He started customizing sneakers professionally back in 2003, and after winning the NikeTalk! competition back in 2007, he was instantly revered as one of the best sneaker customizer in the world. Many sneakerheads around the world regard some of his creations as “Holy Grails” in their collection and even until this day, many sneakerheads are still on the look out for them. With already so many collaborations with huge brands like Nike, G-Shock, New Balance, Canon, DC under his belt, naturally we were huge admirers of his work. Better still, when we heard he was coming to town for the launch of the MITA x SBTG x New Balance MRT580 shoe which happened at Crossover Sunway Pyramid, we were ecstatic in our #FANBOYMODE.
After the launch was over, we sat down to ‘berborak-borak’ with him and to get to know him a little better.
Before we get into the details, let’s have a little introduction on yourself.
My name is Mark, I go by the name of Mr. Sabotage. People know me mostly for sneaker customizing and sneaker designs. I do freelance designs for many other brands. I do paintings, artworks and art exhibits. It’s a pretty wide spectrum, but the gist of it is that I am an artist.
And how long have you been doing this?
I started out professionally in 2003, so it has been 10 years. An interesting fact is that I have done 3000 odd pairs of custom sneakers in this 10 years. So it has been a very wonderful journey so far.
What was the moment that spark the idea for the SBTG x MITA x NB MRT580 shoe?
Since the last collaboration with New Balance, I’ve been wanting to work with them again since it was such a fun experience, and I also wanted to work with a renown Japanese Store. So it was a shot in the dark, but I just popped an email over to Shigey of MITA asking them “Do you wanna do a collaboration with me and New Balance?” and they replied “YES”. I was like “Shit! Really? Okay let’s do it” And just like that we got onto it. I am really fortunate and blessed to have people like Shigey who believes in me. It’s a really cool feeling.
Can you explain to us about what was your inspiration behind the artwork and design for this shoe?
Maybe I should talk about the roles of each party in this collaboration. I came up with the print, which is a vine camo mashed with a tiger camo print. Shigey from MITA was the one who came up with the colorway and NB was the one who suggested the new and improved MRT580 silhouette, which has a slightly different look after the ‘Revlite’ upgrade. I think the silhouette got changed a little bit, it got a bit more contemporary.
Me and Shigey can be considered the older generation of sneakerheads. We have been around a few waves of trends so I guess that qualifies us a ‘slightly’ older sneakerhead. Using our influences and experience throughout the years, and plus with Shigey’s great foresight for trends, we particularly designed this pair with the intention to appeal to the newer generations of sneakerheads.
As for the artwork for this collaboration, it is all inspired from my new found friendship with Shigey and the people over at MITA. MITA has their signature chain linked fence artwork which they put on most of their shoe designs, so I designed a wire cutter on the tongue, whereby the significance of it is related to the artwork on the insoles where it shows a hole in a fence and someone reaching out his hand to the other person on the other insole. The artwork is very much influenced by the Punk genre too.
How is the support from your hometown, Singapore towards your work as an artist?
I notice that there are more and more Singaporeans and also people from this region who are buying stuff on my online store right now. Whereas compared to few years ago where by 80% of my customer base is from overseas. I guess I have shifted most of my focus to Singapore and South East Asia, and that’s why there is an increase in the local support. Your support basically comes from where you put your focus to.
But as my personal opinion, we are citizens of the world and we are not bound by our country’s borders. With the internet now, our audience is the world. As an artist, your audience should be the world, because you will never know how your art can touch and inspire someone from across the globe.
We know you are from Singapore, and the cultures may be different, but we always ask our interviewees this question. If you get stopped by a policeman in Malaysia for speeding, would you Tolong or Saman?
I don’t know. I don’t drive, so I don’t really know how to answer this question.LOL! In Singapore I am most of the time a passenger, or I either skate, cycle or take the MRT. But to answer your question, most probably whichever way that is hassle free.
Right now you and your wife are known as Mr. & Mrs. Sabotage, can you tell us what are your roles in the company?
Mr. : She paints most of our work. She is a better painter than me, so I let her do the painting.
Mrs. : I do most of the production. He does most of the designing. If a client requests for an artwork ie. a custom sneaker, he would do the designing, and the digital mockup of the shoe, and I will do the hands on production. And I also handle the accounts for the company.
Can you tell us a bit what you are working on currently, and what can we expect from you in the near future?
We are currently working on a collaboration with ‘Trasher’, and we are also in talks with Crossover to work on a few collaborations, workshops, and also some partnership. I just met the guys from Crossover yesterday (A day before the launch) and I realize we like the same things, so there is a lot to explore. It’s a really good feeling and I’m looking forward to it. In 2015, We have a collaboration with Paladium boots coming up in 2015, and we will also be having an exhibition in Manila soon.
There are also plans to expand the SBTG brand to make it a full fledged streetwear brand, because after being around for 10 years, we feel that SBTG has some brand equity, and good potential to be really successful. We are on the lookout for good partners to kick things off.
Last question, what is the best advice you would give to someone?
Our motto behind our work is always, “Evolve beyond your surroudings”. Use whatever you have or whatever that is around you to make the best out of it. Also another advice I would to give to aspiring artist is to never leave any ideas in your head, EXECUTE THEM. If they are in your head, the best ideas are useless.
