To give you even more mileage, some sneaker brands now offer kicks with logos that can be removed and changed for a different colour or print

Nike Air Force 1 with removable Swoosh

By Shu Xie

It’s a gimmick, of course, but not without appeal. These days, sneaker makers are offering a small measure of DIY to help you do your own thing so that you can express your own individuality. One way is to offer you a chance at your own customisation without online services such as the Nike By You customisation service or offline options such as the personal touch of SBTG or Mr Sabotage Mark Ong himself. The easiest, as I saw this past month, is to allow swappable logos.

It’s no coincidence that both Nike and Puma have launched sneakers that allow their respective logos—the Swoosh (1971) and the Formstrip (1959)—to be substituted by another. This option is available for the Air Force One and the Ralph Sampson Lo respectively. These Velcro-ed detachable logos come in a set of three for both brands, which allows for adequate creativity. This is possible now that logos are not as sacred as before. Nike has allowed its Swoosh to swoop down to the mid-sole (the Zoom Pegasus Turbo 2 or the Air Force 1 Jester XX) and even go squiggly (the Air Max 270 React released to promote mental health awareness). With the re-attachables, I was thinking that I would deliberately attach the logo askew!

Puma X Chinatown Market Ralph Sampson Lo Trainers also with the Formstrip logo that can be detached

Both shoes available with three choices of logos aside, the colour stocked locally is white for Nike, as well as Puma. White, I guess, is an easier neutral canvas on which to play with the logo as you please. Nike’s Air Force 1 has always been popular regardless of season and, in white, the preferred sneaker for those who want to apply their creativity on the upper. Surprisingly, Nike’s three Swooshes come in three rather conventional colours: a Hender Scheme-tan (which matches the box logo at the top of the tongue), a black that Nike prefers to call “obsidian”, and the denim blue to go with most washes of your jeans.

Not to be outdone is Puma, whose collaboration with the “bootleg aesthetic brand” Chinatown Market, means wackiness won’t be ruled out. The logo options accompany the lo-top Ralph Sampson, named after the American basketball player, a legend of the ’80s, who is known as a “7-foot-4 (2.24m) phenom”, are, to me, a lot more fun that Nike’s for the Air Force One. There is the expected black (for those who can’t get enough of two-toned kicks), shiny tri-coloured (blue, red, and green), and the black/yellow checkerboard pattern, which, I suspect, aficionados of CDG would, without hesitation, approve. Or, would that be fans of Vans?

Nike Air Force 1 ’07 LV8 3, SGD179, is available at JD Sports. Puma X Chinatown Market Ralph Sampson Lo Trainers, SGD169, is available at Puma Select, MBS and Robinsons at the Heeren. Photos: Chin Boh Kay