SINGAPORE: Roving TraceTogether mobile booths will be deployed to about 100 locations, including malls, for residents to collect their tokens or learn how to download and use the contact tracing app.
The nation-wide distribution of TraceTogether tokens at community centres has also been expanded to more areas, following the Sep 14 roll-out in the Jalan Besar and Tanjong Pagar regions, said the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) in a news release on Sunday (Oct 4).
The moves come as authorities aim to enhance the existing contact tracing regime with a community-driven system.
The TraceTogether programme, which comprises both the app and the token, relies on proximity data to provide an initial list of close contacts for COVID-19 positive cases.
Together with SafeEntry and associated digital systems, the programme enables contact tracing teams to reduce the time taken to identify and quarantine a close contact from four days to less than two days on average, said SNDGG.
MOBILE BOOTHS AT 100 LOCATIONS
Launched on Friday, the roving mobile booths were deployed at Chinatown Point on the first day, followed by Causeway Point, Paragon, City Square Mall and Great World City on Saturday.
In all, they will be deployed to about 100 locations for residents to collect their TraceTogether tokens or learn how to download and use the app.
“The booths will be set up at areas with high footfall such as malls,” said SNDGG, adding that they are an additional avenue for the public to collect the tokens for themselves and their family members.
The full deployment schedule of the mobile booths can be found on the TokenGoWhere website.
MORE COLLECTION POINTS AT COMMUNITY CENTRES
The nationwide distribution of tokens began on Sep 14 at community centres and clubs (CCs) in the Jalan Besar and Tanjong Pagar areas.
To date, more than 100,000 tokens have been given out so far, said the SNDGG.
List of community centres/clubs where the TraceTogether token distribution is to take place from Oct 1. (Photo: Smart Nation Singapore)
From this month, the distribution exercise will be expanded to 18 CCs in Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Toa Payoh and Sengkang.
Residents living outside those areas can also collect their tokens from those locations if they wish to, said SNDGG.
“Uncle ah, one kopi-o siew dai tapau,” is a typical order you might hear around your neighbourhood kopitiam. But do you know the exact ingredients needed to make your favourite coffeeshop drink? One recently launched local card game is hoping to solve that conundrum.
Kopi King is a fun, new family game celebrating our local kopi culture, as well as a love letter to all our nostalgic coffeeshop uncles and aunties everywhere.
While social distancing measures make it harder to eat out like before, this card game is a great way to bring the kopitiam to you instead. PHOTO: OrigameHow to play
Players basically have to scramble to find the right mix of ingredients from a pile of cards that produce specific drink orders, shouting them out once they’re completed to send them off.
Every woman has a tale to tell about the day she became a mother. Some are funny and others, not so much, but all are 100 per cent raw and inspirational.
For Fareena Ismail, her baby girl Ariana Aaleeyah Binte Arif almost didn’t make it into the world.
Mum Shares Birth Story
Taking to theAsianparent app on 29 September 2020 to share her birth story, Fareena said she woke up to a continuous “gush of fluid” on 28 September morning.
That prompted her to call her husband, Arif who was working at that time to return home. They proceeded to the hospital thereafter.
“Gynae came to see me at 12PM and told me I was not dilated yet but [it was] confirmed [that the] waterbag broke. She asked me if I would like to speed up the process (something like induced) or go home and wait for contractions, otherwise to come back at 7AM the next day (sic),” wrote Fareena, who then chose the latter.
SINGAPORE: A total of 940,000 Singaporean households living in Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats will receive the next instalment of the GST Voucher U-Save rebate this month, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced on Sunday (Oct 4).
Of those households, about 155,000 larger families with five or more members will receive 2.5 times their regular U-Save rebates in the 2020 financial year, said MOF in a press release.
This is the third U-Save payment this financial year, with the first two payments made in April and July.
In total, all Singaporean HDB households will receive double their regular U-Save rebates this financial year, said MOF.
Normally, households in 1- and 2-room HDB flats receive annual U-Save rebates that work out to about three to four months of their utilities bills.
Together with the U-Save Special Payment given earlier this year, those households will receive rebates equivalent to at least six to eight months of their utilities bills, said MOF.
Households in 3- and 4-room HDB flats normally receive support equivalent to about one to two months of utilities bills. They will now get support that is equivalent to at least two to four months of their bills.
