Lula’s ‘CPX’ cap becomes a fever and the company says it ‘doesn’t even sleep’ to fulfill orders

After former President Lula wore the cap with the “CPX” embroidery at a rally in Complexo do Alemão, in Rio de Janeiro, Vitória Gonçalves, 24, a partner at the printing company that produced the accessory, saw sales soar. Junior Bordados, a small family business that had only three employees, needed five more emergency hires to handle orders from all over Brazil and to the United States, Paris and Canada.

Located in the north of Rio, like Alemão, the company operates in the home of Vitória and her husband, also a partner, Marcelo Dias, 27. The two live in the Irajá neighborhood and have been in business for just over six years to support the family. Production of the “CPX” cap started two years ago, but sales per month were low. The acronym is an abbreviation of the word “complex”, the name given to a group of favelas.

“We used to sell to people at the ‘old school dance’, which brings together people who enjoy music from the past and who are proud of the community. However, with the pandemic, people stopped asking”, says Vitória. It was also because of the pandemic that a company store located in Rocinha had to be closed for financial reasons.

The caps are sold at R$45 with a profit of 50% and there are now around 200 orders, not counting the 630 messages on WhatsApp from the company regarding the purchase of products. “From Friday (14) to Saturday (15) we didn’t sleep,” said Vitória, who received an order for 200 caps from activist and founder of Voz das Comunidades, Rene Silva, 28.

The print shop started with a small machine and now has seven pieces of equipment. According to Vitória, orders come from all regions of Brazil and, after the Southeast, the South is the one that makes the most orders.

Greatly responsible for the cap’s success, Lula received the gift from Camila Moradia, 37, one of the leaders of the Housing Movement in Complexo do Alemão and coordinator of the community organization Women in Action in Alemão.

She says that the night before (11) the rally, the group responsible for the organization wanted to present the former president with something significant from the region and one of the members, Hector Santos, a resident of Alemão, suggested handing over his own “CPX” cap. . According to her, immediately after the delivery, people started shouting “Complex! Complex!” because they knew what it was about.

“This CPX issue is very important to us, even more so in a cap, which is something very representative in favelas and peripheries. CPX represents us.”

The acronym generated repercussions after Bolsonar posts associated it with trafficking. On social media, Rene Silva made a series of posts explaining the meaning of CPX. THE Sheet He stated that, even with the fake news on Bolsonar social networks, it was possible to reverse the whole story and make the repercussions positive for the Junior Bordados print shop.

The activist says that former president Lula called him this Saturday (15th) and talked about sales. “He said to me, ‘What about that cap over there? It’s selling like water, I know it'”.

This Saturday (15), President Bolsonaro and reelection candidate returned to use the expression in a distorted way, also to attack his opponent Lula. At a rally in Teresina (PI), he stated that the former president had done nothing for the people when he had governed and that he had only looked to his friends, “his cronies, his CPX”.

Through social networks, the printing company Junior Bordados, which supports Lula’s candidacy, has received messages from Bolsonaristas negatively criticizing the sale of caps, now associated with the former president. According to the company, the messages say that they will regret the sales, that it is wrong and that they will go bankrupt.

Vitória does not report suffering any threats inside and outside the networks, but fears losing contracts with companies to embroider uniforms because of the support for PT when the “fever” of caps passes.