Last-minute dash for school uniforms

WINDHOEK school uniform wholesalers and retailers enjoyed brisk business yesterday ahead of schools opening today.

Some parents told The Namibian during a visit to the shops yesterday that they were relieved to buy their children’s uniforms after failing to get them at other shops.

Elna Matthys, from Okahandja, who was accompanied by her daughter Anuska, was excited to find the uniforms at Boundary Wholesale.

Matthys said the search for the school uniform was tough as they had to drive all the way from Okahandja.

“The wholesalers are full. I’m just glad I was able to get my daughter a uniform even though it is one size too big. I can get my mother to do the alterations,” she said.

Another parent, Matriede Kamati, whose daughter started Grade 1 at the Bet-El Primary School in Katutura today, said she could not get the right size.“It is too full here. We cannot be assisted as we wish because everyone is pushing and shoving,” she said.

Kamati added: “I do not know where I will go from here because I do not know of any other uniform retailers.”

Julia Mathews, a mother of two, was waiting for alterations to be completed on her daughter’s uniform at the Single Quarters, in Katutura, yesterday.

Mathews’ tailor, Helena Gottlieb, has been operating from a stall at the Single Quarters for about four years.

“They are just busy with the finishing touches,” Mathews said, adding that she ordered the school uniforms on Friday and it just took three working days.

She said she first went to a tailor at Soweto Market, also in Katutura, but she found the prices exorbitant and the material was not good.

“I am self-employed and could not afford to fork out about N$400. I still have stationery to buy. I will buy the rest of the uniforms at Pep,” she said.

Gotlieb, who buys the material for the school uniforms from Chelsea Fashions and other textile retailers, said her only challenge is that some customers put in orders at the last minute.

She also said sometimes tailors make uniforms in December, only to be told that school uniforms have changed.Gotlieb’s problem is also the same faced by Karseboom that had no stock yesterday.

Karseboom gets its stock from South Africa, where there were supply issues, said manager Brendan Butcher yesterday.

Butcher said uniform shortages were due to the increasing costs of materials, schools demanding customisation and the closure of many textile and uniform factories.

He also said some schools ordered uniforms, only to later change their minds, leaving the retailer with ‘dead stock’. “Most school uniforms come with badges or are personalised.

I cannot sell a Windhoek High School uniform to another [school],” he lamented.

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