Details of the regular GST U-Save voucher and the special payment. (Image: Ministry of Finance
The permanent GST Voucher scheme was introduced in 2012 to help lower- and middle-income households offset part of their utilities bill and lower their household expenses.
The voucher comprises three components – Cash, MediSave and U-Save.
The regular U-Save rebates are disbursed every three months. The additional rebates are part of the Government’s Care and Support Package announced as part of Budget 2020.
In all, the Government will disburse S$630 million of U-Save rebates this financial year.
Separately, all Singaporean households – including those who do not live in HDB flats – would have received S$100 in Solidarity Utilities Credit for their July or August utilities bill.
“With greater job uncertainty, households are understandably concerned about expenses,” said Deputy Prime Minister in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“I hope these additional support goes some way in helping our households cope in these difficult times,” he added.
Singaporeans can expect to move into phase three reopening in a calibrated and cautious manner, in the same way restrictions are being eased in the different stages of the current phase two, experts told The Straits Times.
But they see the blurred boundaries between the two phases as a good approach.
Associate Professor Josip Car, director of the Centre for Population Health Sciences at Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, said this lack of a clear-cut difference shows effective policymaking in action, as changes are more likely to be accepted when introduced incrementally and gradually, helping to ensure that the public understands the measures and remains calm.
Pandemic response planning goes beyond just a “headline name”, Prof Car said.
“There is a lot of effort given to detail about the kind of measures put in place between the phases, but more importantly, it is also about the wider strategies to achieve the best outcomes.”
Eviction is often the most straight-forward option that provides the most certainty to landlords for the removal of errant tenants, thus preventing future breaches of tenancy.
There are a number of scenarios in which you (the landlord) may want to evict a tenant (i.e remove a tenant from your property/land).
However, the only scenario in which you can legally do so is when the tenant has breached their tenancy agreement.
The kinds of breaches which may most reasonably give rise to a need to evict include:
Failure to pay rent or consistently paying rent late; Causing damage to property; and Conducting illegal activity which creates legal liability for a landlord, e.g. subletting to illegal immigrants. If your tenant has committed one of the above breaches and you are looking to evict them, read on to learn how you can do so in Singapore.
The eviction process
To evict a tenant in Singapore, follow these steps:
SINGAPORE: The National Stadium usually welcomes the biggest of names, from rock group U2 to Mandopop band Mayday as well as international sports stars. But as the COVID-19 pandemic raged on this year, concerts and sporting events were cancelled, and the stadium soon played host to a different group of visitors.
In April, migrant workers began living at the National Stadium and other facilities around the Singapore Sports Hub – the OCBC Arena, the OCBC Aquatic Centre and the 100Plus Promenade (the track that circles around the National Stadium). The place was turned into a temporary migrant worker dormitory until the middle of August. Workers called the Sports Hub home for 138 days in total.
Mitch Seeto, the senior director of venue and event operations at the Singapore Sports Hub, remembers getting phoned by government officials in early April, requesting to use the premises. Infections in the workers’ dormitories had ballooned since the end of March and the authorities were trying to reduce transmissions by moving some residents out.
Within less than 10 days of the call, the first 90 migrant workers moved into the OCBC Arena, which was the first venue at the Hub to be used. It could house 800 people.
Pictured here are some workers staying inside the OCBC arena, which housed 800 of them. It was the first venue within the Singapore Sports Hub to be tapped on. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
Panels used to construct partitions were in short supply by the time the National Stadium was used to house migrant workers, but the sports hub team managed to secure tents which allowed them to create individual bed accommodations inside the National Stadium. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
“I was confident we could do it … in the speed that we did it,” Mr Seeto said.
As event organisers, they are used to preparing for anything from sporting competitions to music concerts to ice-skating performances, said Peter Brock, the Singapore Sport Hub’s chief of infrastructure and operations.
Getting the temporary dormitories ready involved installing partitions to subdivide the hall and keep 10 people inside one makeshift room, buying new beds and bedsheets, allocating space for a sickbay, and repiping the toilets and fixing in shower heads.
By the end of May, once the National Stadium was opened up, the Hub was housing about 2,000 workers.
The Hub representatives said they tried to make the workers’ stay as comfortable as possible, as many of them had come from a prolonged period of isolation. Their two main concerns were making sure there was ample WiFi coverage and food the residents liked.
Wi-Fi was already available, but its frequency had to be reconfigured – from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz – after it became clear that most of the workers had older phone models that did not support the existing network, said Mr Brock.
