The SB Dunk That Went AWOL: How SBTG Flipped the Game on Its Head

When the first touched down in skate shops in the early 2000s, the silhouette wasn’t just a recycled basketball relic – it was retooled for skaters, and it rewired sneaker culture entirely. Padded tongues. Wild colourways. Core-shop exclusivity. The formula built a cult following that spread way beyond the skate park.

By 2006, the hype had reached fever pitch. Out of Singapore came a low-top grenade with camo shrapnel: the Mark Ong (aka SBTG) Dunk Low Premium SB. Painted with militant precision, stamped with ‘SABOTAGE,’ and dripping with punk-rock attitude, the drop didn’t just sell out – it blew the doors off the Dunk scene in Asia.

'It was pure – all love,' Ong remembers of Singapore’s sneaker scene back then. 'Most people collected out of passion, not profit. Singapore’s a small city, so everyone kinda knew each other. It felt really warm and tight-knit.'

This wasn’t another regional exclusive doomed to get lost in the shuffle. The SBTG Dunk was a culture-quake – proof that sneakers could transcend product and stand as art, narrative, and rebellion all at once.

Operation SBTG

Mark ‘Sabotage’ Ong made his name torching pairs in the custom scene, splicing punk grit with military hardware and hand-painted finesse. Nike SB clocked the noise and handed him the Dunk Low as a blank canvas.

'I got a call from the Nike SEA office here in Singapore for a meeting, and I was stoked,' Ong recalls. 'They put two projects on the table: Nike Considered and Nike SB. Having skated all my life, SB was the natural choice. I sketched it out in two hours that same day. Later, I was told himself had approved it.'

What Ong had created was unlike anything else in the line: a stencilled camo pattern sprayed across matte olive leather, battle-worn like fatigues; a metallic gold Swoosh with a brushed, almost weathered sheen cutting through the chaos; and a fold-over Velcro lace flap stamped with Ong’s skull-and-sabres insignia.

'I had just finished military service, and during that time I spent a lot of hours studying military aesthetics,' Ong says. 'I was inspired by Matt Hensley skating in cut-off fatigues, and also by how Maharishi reinterpreted camouflage in such a unique way.'

Gold dubraes hung off the laces, while Zoom Air hid underfoot, bringing the same cushy ride as the rest of the SB line's models. Even the packaging – part of the notorious Black Box era – felt like contraband.

Released in July 2006 at Limited Edt in Singapore (with pairs trickling into other Asian stores the following month), just 200 pairs hit the streets – numbers so minuscule they’re the stuff of legend. A Friends and Family version followed in 2007 with a slide-out box and extra lace kit, but the OG remains the grail. This was the moment a custom kid from Singapore coded his vision directly into Nike SB history.

Grailed by Design

The scarcity alone was enough to spark grail status, but the real kicker was the man behind it. Ong wasn’t a household name – he was a customiser from Singapore with a paintbrush and a vision. That lit the fuse: hype didn't need big name co-signs, just raw creativity. Within months, pairs were flipping for multiples of retail, and Ong became the first Singaporean to leave a permanent mark on the line.

A Blueprint for Bedlam

The SBTG Dunk isn’t just important – it’s pivotal. If ‘Pigeon’ showed the SB Dunk could cause chaos on the streets of New York in 2005, Ong’s 2006 camo-soaked creation proved the formula worked just as well on the other side of the world. Artist-led storytelling, scarcity and raw subcultural credibility became the new currency – whether it was Staple in NYC, Takashi in Japan, or SBTG in Singapore.

Why it Still Matters

Nearly two decades on, the whispers of a comeback dragged us straight back to 2006 – when the sneaker game felt like wild frontier territory. Whether the SBTG Dunk ever officially returns almost doesn’t matter; its DNA is coded into the culture.

'Because it made such a strong impact coming from Asia, it put my city on the map, and made people in the West turn their heads this way,' Ong says. 'And even now, the design still stands out from the rest of the Dunks.'

It was a manifesto stitched in leather and camo. That shockwave still rattles through the scene today, every time an SB Dunk sparks hysteria, snaking queues, or resale sticker shock. It proved that a young creative from Singapore could go toe-to-toe with New York and Tokyo heavyweights, and that an artist’s vision could turn a sneaker into mythology. Ask 10 old-heads in Singapore about the drop, and you’ll get 10 different war stories – who lined up, who doubled up, who got stitched up. Myth fills the gaps the numbers never could.

Call it what you want – grail, ghost, or ground zero – but the echo is still loud.

Looking for more SB lore? Check out our feature on why Nike are proving so keen to