diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 6dc75de35..9e6a5d15d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ REPONAME := $(shell echo $(REPO) | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
 TRAEFIK_IMAGE := $(if $(REPONAME),$(REPONAME),"containous/traefik")
 INTEGRATION_OPTS := $(if $(MAKE_DOCKER_HOST),-e "DOCKER_HOST=$(MAKE_DOCKER_HOST)", -v "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock")
 
+DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS := $(if $(DOCKER_VERSION), "--build-arg=DOCKER_VERSION=$(DOCKER_VERSION)",)
 DOCKER_RUN_TRAEFIK := docker run $(INTEGRATION_OPTS) -it $(TRAEFIK_ENVS) $(TRAEFIK_MOUNT) "$(TRAEFIK_DEV_IMAGE)"
 
 print-%: ; @echo $*=$($*)
@@ -46,7 +47,7 @@ validate: build  ## validate gofmt, golint and go vet
 	$(DOCKER_RUN_TRAEFIK) ./script/make.sh  validate-gofmt validate-govet validate-golint 
 
 build: dist
-	docker build --build-arg=DOCKER_VERSION=${DOCKER_VERSION} -t "$(TRAEFIK_DEV_IMAGE)" -f build.Dockerfile .
+	docker build $(DOCKER_BUILD_ARGS) -t "$(TRAEFIK_DEV_IMAGE)" -f build.Dockerfile .
 
 build-webui:
 	docker build -t traefik-webui -f webui/Dockerfile webui