As for food, the operators were fortunate they already had a catering company that worked specifically for them. SATS Delaware North, the company that provides the food & beverage and catering services for the Hub’s venues, was given the task of cooking meals on-site.
The food was prepared inside the Singapore Sports Hub’s central kitchen, which had between 20 to 30 on staff. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
Meals catering to workers with different palates were cooked at the sports hub’s central kitchen. The kitchen crew had to cook curries at almost every meal for the South Asian residents, while the other residents usually got steamed or baked vegetables and proteins. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
To prepare for the stint, its general manager Mark MacDonald and a chef went to gather feedback from the cooks and residents at the S11 dormitory in Punggol, which was one of the first dormitories to be gazetted as a COVID-19 isolation area.
“We were lucky in that sense that because … we were activated later than the others, we were able to have a better understanding of the dos and don’ts from the onset,” said Mr MacDonald, who staffed the central kitchen with 20 to 30 crew members.
Since about 80 per cent of the Hub’s temporary residents were South Asian, his team needed to know what curries to cook and made sure to alternate spicier, drier versions and sweeter, nuttier types to satisfy the culinary preferences of men from different parts of the region, as well as switching from cooking Jasmine or Basmati rice to offering the Ponni variety instead.
Sometimes, special meals were delivered, with mixed results – biryani was so popular the residents kept requesting for it. However, spaghetti was a miss, and the cooks ended up in the kitchen preparing popcorn chicken till 2am that night, Mr MacDonald recalled.
Remittance services, a minimart and pop-up barber were also set up for the residents. Facilities Management And Manpower Consultants’ founder David Selvah Rajo, whose business managing three factory-converted dormitories was affected since the residents had been moved out, called it a “win-win” situation when he was roped in to run these services.
The sports hub team also roped in a dormitory manager to run a minimart on-site, which allowed the workers to buy things like snacks, sarongs, disposable shavers and undergarments. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
Barbers were brought in twice a month after some workers requested for the service. About 50 to 60 men could get their hair cut when the barbers were in. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
His team would stock its van with anything from cigarettes to sarongs and drive down three times a week, and cut the men’s hair twice a month for S$5 per haircut – a $2 discount from the usual price since many of them were out of work, he said.
To keep the workers occupied, the Hub roped in trainers from ActiveSG to conduct exercise sessions, yoga classes and, sometimes, frisbee games. These were held during each worker’s half- to an hour’s recreation time every morning.
During their daily half to an hour’s recreation time, the migrant workers were allowed to go to designated outdoor spots to exercise. Ball games were scrapped after the trainers found the games got rowdy after a while and made it difficult for the players to keep to safe distancing measures, but frisbee was allowed as it was easier to control the distances between the men and disinfect the equipment. (Photo: Singapore Sports Hub)
The Hub also took advantage of their huge screens inside their halls to broadcast not just safety messages and the news, but also anything from cricket matches to MasterChef India and Mr Bean.
“It was almost (like) we were running a TV channel on our screens,” Mr Seeto said.
He said he is proud of the work the Sports Hub did over the four-and-a-half months, recounting a particular moment when the first group of workers moved in. At first, he and his colleagues were nervous about how the setup would be received, and then they saw the expression of on some of the workers’ faces.
“When they (came) here, we could see them as they come in and just look around at everything we built … and you see them look around, looked at the sky and give thanks. And that was just amazing,” he said.
“We (saw) that on the CCTV – they wouldn’t know that we saw it – but it was quite rewarding to us to know that we played a key part in make them feel, I guess, more at home and more comfortable during this period.”
SINGAPORE: It is examination season in Singapore, even if it seems like my 10-year-old has been having an endless wave of “weighted assessments”.
Two weeks after school re-opened, the first of the weighted assessments were upon us. Not a test, mind you, just a small “weighted assessment” to see where students are. But, yes, the scores counts towards his overall school grade.
And now as all 12-year-olds are caught in the death grip of the dreaded PSLE, most other students, too, find themselves deep in revision mode ahead of End-of-Year Examinations.
The stakes are high: Most schools have this final round of examinations accounting for 50 to 70 per cent of the year’s overall grade.
The entire eco-system around exam fever is on high alert. Enrichment centres and private tutors are all on call, furiously packing in extra revision slots.
Students in Singapore receive their PSLE results.
Bookshops hold exam-guide sales, a leading media house even has even branched out to offering essay writing workshops. Parents, needless to say, are right there in the ring too.
