A Chef, A Tattoo Artist, And A Custom Bike Maker Tell Us About Their Super Cool Jobs

'Made for the Makers' celebrates everyday creatives and their diverse creative pursuits within art, music, action sports, and street culture. It has been meticulously designed for tough jobs and made specifically for the creative communities that embody them.

He's definitely come a long way from his training days in Hamburg, Germany. Back then, his tasks included scrubbing mussels and peeling prawns (something that takes up half the day) as well as cleaning the freezer from top to bottom and keeping inventory, all while the freezer remained on.

He got yelled at a lot, was under a lot of pressure, and had to navigate a language barrier, but the experience and skills he gained there are part of what helped him to get where he is today.

"Someone told me that you’ve got to be a little crazy to be a chef because if you're too sensitive or too serious then it’s not your calling. You’ve got to enjoy it to survive."

He catered for cozy private events like birthdays, Christmas lunch and dinners, buka puasa sessions, festive events, and barbecues, before Soofeast started to grow in popularity through word of mouth.

Eventually, Chef Sufiz was even invited to cook for VIP guests like Tunku
Ampuan of Negeri Sembilan, Tun Musa Hitam, and Dato’ Seri Siti Nurhaliza.

He recently had the one-of-a-kind experience of collaborating with the Teaffani Catering team to customise and prepare a 3-course meal, served 50 meters above the ground for Dining in the Sky.

He also emphasised the importance of staying comfortable in the kitchen with the right kind of shoes and clothes: "Anti-slip, water proof, easy to clean and goes with everything in your closet. It’s important to be comfortable since it’s going to be a long shift, nothing too thick cos the kitchen is hot!"

"Think of it as having a personal chef experience in your own home. We take pride in using local and seasonal produce enhanced with the best quality ingredients in all our dishes. Food is our passion; our meals speak for themselves. We believe in creating a food network with every feast."

Find out more on Instagram: Chef Sufiz | Soofeast

But his creative influences started long before, from being into punk and skateboarding while growing up, which he says exposed him "into an onslaught of creative freedom from the gritty cut-paste in punk zines and skate magazines".

Everything took off when he started working at Jim's tattoo shop, Joe's love and obsession took root and continued to grow. Today, he's a tattoo artist and part owner of Wayang Kulit Tatu, a tattoo studio based in Subang Jaya.

Wayang Kulit Tatu is driven by 4 all-style tattoo artists who pride themselves on their "individual styles in great respect to tattoo traditions". They design and personalise tattoos according to all the requests and specifications of their progressive clientele.

Working long hours spent sitting all day means that comfort is Joe's first priority when it comes to choosing what to wear, especially when it comes to his shoes.

"Sneakers that are able to hug my soles and provide long-hour happiness. Happy feet makes me happy indeed. I look for thick heavy soles that don't break on the sides, mostly shoes that are built for abuse and tear."

Despite having worked on numerous unique tattoo designs for a wide range of different people, the ones that are particularly memorable to Joe are ones with a personal connection.

In particular, one of his most memorable tattoo experiences is when he and his business partner Julian tattooed each other out in the raw wilderness, next to glaciers in Iceland. He also considers tattooing his mother as his biggest achievement to date.

"My goal is to keep truckin! I want to keep producing solid tattoos and keep my clients walking out the door stoked and happy. Maybe also to tattoo my mother again, I'd really like that."

Find out more on Instagram: Taco Joe | Wayang Kulit Tatu

What started out as a hobby of restoring old vintage Lambretta scooters, grew into a love for custom Harley bikes. It was this love for choppers, bobbers, and everything in between that led Pa'din to take up learning different methods of building bikes.

Through Abah&Sons, Pa'din gets to put his skills to use and live out that passion by building custom bikes according to the various preferences of his customers. He mostly works on Harleys and does both building from scratch as well as modifying the standard Harley bike into a custom one.

The bikes he makes have an extra personal touch as most of the parts used are handmade in-house at the Abah&Sons workshop.

For example, he remembers a time when he hilariously failed to kickstart a bike.

"Tried a hundred times but the bike just wouldn't fire up and in the end I realised that there was no petrol in the gas tank but that was only after my leg already felt like it's going to tercabut!"

But he also mentioned a particular struggle that impacts his business: how the currency exchange makes it difficult for him to bring in some great bike parts from the US and Europe.

"I love riding my custom bikes and never get bored of riding it. Plus, the idea of building custom bikes will never end and is always evolving. I want to continue to build more bikes the way I want it to be built."

Pa'din usually looks for shoes that are cheap and comfortable but still makes him look good and cool, something he values despite working with dirty black oils and in uncomfortable surroundings.

So it's no surprise that his custom pair of VANS ticks all those boxes.

"The idea for the design came when I saw a friend wearing an old style riding jacket which had the colors I ended up using for the shoes. The shoes also have the tire thread pattern that I use on my custom bikes and a zebra crossing pattern on the soles.

The best part is that the insoles have two different Malay traditional poems on them, one on each, written by my sons, Faheem and Fayyad."

Find out more on Instagram: Pa'din Musa | Abah&Sons

Built to maximise comfort while still allowing their creative personalities to shine through, these new sneakers lets makers like Chef Sufiz, Pa'din Musa, and Taco Joe do what they love all day, every day without sacrificing personal style.

The 'Made for the Makers' line is also specially designed to be tough and durable so creative professionals who are running around or on their feet all day don't have to worry about their shoes getting damaged easily.

The collection features sleek, all-black versions of beloved Vans silhouettes – the Sk8-Hi Reissue UC, Old Skool UC, Authentic UC and Classic Slip-On UC.

Each style comes with the following features:

• Vulcanized lugged outsole for increased traction
  
• Vansguard canvas uppers to repel liquid and dirt
  
• A contoured, drop-in UltraCush sockliner for all-day maximum comfort
  

Click here to find out more.