Dr Martens has enjoyed many an incarnation over the years, but possibly the most unexpected is its imminent appearance as a darling of the stock market. The company kicked off in the dark days of 1945, when German doctor Klaus Martens sloped off from army duties and injured his ankle skiing in Bavaria. He was so unimpressed with his army-issue boots that he tweaked them with soft leather and air-padded soles made from old tyres, and when he started making them commercially in 1947 his biggest customers were elderly housewives.
Things moved rapidly once they were being manufactured by Griggs in the UK. Though they were originally popular with the likes of postmen and police officers, their ability to achieve rapid facial reconstruction led to them becoming the shoe of choice of skinheads, punks and other believers in instant retributive justice for the spilling of a pint. However, by 2003 the company was close to bankruptcy. It moved production to China and Thailand, and sales ...
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