Chinese factory gearing up for Halloween with masks of Trump, Clinton - Action News
Home WebMail Friday, November 22, 2024, 09:16 PM | Calgary | -11.3°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
WorldPhotos

Chinese factory gearing up for Halloween with masks of Trump, Clinton

Once considered a fringe figure in the U.S. presidential race, Donald Trump is now the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, and a factory in China thinks his image will be seen a lot more this Halloween.

General manager points to 'huge stockpile' of Halloween masks for presumptive Republican candidate

Masks of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are seen drying on shelves at the Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory in Jinhua, China. (Aly Song/Reuters)

The race for the White House is far from over, but one Chinese craft factory has already seized this year's U.S presidential election as a huge business opportunity.

The Jinhua Partytime Latex Arts and Crafts Factory in east China's Zhejiang province has been a leading producer of Halloween and party costumes for a decade. The factory produces thousands of rubber and plastic masks ranging from Osama Bin Laden to Spiderman.

Now, masks of both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton are being churned out in the factory every day.

Orders for the two are currently neck and neck at around half a million each, but for the factory's manager, there is one that has come up trumps.

A worker checks a mask of Donald Trump at the Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory. The Halloween and party supply business produces thousands of rubber and plastic masks of everyone from Osama bin Laden to Spiderman. (Aly Song/Reuters)
Masks of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are seen at the factory in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. The factory manager predicts a sellout for Trump masks. (Aly Song/Reuters)

"I think in 2016 the Trump mask will completely sell out because he's getting quite popular. So I prefer him. We've built up a huge stockpile this year,"said Jacky Chen, the factory's general manager.

Once considered a fringe figure in the U.S. presidential race, Trump's support has surged in recent months to see him become the presumptiveRepublican Party nominee. His notoriety as an outspoken figure has also increased the demand for his mask.

A worker checks a mask of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which she just painted. (Aly Song/Reuters)
Masks, including some of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, are seen at the factory. Some of the workers don't know who Clinton is. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Though the production costs are low, the masks are likely to sell at pretty decent prices in the U.S, as the country builds up to the crunch November election.

However, some of the mask producers at the factory do not even know who exactly Trump or Clinton are. For most of them, the presidential race represents a huge money-making opportunity, one that business tycoon Trump would be proud of himself.

The manager of Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory wears a mask of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as he poses after talking to reporters in Jinhua, in China's Zhejiang province, on May 25. (Aly Song/Reuters)
Masks of various U.S. politicians are displayed in the showroom of Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory. (Aly Song/Reuters)
Factory manager Jacky Chen poses in a Hillary Clinton mask. (Aly Song/Reuters)