Customization of sneakers has been around for a long time. While customization in Malaysia isn’t big (yet), we were stoked when we heard Mr. Sabotage aka SBTG was coming down here to conduct a workshop. Hosted and announced by the boys at Crossover, the workshop was held at their flagship store in Sunway Pyramid last Saturday, June 13th along with the presence of Mrs Sabotage and SBTG’s protégé, Corey. The sneaker that was to be our art canvas was the ever recognizable classic all-white Nike’s Air Force 1 (AF1).
Instead of just giving you a rundown on what happened that day, we at Masses believe that sharing is caring. As SBTG himself said during the workshop, he encourages more people to customize their sneakers and be a part of the customization movement. The start of the workshop was an introduction of himself and his team along with a brief demonstration of what we were to learn that day. So here is short summary of what we learnt during the workshop.
Lesson 1:
We learnt that before we got down and dirty with the paints and brushes, we had to start a process called “de-glazing”. This process removes the wax or colour of most shoe uppers but since it’s a white shoe, we didn’t have to worry. Using Acetone, a highly corrosive liquid, we dabbed our cotton pads in it while holding our breath due to the hazardous nature of it. We proceeded to wipe rigorously (twice to be safe) on the panels we wanted to customize. For safety purposes, we wore rubber. Rubber gloves of course. You know the saying, “Better safe than sorry”.
Lesson 2:
Next was learning how to use the brushes and painting with Angelus, the preferred paint for most customizations. Brushes that have longer bristles at its end were easier to use for painting without going over the edges or corners. Dipping our brush in paint had to be light and easy to avoid any paint lumps. We were also advised to do a double, even coat for each panel to give it a fuller, more finished look although metallic paints usually requires only 1 due to the thickness of the paint. This portion of the workshop took a couple of hours. We needed a stable placement for our shoe, a steady hand and slow, careful strokes of our brush.
Lesson 3:
The most exciting part of the workshop: learning to use stencils. We’d be lying if we said weren’t excited at the prospect of stencilling SBTG trademark logo and crossbones. Carefully using a pen-knife to place the stickers of SBTG’s logos/crossbones on our nearly finished product, we had to carefully paint another double coat of our colour of choice and again, carefully used the pen-knife to remove the sticker. The result was a sense of satisfaction accompanied by a SBTG approved mark.
Whether you are a sneakerhead, a fan of SBTG or an Air Force 1 aficionado, the workshop conducted by SBTG was an excellent class for anyone interested in learning how to make a pair of plain sneakers into a work of art. As SBTG described it himself in 1 word: therapeutic. Among the more notable work of art were the Fragment inspired colour way, a white Tiffany look-alike and most impressive of all, a green camo print design. Throughout the workshop, SBTG and his team were very helpful, gave advice on colour schemes and helped out when participants had problems with their errr, painting skills.
Many thanks to SBTG for coming to Malaysia and of course, Crossover for hosting the AF1 Customization Workshop at their store in Sunway Pyramid. Till the next one, we are looking forward to it.
