SOUTH KOREA: RED T-SHIRT HAVE BECOME A MUST-HAVE WARDROBE ITEM FOR SOUTH KOREANS ENGULFED BY UNPRECEDENTED SOCCER FEVER

Record ID: 640768

  • Title: SOUTH KOREA: RED T-SHIRT HAVE BECOME A MUST-HAVE WARDROBE ITEM FOR SOUTH KOREANS ENGULFED BY UNPRECEDENTED SOCCER FEVER
  • Date: 30th June 2002
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SOUTH KOREAN FANS IN RED SHIRTS GATHERING TO CHEER FOR THEIR TEAM
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
  • Country: South Korea
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA9JHNN13NP3G6HTL10LG8AQPF
  • Story Text: Red T-shirts have become a must-have wardrobe item for South Koreans engulfed by unprecedented soccer fever as the Asian team reached the semi-final after upsetting European favourites Portugal, Italy and Spain.
    Half the South Korean population, clad in team-colour red T-shirts, has filled streets throughout the country to watch their team's games during a month-long World Cup soccer finals.
    The red shirt is a must for the fervent youngsters who cheer for the team in front of giant screens. But even the high ranking officials at the Presidential Blue House wear them while watching games on television.
    Grandmothers and grandfathers have also shared in the red fever.
    The red trend was led by the "Red Devils", a group of 110,000 enthusiastic young fans of the team, who distributed free T-shirts emblazoned with the logo "Be the Reds" outside stadiums on match days.
    And hours before South Korea's games, the main intersection of Seoul have been full of tens of thousands of excited fans in red T-shirts with street vendors selling South Korean flags, red scarves and virtually anything red.
    A contracted agency for the Red Devils sold just 175,000 official brand shirts but millions of cheaper counterfeits have been bought across the country.
    "As South Korean team does really well, the T-shirts sell like wildfire. (To a question "How well do the shirts sell?") They sell a lot, unexpectedly," said a street trader.
    "I don't think (wearing red shirts) will encourage our players, but rather, South Korea's co-hosting the World Cup is the once in the life. My son is only three-years old, so he doesn't know what is going on right now, but I still hope that someday he can recollect there was time like this (with the red shirt," said 33-year-old Cho Won-sik, who bought a new shirt for his son from a street vendor in Kwanghwamoon intersection at 8,000 won (6.50USD).
    About 25 million people, more than half the population, were estimated to wear red T-shirts, the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported, quoting sources in the industry.
    The shirts went for around 15,000-20,000 won (12.63 -
    84US dollars) at the start of the May 31-June 30 tournament being co-hosted with Japan, before falling to 6,000-8,000 won (5.05 - 6.50 US dollars).
    The paper said about 400 billion won (330.8 million USD) worth of Cup-related merchandise has been sold since the global soccer event started on May 31.
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