POLARISED WORLD OF PARENTING
While the bulk of the Western world decried Amy Chua’s seminal book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother with many corresponding definitions of tiger parenting tinged with negativity, it finally gave a term to a parenting style that was quite commonplace, if, even celebrated, on this side of the pond.
When Chua, herself, came by our sunny little island, parents clamoured to meet her, if only to hear in person what they already read in her book and recognise themselves in her “ends justifies the means” parenting.
Yet, there were howls of protest from the other side of the fence. These were parents who believed in the process and less interested in outcome.
Popular blogger Priyanka Sharma-Sindhar used the term “Elephant Parent” who is the exact opposite of a Tiger Parent, the ultra-strict disciplinarian.
Sindhar advocates strongly for a parenting style that nurtures, protects and encourages children, especially when they are young. Maybe, the kind that does not go into a tirade or sighs too much when a child brings home a fail grade.
(Photo: Unsplash/Fernando Pelaez)
A local response to the tiger parenting drumbeat is perhaps best encapsulated by a social media driven movement a few years back that aimed to highlight that there was #lifebeyondgrades.
It is an initiative aimed at driving a mindset shift to alleviate the increasing pressures of school on the children of Singapore.
At their launch, local influencers and celebrities held cards with their PSLE scores with a message about how grades were not always a marker to success.
This is echoed by Dr Sanveen Kang, Clinical Psychologist and Founder of Psych Connect: “Over the years, many studies have looked at the correlation between grades and success in life. Generally speaking there is no correlation between grades and success in life.”
“The only correlation found was between grades and academic success. In other words, for those who aspire to academic studies, scores predict success. However, it has nothing to do with success in life.”
Indeed, Stanford researchers Alyssa Fu and Hazel Markus found that both culture-centric approaches can be effective.
Their research seem to suggest that while motivation comes from within an individual in Western families while Asian children find their drive in parental expectations. Both, say the researchers, lead to fairly equitable outcomes.
CONFRONTING THE SYSTEM AND OUR CHILDREN
The research might be interesting intellectually but it cannot change how we parent in real life – if only simply because we still have to confront a system in which every child is assessed by how well he or she does.
However we cut it, life likes winners. It always has and still does.
It celebrates the Kobe Bryants, Serena Williams and the Tiger Woods. In fact, we laud the phenoms that don’t just win, but dominate.
So, while we try our darndest to find balance or focus on the process, there is also a part of us that feels compelled to care deeply about the outcome. Which, unfortunately, often can only come through drilling, practice, training, powering through.
(Photo: Pixabay)
That is the mantra of the modern—if slightly cautious and closeted Tiger Parent in Singapore.
We are driven by this fundamental question: Are grades important? And our answer is, yes.
Why? Better grades means being in a better position to choose. Better grades give our children options.
GOOD GRADES STILL THE CURRENCY
In the current system, secondary and tertiary school place allocation is largely based on grades. Everyone is ranked by performance, so, the person with the higher grade gets to exercise his or her choice of school first.
It is true that over the years, students who don’t meet grade requirements can get into courses or schools of their choice through other non-academic assessments.
But for the vast majority of students, the better the grades, the stronger your position in choosing what and where you want to study.
Even the government scholar system (something highly prized and valued by many) is largely predicated on first having good grades.
Rare if ever do you hear of the president scholar who made it because he or she had mediocre grades (and I don’t mean an A-) but a stellar everything else.
Sure, there are other side roads one could take, vis-à-vis sporting abilities for a start. But that, some argue, favours the better-heeled families.
Ballet lessons themselves are pricey, and you add to that all the extras that come with it – like tutus and competitions – it is a hefty price tag. Even soccer these days come with community club memberships and competition fees.
So if we laid things bare, movements like #Lifebeyondgrades, while well-meaning and important for the conversations that it allows us to have, are the luxuries of the better heeled.
A composite screengrab of the Life Beyond Grades movement. (Source: Facebook/Life Beyond Grades)
“It is easy to say that grades don’t matter when your family has means,” says Jonathan Muk, the co-founder of ReadAble, a stand-in-the-gap provider of literacy and numeracy programs for the underserved.
“A low-income family typically does not have the time and money to send their child to coding, dancing or swimming class. So, what do you have left, in terms of a formal system that will recognise your effort and reward you for achievement? And what kind of achievement is recognised in the formal system?”
