Dr. Martens

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Note text
Red and black boots of the brand
Shoe made after 2003
Characteristic yellow sewing thread

Dr. Martens , also known colloquially as Docs or Doc Martens , are a shoe brand of the English company AirWair International , a subsidiary of the R. Griggs Group .

history

The beginnings

The Dr. Martens were developed by the German doctor Klaus Märtens , to whom they owe their name. Klaus Märtens, who had served as a doctor in the Wehrmacht , constructed the first prototypes in 1945 , a few weeks after the end of the Second World War . He wanted to develop sturdy shoes that had a less hard shoe sole than the conventional safety boots that he had to wear as a worker. He himself describes the realization of his idea later:

“The war was ending and everyone stormed outside and started looting. But searched while most people for valuables such as jewelry and furs, I looked for a bar , some leather , needles and thread and it made me a pair of shoes with the thick air-cushioned soles, which I had thought. "

- Dr. Klaus Märtens

With these prototypes, Märtens convinced his old student colleague Herbert Funck from Munich University. Funck was a native of Luxembourg and was therefore not affected by the trade restrictions in post-war Germany. Märtens and Funck became partners and began in 1947 in Seeshaupt near Munich to construct their soles with a few tons of rubber from the disused German Air Force . The other components of the first shoes also consisted of army remains. The shoulder pieces ( epaulettes ) of the uniform jackets and the leather of the trousers of the officers' uniforms served as inserts . Märtens was able to sew two pairs of shoes out of one pair of trousers. According to the inventor, the timing was perfect, after the war in the very uncomfortable safety boots, people longed for comfortable footwear. The shoes became popular very quickly, so that Märtens and Funck opened a factory in Munich in 1952. During the 1950s, they sold 200 different styles of footwear, with over 80 percent being bought by women over 40. In 1959, the team first advertised the idea in international magazines.

The manufacturer usually offers the statutory warranty to the exclusion of wear, suitable fit and comfort on its products. For the series Dr. Martens For Life was guaranteed a lifetime warranty in the form of a repair or a new shoe until 2018.

Griggs Company and the early 1960s

An advertisement in Shoe & Leather News , a British catalog for shoes and leather clothing, caught the attention of Bill Griggs , managing director of the traditional English company R. Griggs & Co. He was enthusiastic about the German idea. The English shoe market was highly competitive, the market leaders were the so-called Tuf Boots , and like many others Griggs was looking for an innovative new product. Griggs acquired the production license for the soft soles, but changed the design of the shoes to a more conservative style, as he wanted to produce and market the shoes as durable work boots . In addition, there was the curved leather cap on the toes and a yellow sewing thread, which is still the trademark of Dr. Martens is. Griggs named the sole Air Wair and created the well-known logo with the slogan “with bouncing soles”. On April 1, 1960, the Dr. Martens as a boot with eight holes for the laces in production.

As planned, the new boots initially sold very well as work shoes to soldiers , postmen , police officers and factory workers. Due to its high popularity right from the start, Griggs quickly launched the shoe version with three lace holes, which was particularly well received by the British Post. The advantages of the shoes were enormous. They were comfortable and tough at the same time; the soles were also insensitive to oil, gasoline or acids. A layer of wax made the leather parts water-repellent and kept the feet dry. To this day, Dr. Martens kept its characteristic shape, but was produced in different sizes, heights and colors.

The first popular wearer of the Dr. Martens was Tony Benn , a socialist in the British Parliament . He was an advocate for the rights of workers and trade unions, and in this way wanted to demonstrate solidarity. He was the first to take the Dr. Martens used as a political symbol. To this day, this symbol is used by many political speakers and students who feel attached to the working class . As an element of fashion , however, this boot was not suitable, especially at a time when London was becoming famous as a fashion city and many spectacular shoe models were flooding the market. The early youth cultures at the time when mods "fought" against rockers preferred different footwear.

present

On April 1, 2003 the factories of Dr. Martens AirWair in England closed, causing over a thousand employees to lose their jobs. All Dr. Martens AirWair shoes and boots are produced in Vietnam , China and Thailand . The original machines were brought to Asia for this purpose. The question of quality is assessed differently: On the one hand, reference is made to an allegedly higher quality workmanship in England, which is said to have had a high proportion of Monday pieces where seams or glued joints fell apart. On the other hand, processing is now considered more even than it used to be. The soles are a little lighter and more transparent than those produced in England and a different leather is used, which extends the wearing time of the shoes.

