My name is Ralph Douglas Kiniva and I am the founder and head of Hidomo Wear, a PNG-owned company established in December 2019. I run this small SME with my girlfriend Christine Mergiarni. We operate from our rent place in Tokarara Suburb, Port Moresby.
I was employed for almost twelve years in the Information Technology industry, but I always had a passion for arts and being creative and one day owning a clothing brand that portrays Papua New Guinea's rich and diverse culture and traditional heritage embedded in the contemporary attires.
With that driving force and aspiration we decided to start up our own clothing brand label Hidomo Wear.
My company specialises in customizing , designing and ordering of different types of products such as Snapback caps , Flex fit caps , Singlets , Polo Shirts , T'Shirts and other products that are not only modern but portrays the diverse tradition and culture of this beautiful nation Papua New Guinea.
So far we have supplied companies and schools with polo shirts.
We make Uniforms that are fully customized and designed by our amazing and talented designer, Desmond F from Awara Products.
As all our orders comes from overseas, one of the major challenges we face as a business is delay in shipment arrivals and when the PNG currency drops .
When the PNG kina drops it means you got to dig deep to cater for the additional costs.
With the current situation (COVID-19) that PNG is in at the moment, it really has affected SMEs like us and others.
Our normal sales has dropped greatly.
The greatest achievement so far for us is giving back to the church - House Of Legacy and NCMI that my father Pastored on our first anniversary from the sales of our products.
God has blessed us with so many things and we ought to give back to Him.
Last but not the least I want to personally encourage young people out there that nothing is impossible.
If you ahead a dream, don't just sit down and expect miracles to happen.
Start somewhere.