Cherry Red and Black boots on a rack for sale. Photo:Jeff Gilbert
Dr. Martens is a footwear, clothing and accessories brand. The footwear products are most often known as Doc Martens, Docs or DMs. The footwear is distinct because of its air-cushioned sole (dubbed Bouncing Soles), developed by Dr. Klaus Märtens of Germany. Klaus Märtens was a doctor in the German army during World War II. While on leave in 1945, he injured his ankle while skiing in the Bavarian Alps. He found that his standard-issue army boots were too uncomfortable on his injured foot. While recuperating, he designed improvements to the boots, with soft leather and air-padded soles. When the war ended and some Germans looted valuables from their own cities, Märtens took leather from a cobbler's shop. With that leather he made himself a pair of boots with air-cushioned soles. Märtens didn't have much luck selling his shoes until he met up with an old university friend, Dr. Herbert Funck, in Munich in 1947. Funck was intrigued by the new shoe design, and the two went into business that year in Seeshaupt, Germany, using discarded rubber from Luftwaffe airfields. The comfortable and durable soles were a big hit with housewives, with 80% of sales in the first decade going to women over the age of 40. Sales had grown so much by 1952 that they opened a factory in Munich. In 1959, the company had grown large enough that Märtens and Funck looked at marketing the footwear internationally. Almost immediately, British shoe manufacturer R. Griggs Group Ltd. bought patent rights to manufacture the shoes in the United anglicized the name, slightly re-shaped the heel to make them fit better, added the trademark yellow stitching, and trademarked the soles as AirWair. The first Dr. Martens boots in the United Kingdom came out on 1 April, 1960 (known as style 1460 and still in production today), with an eight-eyelet cherry-red Nappa leather design. Originally Dr. Martens were made by a number of shoe manufacturers in the Northamptonshire area.
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: boots, Vintage at Goodwood, West Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © Jeff Gilbert / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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