Mr Muk’s assessment is in line with American writer Kearie Daniel. Writing for Flare Magazine, she titles her essay: Being a Tiger Mum is an Act of Love—and Necessity.
Her essay posits that for black parents, pushing your child to excel isn’t a choice, it’s a way to make sure they survive.
In Singapore, most of us may not have to excel just to survive as Ms Daniel argues. But I would say the drive to do well is deeply rooted in our psyche.
The sweet spot of parenting – between pushing our children and allowing them to enjoy their childhood – is still elusive, especially in a hyper-competitive environment such as ours.
If I am a Tiger Parent, especially as exam fever takes root, then I am guilty as charged.
In my defence, while I do my best to ensure my kids still get the time to play, I also have to ensure that the rigor is put in place if I want them to achieve their fullest potential, to lead healthy, successful, productive lives as students in Singapore.
Cherie Tseng is Chief Operations Officer at a local fintech company, a mother of three and editor with The Birthday Collective.
SINGAPORE: The rapid adoption of digital technologies to learn or work from home following the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed how we travel within Singapore.
Data from Moovit indicated a significant 77 per cent decline in local public transport ridership during the circuit breaker period, in April and May.
With falling road traffic, Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) was also suspended from Apr 6 and has only partially resumed since Jul 27.
Since easing measures, schools have resumed face-to-face lessons, and employees are gradually returning to workplaces.
Last week, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that it would allow more people to return to offices but stressed for employers to stagger reporting times and implement flexible schedules to avoid travel during peak hours.
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung noted on Aug 27 when laying out his ministry’s plans: “The lower traffic and new travel patterns brought about by COVID-19 have opened a window of opportunity to re-imagine our road infrastructure.”
In this reimagination, we should ensure that changes not only continue to meet Singapore’s mobility needs but also lead to a more environmentally sustainable transport system.
RETHINKING MICROMOBILITY
We now have a unique opportunity to encourage the use of micromobility devices – bicycles, electric bicycles, and motorised and non-motorised personal mobility devices (PMDs) – for short-distance travel.
Learning and working partially from home, and the desire to avoid large crowds mean that we may see a rise in short-distance travel, as many of us would travel largely to meet basic needs – such as buying groceries, sending children to school or running personal errands.
File photo of a man riding an e-scooter. (Photo: AFP/Tobias Schwarz)
Several cities including Berlin and Seattle have seen an increase in biking and use of micromobility devices following COVID-19. These modes have been viewed as safer and accessible alternatives to shared public transport.
Cities are also rapidly expanding their infrastructure including carving bike lanes out of existing vehicular roads.
Apart from being more environmentally sustainable, research has shown that using active modes such as walking and cycling are associated with better physical and mental wellbeing.
We should review the guidelines governing the use of micromobility in Singapore. Much has changed considerably since PMDs were banned from footpaths in November 2019.
The use of micromobility devices is currently only permitted on certain roads and pathways in Singapore.
While electric bicycles are allowed on roads, cycling paths and park connectors, motorised PMDs are confined to cycling paths and park connectors. Both are not allowed on footpaths for pedestrian safety.
Our existing 460km cycling path network is being expanded to about 1,300km but it will take up to 2030 for it to be a viable network for everyday travel in addition to recreational use.
Working towards integrating more micromobility modes into our system is also in line with Singapore’s longstanding vision to be car-lite.
RETHINK OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CARS
Singapore is becoming car-lite since 2014 through a three-pronged strategy.
File Photo of a traffic jam at TPE
First, by improving and expanding public transport systems. Second, by providing alternative modes of transport. Third, by managing the private vehicle population and its usage.
Policies such as expanding the ERP, revising vehicle growth rate to neutral, phasing out internal combustion engines, increasing the capacity of the MRT and bus systems, and expanding cycling infrastructure nudge us to rethink our relationship with cars.
Yet, despite these longstanding efforts, private vehicle ownership rates remain significant. There were 528,013 (54 per cent) private cars among the 973,101 registered vehicles in 2019.
More 12 per cent of land in Singapore is also taken up by 9,509 lane-km of roads in 2019.
Authorities are working towards their vision of a “45-minute city, 20-minute town” but the challenge lies in improving the already high share of public transport ridership.
Public transport clocked a daily average of 7.69 million trips ridership in 2019 with a peak hour mode share of more than 67 per cent, much higher than other cities.
