diff --git a/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh b/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
index 7d732e4ba81..ab2482d0917 100755
--- a/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
+++ b/cluster/mesos/docker/config-default.sh
@@ -66,3 +66,6 @@ DOCKER_DAEMON_ARGS="${DOCKER_DAEMON_ARGS:---log-level=error}"
 # Force a dump of the logs into ${MESOS_DOCKER_WORK_DIR}/log on kube-down.sh. By
 # default this only happens when kube-up.sh fails.
 MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS="${MESOS_DOCKER_DUMP_LOGS:-false}"
+
+# Skip rebuilding the involved docker containers on kube-up.sh.
+MESOS_DOCKER_SKIP_BUILD="${MESOS_DOCKER_SKIP_BUILD:-false}"
diff --git a/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh b/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
index d6d5de68f92..838936f9ec3 100644
--- a/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
+++ b/cluster/mesos/docker/util.sh
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ function kube-up {
   echo "Pulling Docker images" 1>&2
   cluster::mesos::docker::docker_compose_lazy_pull
 
-  if [ "${MESOS_DOCKER_SKIP_BUILD:-false}" != "true" ]; then
+  if [ "${MESOS_DOCKER_SKIP_BUILD}" != "true" ]; then
     echo "Building Docker images" 1>&2
     # TODO: version images (k8s version, git sha, and dirty state) to avoid re-building them every time.
     "${provider_root}/km/build.sh"