Since 2007 there has been a new edition of classic Dr. Martens shoes that are made in England under the name “The Vintage Collection”. The shoes in "The Vintage Collection" are not identical to those made before 2003. The retail price of these copies is considerably higher than that of the regular shoes.

AirWair International / R. Griggs Group Limited was taken over in October 2013 by the financial investor Permira , who wants to accelerate online marketing and business in Asia.

Since 2016, Dr. Martens also offers vegan variants of the majority of the models on offer , which are mainly made from synthetic materials.

Skinhead scene

In 1963 and 1964 , splinter groups emerged within the Mods who also wanted to distance themselves from the other groups externally. These were the so-called hard mods and they did this primarily by shaving their head and provocative clothing - and by wearing the Dr. Martens. From them the first skinheads developed, who opposed the “ summer of love trend” with the style of the proletarian or “every day worker”.

One of the first major appearances of the Skins as provocateurs was during a protest march against the Vietnam War in March 1968 . About 150 skinheads disrupted the event with heckling and provocations against the demonstrators. They were dressed in the colors of Millwall FC and high Dr. Martens. The skinheads with their Dr. Martens became notorious very quickly. Some of the teenagers were extremely aggressive and brutal: The Dr. Martens served with their steel cap, which was sometimes also spiked, as a dreaded weapon.

“In the ranking of all horrors in the nation, skinheads are somewhere between serial killers and hellhounds. It's like shaving your head and wearing Dr. Martens transformed you into some kind of dangerous alien life form. "

- George Marshall : Spirit of '69 - A Skinhead Bible

The skinheads looked after their docs because, in addition to the functionality, the effect had to be right for them. They have been polished or antiquated. Mostly red Dr. Martens groomed with black shoe polish to make them more noticeable. The women in the scene also wore docs, combined with fishnet tights and a haircut that became known as a feather cut .

With this usage began the popularity of the shoes in the youthful subcultures , which continues to this day. The skinhead movement resulted in a. the suedeheads who won the Dr. Martens rejected as too bulky. However, the Docs did not lose their symbolic effect as a sign of a revolting youth culture.

Punk scene

In the punk scene they are so popular with both sexes because the punks, like the skinheads, see a certain solidarity, the origin of their scene, in the working class.

Wavers, Goths and followers of the EBM scene

The Docs have also been popular in the wave scene, especially within the dark wave movement, since the 1980s. Some of them got there through the punk scene. Artists like Anne Clark , Dave Gahan or Martin L. Gore preferred to wear 3 to 8-hole shoes, in the late 1980s the variants from 10 holes and up became popular and in the 1990s replaced the pikes or pikes that were widespread in the Gothic scene Buckle shoes.

In the EBM scene, the Docs gained in importance through the British music project Nitzer Ebb . Many followers of EBM culture found their way into the scene via the Basildon quartet Depeche Mode and inevitably brought the characteristic clothing style of Depeche Mode fans into the EBM scene.

From the mid-1990s, the Docs increasingly had to give way to other types of boots such as Rangers, Getta Grip, Commanders or underground shoes.

Literature and music

"... orthopedic Dr. Martens 'good for waffle making, kickin' through the shin ... "

Web links

Commons : Dr. Martens  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.drmartensforlife.com/
  2. ↑ Financial investor swallows cult shoe brand Dr. Martens. In: WAZ. October 24, 2013, accessed November 22, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Martens cult boots before sale. ORF.at, October 18, 2013, accessed on November 22, 2013 (based on a report in the Daily Telegraph newspaper from October 18, 2013).
  4. ↑ Vegan Dr. Martens. In: Vegane-Schuhe.org. Retrieved July 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Madball band page of the label "Nuclear Blast". Retrieved December 23, 2014 .