7 places to customise your sportswear, designer bags & denim

Love giving your apparel and accessories a little sprucing up or a transformation for a statement-maker you can truly call yours? From handpainted works of art on your designer bags or sneakers to a fully bespoke pair of jeans, here’s where to check out.

1. Sportwear: adidas MakerLab

Adidas fanatics can now elevate their merch at the sportswear brand’s first MakerLab in Singapore. Earlier this year, Adidas opened its largest performance concept store in Singapore, dubbed “Home of Sport”, at Vivocity.

Boasting a 963 sqm space that’s split into five zones, it’s also home to the MakerLab, where you can customise your Adidas apparel, shoes, or sporting gear purchased at the store with on-the-spot customisation – think heat-press, direct printing and iron-on for the embroidery patches. This service is available for a selection of evergreen and Singapore Exclusive designs.

Adidas Home of Sport is at #01-73/87 VivoCity, 1 Harbour Front Walk, Singapore 098585.

2. Designer goods: Cherin Sim, marquage artist

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CHt1q9ynPT3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

Many luxury brands customise your designer bag or leather goods with your initials, but for a bag stamped with your individuality, consider marquage, which means “the art of making a mark” in French.

Cherin Sim is one of the most prominent marquage artists on the island — if anything, her two-year waitlist (up till 2023!) is a testament to her popularity. Her works of art are unique and she never paints the same thing twice.

Worried about having a paintbrush anywhere near your precious luxury item? You don’t have to. The Singapore artist, who has a Masters of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, has painted everything from Hermes handbags to a Goyard cigar humidor, with each stroke painted precisely.

3. Designer goods: Vania Isfandari (The Brush Lady), marquage artist

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx1sA6ZgXP1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

Whether you’re into vintage-style illustrations or looking to capture the likeness of your beloved pet on your bag, you can also hit up Vania Isfandari, who has nearly a decade’s experience in adorning luxury leather goods.

She first started out with a stint at fashion house Louis Vuitton, where she spent six years painting initials, stripes, and later on, her own bespoke designs for its clients — including David Beckham, who commissioned her to paint on an LV trunk for his son Brooklyn’s birthday.

Visit her website.

ALSO READ: Japanese designer customises LV and Dior carriers to hold your bubble tea

4. Footwear: SBTG

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CCihWxWByzL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

Sneakerheads looking to level up their sneaker game will likely know of SBTG.

Considered the OG when it comes to sneaker art and customisation in Singapore, SBTG is owned by Mark Ong, who goes by the moniker Mr Sabotage. The renowned artist has even designed shoes for the likes of the late basketball star Kobe Bryant as well as Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda.

His works are heavily influenced by two of his passions – skateboarding culture and punk rock, and you can also expect military motifs and hand-painted camouflage designs.

5. Footwear: TK Customs

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/B9GxlTNFago/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

If your tastes veer towards more quirky designs, get TK Customs on your radar.

From pop culture icons to anime and cartoon characters, the team at TK Customs has been customising kicks since 2014. They do mainly footwear, but you can also count on them to give your leather goods a makeover, too.

Visit its website.

6. Denim: Journal Projects

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CB64BjKjwkP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

It isn’t just personalisation you can get at homegrown label Journal Projects. You can actually create your own jeans from scratch, so bid adieu to poorly-fitted denim.

Priced from about  $179 to $249, you can choose from a selection of fabrics, and decide on the fit, front pocket style, fly style, thread colour and even the choice of buttons and rivets via options on its website. Then just wait for about three to four weeks for your custom design to be delivered.

Visit its website.

7. Denim: Fin Crafted Goods

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/CQE-7opB6yu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link[/embed]

If your denim is looking a little tired or blah, send it over to Fin Crafted Goods for a new lease of life instead of sending them to the junkyard. This boutique shop offers mending services, using fun, colourful printed fabrics to brighten up your own jeans, jackets, and fabric bags.

Save the Earth while getting new-looking threads? We’re sold.

Visit its website.

ALSO READ: New brand Save My Bag offers customisable totes

This article was first published in The Singapore Women's Weekly.