Dr. Martens - Fashion Company Profile

Company Profile

This is a compact filing kept on one page: the 1460 and 1461 originals, the brand's origins and its photographed boot are all below. The company's own store, linked above, carries its current range.

The British chapter begins in 1959, when British shoe manufacturer R. Griggs Group, owned by Bill Griggs, bought rights to manufacture the shoes in the United Kingdom. Griggs took the sole and created a new boot, which included an altered sole shape, a bulbous but simple upper, a distinctive yellow welt stitch, a grooved sole edge and a new undersole design. The boots were branded as 'Airwair' and came complete with a black and yellow heel loop featuring the brand name and the slogan 'With Bouncing Soles'. Every recognising feature of the modern boot is in that one paragraph - the German air-cushioned sole under a British upper, stitched in yellow - and the date that follows is the one the whole brand is named by number for.

1460 and 1461: The Originals

Taking its name from the date of its inception, 1 April 1960, the iconic eight-hole 1460 Dr. Martens boot was born; the first boot was born on 1 April 1960 in Wollaston, England. The following year, the 1461 shoe arrived. The 1460 and 1461 remain at the core of the Originals range. The product description is worth keeping whole because it doubles as an identification guide: the 1460 boot, with its iconic and instantly recognisable design characteristics - the yellow welt stitch, grooved sole and black and yellow heel loop - still provides the foundation for all other product expressions, and in a typical year it represents over 40 percent of sales. A boot designed as a work boot, in other words, became the permanent centre of the range, out-selling every fashion extension built around it.

The profile's account of why is a claim about wearers rather than marketing: the brand remains as relevant now as ever, still being adopted by those looking to express their individual style and attitude and who appreciate uncompromising quality and durability; its products are worn by a diverse consumer base who use Dr. Martens as a symbol of their individual self-expression. The operating structure as recorded is compact: Dr. Martens operates across three geographic regions - EMEA, Americas and APAC - and its product segments include Originals, Fusion, Kids and Casual, plus a complementary range of accessories. The Kids segment is noted here in strictly product terms, as this directory's rule for child-directed pages requires; this page(?:'|')s own image is the adult 1460 boot.

Photos