an "Indonesia Unite" logo on the reverse side. The shirts would then be "Bolbal," local slang for "bolak-balik" ("reversible").

Glenn brainstormed with friends on the microblogging site Twitter. They helped him build a website, design a logo, locate T-shirt vendors, and figure out how to distribute the shirts.

Glenn feels his initiative is a natural outgrowth of the patriotism that blossomed online after the Jakarta bombings. The Indonesia Unite movement on Twitter and Facebook gave people a chance to express their love for their country. Glenn joined in, but he felt it wasn't enough.

“I wanted to take part in Indonesia Unite," he said, "but I felt challenged to do something real.”

The plan does not put the vendors at risk, because Glenn is using his own money to buy the shirts. He said he would donate any profits to the JTUG Fund, a charity run by the Jakarta Twitter Users Group.

Indonesia Unite supporters, who have been searching for ways to tap into the movement's positive energy, applauded Glenn's efforts.

“We have to keep the spirit of Indonesia Unite alive. Everyone can do something," said Twitter user Muhammad Ismet. “We should support people like Glenn and follow their example.”

As for Yayan, he was happy sell Glenn an initial batch of 150 shirts.

"I'm thankful that there's someone who wants to buy them," he said, "but l still have no idea what to do with the rest." He joked that he might try to capture fugitive terror suspect Noordin M. Top in order to claim a reward.

Reversible MU T-shirts will go on sale August 1st for Rp 50,000 each at the WADEZIG! store in Jakarta.


WADEZIG! Jakarta
Jl. Lamandau IV/18
Kebayoran Baru, South jakarta
Phone (+6221 33440087)
http://bolbal.wordpress.com