File photo of SMRT trains. (Photo: Ngau Kai Yan)
Car ownership in Singapore meets more than the mobility needs, often signifying one’s relative affluence and social standing. Thus, the ambition and attitude towards car ownership pose a hurdle to becoming car-lite.
Nevertheless, there might be a burgeoning rethink of our relationship with cars among younger Singaporeans as they view private cars as depreciating liabilities and less environmentally sustainable than the plethora of alternative mobility options available today.
Because Singapore’s goal is to be car-lite, not car-free, it is worth reviewing how new cars can contribute towards achieving sustainable mobility. For instance, can we be more ambitious than phasing out internal combustion engines by 2040?
Perhaps, we can also revise the existing zero vehicle growth rate to aim for a smaller private vehicle population while speeding up the adoption of electric vehicles powered by renewable energy sources.
A FUTURE WITH MOBILITY INNOVATIONS
Two potentially revolutionary mobility innovations in this decade may speed us down that path: Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AVs).
MaaS has been described as the “Netflix of urban transport” – by having one platform that integrates private and public modes of transport that is accessible on demand.
Early versions of MaaS include apps called MobilityX and Whim, both currently under development or trial in Singapore since 2019.
Both services are working towards integrating different taxi, ridesharing, public transport options in Singapore into one journey planning platform.
A future trip with MaaS might start with a short cycle on a shared bike to the MRT station to catch the MRT before taking a short ride-share to our final destination, all arranged and optimised using an app and at a single fare.
This provides an attractive, convenient alternative that is cheaper and possibly more sustainable than driving.
While driverless vehicles are still being developed, AV trials have been taking place in Singapore since 2015 and there are plans for trials in three neighbourhoods (Punggol, Tengah and Jurong Innovation District) in the early 2020s.
A BlueSG electric car-sharing vehicle is parked at a charging station. (Photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
Electric AVs could be made available round the clock to provide on-demand services to improve first- and last-mile connectivity, areas currently underserved by public transport.
They can also replace bus services with low ridership, preventing a repeat of the recent debacle following the removal of the 700/700A bus service in Bukit Panjang. AVs in public transport would greatly nudge drivers to reconsider driving.
COVID-19 has brought about changes to how we travel and we should capitalise on this opportunity to pause and rethink our strategy for achieving Singapore’s car-lite and sustainable mobility vision.
And judging by the resilience and adaptability of the people in Singapore in this pandemic and their growing consciousness of doing their part for sustainability, we can afford to be bolder in our ambitions and actions.
Samuel Chng is an applied social psychologist and heads the Urban Psychology Lab at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
SINGAPORE: He may be mugging for his O-level examinations this month, but one enterprising Singaporean teen is already earning more than what some businessmen make – with his lucrative trade in collectable sneakers.
Outside school hours, Remus Er snags limited edition sneakers such as Nike Air Jordans and Adidas Yeezys, and then flips them for sometimes as much as a 300 per cent profit margin.
In good months, he can rake in some S$20,000 to S$30,000 in sales, half of which is profit, estimated the resourceful Geylang Methodist School student.
“My seven days a week is jam-packed – starting with school in the morning, tuition in the afternoon and revision before dinner, then moving on to whatever I need to complete for my business,” said the 16-year-old.
Remus markets and sells these sneakers on his website, through online marketplace Carousell and group chats WhatsApp and Telegram.
He even has three employees working for him, updating his Hypemaster website and social media accounts, and communicating with buyers from New Zealand, Europe and the United States.
While handling schoolwork, preparing for exams and maintaining a social life, young entrepreneurs like Remus are also turning trends on the Internet into profitable businesses in Singapore, as the programme On The Red Dot finds out.
SNEAKERS ARE AN ASSET CLASS
Labelled as “an emerging alternative asset class” by investment bank Cowen & Co, the global sneaker resale market was valued at about US$2 billion (S$2.7b) last year and is projected to triple to a staggering US$6 billion by 2025.
What’s driving this multi-billion dollar industry is the growth of digital platforms, millennial demand and those who regard these sneakers as investment assets.
Even popular sneaker resale website StockX operates with the look and feel of an online stock trading platform – it shows the last price done for the sneakers, the 52-week high and low prices, and even the price volatility.
The StockX site looks like a stock trading platform – for sneakers.
For Remus, his lightbulb moment was after he had snagged a pair of Nike Vapormax 2018 at an online raffle conducted by the Off-White store in Singapore two years ago.
