Plussixfive talks to world renowned sneaker customizer, Mark Ong aka SBTG. He tells us about the inspiration for new collection – Varsity Bones; as well as his ‘Prison Blues’ dunk series which is currently available via the Royalefam website – all this among other things. Jump to read the interview.
NIKE sent you a box of shoes, what made you decide to come up with a series of 7 colleges that exists only within the mind of SBTG?
SBTG: As part of the year of the Dunk in 2008, Nike sent me a customized locker with 7 pairs of the vintage college dunks in it. But I noticed that it had 8 compartments with one of them empty so I thought I had to do something about it. I decided to fill the void with something with a twist from SBTG, something that would honor the legendary Original 7 college Dunks from 1985.
A few things flashed through my head. Namely, the Powell video “Search for Animal Chin”, the fight scene from the Japanese manga series “Slam Dunk”, the movie “Rebound: The Legend of Earl The Goat Manigault” and a few more. The whole idea was to honor the greatest teams and players that never made it to the major leagues. That’s how we came up with Varsity Bones.
How does the idea of the PRISON BLUES fit in together with the collegiate series forming an entire package?
SBTG: Prison Blues is a by-product of our ongoing Varsity Bones project and it was directed by our talented contributor, Kenneth Lim. It’s an evolution from the collegiate series. The fictitious project represents the game of basketball while serving time. Two rival teams from “Cell Block 1? and “Cell Block 2? were created for this release and to kick it up a notch, Kenneth took it a step further by incorporating the inspiration from Johnny Cash’s song, “Folsom Prison Blues.
Were there difficulties encountered during the production of VARSITY BONES? Give our readers some insights into the production world of customized sneakers?
SBTG: The idea of Varsity Bones was born back in 2008 and it started out as 2 runs of shoes that we did put decided to put on “ice” for a whole year. We made a total of 36 pairs back then and we recently brought them out again and titled as “Red Fury” and “Sly Bones”. The designs were made to pay homage to the year 1985 when the Dunk was born, bearing a “back to basics” look kinda like the Original 7 Dunks and also the recent 1 of 1 “Black Mamba” that we made for Kobe Bryant. Most of the difficulties we faced were conflicts of releasing a custom sneaker that was too “old skool” looking for the public to receive. When we conceptualized Varsity Bones in 2008, the story wasn’t expanded enough and we were also in the midst of our “Dead Generals” collection, which was a monster project where we gave it our all.
Then this year, we welcomed a new member to our family, Dennis, who’s a basketball enthusiast and he came in and took charge of the Varsity Bones project. He gave the vision a facelift and gave it soul. The Varsity Bones project will go on now for the rest of this year with releases of fictitious teams from various genres.
Obviously the punk aesthetic is a huge influence on you, tell us more about how the punk ideal has shaped your life, and the work you produce?
SBTG: As far as i can remember, I adopted the punk way when I first started skateboarding in the 80’s. To me it was all about rebellion in every aspect of life. It was less about the music but more as a way of life that’s dedicated to shape the future’s subculture in Asia. It’s about being the anti-hero, a non-conformist and true freedom fighter. It’s about full self-expression and nothing to do with anything that is popular. It’s about being the “Christian Hosoi of skateboarding”.
Obviously, from the shoes you’ve previously produced with NIKE SB, we know that you’ve been involved in the local skate scene, has that changed throughout the years? Tell us how it has influenced your sense of design and space when customizing sneakers?
SBTG: Spending the late 80’s and the entire 90’s skateboarding, I will never look at a ledge the same way since I first saw an ollie back in 1987. I recently got back in touch with skateboarding through the eyes of this amazing skate collective in Singapore called Terrorkota. I spent a day out with them skating and filming clips for their upcoming video that’s out at the end of the year. The people behind it and their skating has inspired me so much that i offered to flow them with our Royalefam skateboards.
Back in the 80’s, I had already started customizing sneakers without really knowing about it. Having a small or non-existent rotation of sneakers, i often had to patch up my “ollie holes”. And I had to do it in a way that was aesthetically pleasing so that’s why it’s pretty natural to go crazy and technical with my designs today. I would say the roots of my craft came majorly from skateboarding for sure.
Source: http://www.plussixfive.com/2009/08/10/sbtg-feature-interview-with-mark-ong/
