Nike fans get their 'kicks'

Customized sneakers are collected by those who identify with what's on their feet.

By ROB WALKER / New York Times News Service

Mark Ong was a sneakerhead -- that is, one of the thousands of people all over the world who talk and think about sneakers the way that Paul Giamatti's character in the movie "Sideways" talks and thinks about wine -- only without chemical dependency or pointy-head metaphors about the meaning of life.

Then about a year and a half ago, a Web site called Niketalk held a contest, inviting readers to submit photographs of sneakers they had "customized" -- given new, hand-painted designs.

Ong, a graphic designer, reworked a pair of white Air Force 1s with a safari-print graphic treatment adapted from a different Nike model, and he won. There was no prize, but it was the beginning of a new career. Now known as SBTG -- pronounced "sabotage" -- Ong sells his customized Nikes for $350 a pair.

SBTG is not the first sneakerhead to, in effect, go pro. The most famous customizer is probably the Los Angeles-based artist who works under the name Methamphibian, whose shoes -- or "kicks," as they say -- can go for $900 a pair and who is now designing sneakers that are scheduled to be produced by DC Shoes, which makes skateboarding shoes and apparel.

But the story of SBTG affords a look at one facet of the sneaker phenomenon -- that is, the way that fashion and brand loyalty can come together in what might be considered the folk art of a consumer culture.

Ong works out of his apartment in Singapore, but his projects are transnational. After winning the Niketalk competition, he made a set of 72 pairs of sneakers for a store in Tokyo. He has since released sets with the Hong Kong toy maker adFunture and a London DJ called Unkle.

Sneaker enthusiasm has a long history. Consumers have blurred the lines between athletic gear and stylish street wear. Sneaker makers have responded by stoking the market for status-giving scarcity by producing limited-edition models that can draw small mobs. Perhaps customizing gives consumers more control over what makes a product special.