He wore them to a sneaker event with his friends a few months later. “They approached me, telling me these sneakers on my feet were worth S$1,200 on the resale market,” said Remus. “I was amazed… I didn’t know they were worth so much.”
At that event, he also came across a Sega arcade game called Key Master which awards prizes – in this case Yeezy shoes – to those who can fit a key into a lock using a mechanical arm.
It costs S$2 a try, and Remus was hooked; he spent S$1,000 over two days on the game, and won five pairs of Yeezy shoes.
“I managed to make $2,500 (re-selling them). That was the start of the resale business,” he said.
WATCH: How Remus does it (3:28)
WAKING UP AT 4AM TO BUY SNEAKERS
Intrigued by the Key Master machines, this sneakerhead asked his father to register a company on his behalf, and he went on to buy two machines which were placed in two Orchard Road shops.
He now operates four of them, plus one claw machine and one Cut the Rope machine.
While Sam Er was open to the idea of his young son running a business, Remus’s mother was concerned.
“She kept asking me how was he going to take care of the business and his studies? I said that since he has the interest, it’s good to let him try to see how things work out,” said Er, who is in the marine services industry.
Sam Er wants to let his son Remus “chase that rainbow”.
Remus also started buying and reselling sneakers, waking up at 4am to head down to the shops at Orchard Road when there were new launches. He’d queue for five to six hours to buy the limited editions.
At first, he wondered why his shoes were selling so well – then he realised he was selling them at below the market value. “I was a complete newbie,” he confessed.
Friends introduced him to StockX, which allowed him to check and price his shoes accordingly.
After building his client base, Remus decided to create his own website to cut down on the commission that was paid to online marketplace platforms. He now has clients from India, Europe and the United States, and is able to ship the shoes directly to them.
Deciding to scale up his operation “to maximise my profits”, he paid friends to queue with him during sneaker releases to get more of the limited edition pieces. He also employed three staff.
Remus must compete for limited edition sneakers upon release online.
LEGIT VERSUS COUNTERFEIT
Running the business came with a sharp learning curve – he had to learn how to secure sneakers before their release date, and to spot the differences between authentic and counterfeit.
He bought fake ones and compared them to the real deal so as to learn. “Usually with each pair, I will spend two to five minutes ensuring that the shoe is legit. Then I’ll photograph the shoes and post them on my website,” he said.
He said his profit margin varies from sneaker to sneaker. “It can be as low as 30 per cent, or as high as 300 per cent, depending on how long we hold the sneaker for and how limited the sneaker is,” he said.
For example, he bought a pair of Nike Airforce 1 2020 Puerto Rico for S$400 and resold it for S$900.
“It’s a cancelled pair by Nike as they actually printed the flag of Puerto Rico on the wrong side of the tongue of the shoe,” he said.
The most expensive pair of sneakers he sold was a pair of Air Dior for S$8,000, which he’d bought for S$3,300.
Remus had to learn to photograph and edit his wares for his website Hypemaster.
During Singapore’s pandemic circuit breaker, sales dipped. But like a savvy businessman, Remus ramped up marketing campaigns online and hosted giveaways on Instagram.
This has resulted in an increase in followers, sales and brand awareness, he said.
Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, sneaker releases were also moved online. Remus found himself up against hundreds of other resellers gunning for the shoes. Some were using automated bots to speed through the buying process.
So he and his team spent about S$8,000 on seven bots to improve their chances.
“I’ve actually recouped all the cost of my bots. I rent out these bots when I’m not using them,” he added.
‘CHASE AFTER THE RAINBOW’
He said he puts 75 per cent of what he earns back into the business, spending the rest on food, meals with his friends, and on his own personal sneaker collection. He has 20 pairs, and said he will not spend more than S$1,000 on a pair.
Remus and his stash.
While the money is good, his busy schedule means he has had to sometimes sacrifice sleep and hanging out with friends.
On a weekday, school and tuition take up most of his time, and he can only concentrate on his business after 5pm. “I’ll be updating the products (on my website), checking the sales numbers, and shipping my products to customers,” he said.
But, he says, he “hardly” gets stressed out by this balancing act. “I find this more of a passion and a driving force to push me to challenge myself.”
Remus’ dad hopes he will complete his tertiary education – and while the teenager seems to be coping well so far, “only the O-level results will show if he’s doing okay”, said Er.
“At 16, we hope that he can prioritise his studies. But on the other hand, since he has a keen interest in business, we don’t want to cap him. We would like him to chase after the rainbow,” he said.
