Har Dr Martens blivit woke?

It is impossible to recount the history of Dr. Martens without reference to Skinheads. Around in some form as early as 1964, this youth subculture were the first to adopt DM’s and transform them from work-wear to a fashion icon.

Nigel Harris was a first generation Skinhead – widely acknowledged as appearing in 1968-9 – and his recollection of that time and how he came across Dr. Martens perfectly sums up the manner in which the boot found itself adopted by this youth subculture: ‘My dad was a bricklayer, he learnt his trade in the winter of 1947 (the year the ink froze in the school ink wells and the sea froze at Margate). Now, I can’t remember what he wore on his feet to work prior to 1968, but I can remember the first day he came home in a pair of Dr. Martens Astronauts – the minute I saw them, I wanted them! I’d been wearing Monkey Boots for quite some time, them and the old black and white baseball boots were both relatively cheap and just the thing for a ten-year-old to kick about in during the summer holidays. However, a lot of the older kids had started wearing Dr. Martens boots, so I wanted some! My dad was only a little fella and right up till the day he died he only had size six feet. I used to borrow his boots, I don’t know what size I was then, but I had to put tissue paper in the toes so they’d fit and to make sure I wasn’t swimming about in them. Before I got to wear them I had to chip off the cement and concrete and polish ’em… and polish ’em and polish ’em some more! Eventually Dad bought a new pair, not because he’d worn them out but because he could never bloody find his own!

‘Even though for large chunks of my life I have been a Skinhead, I’m not one of these ‘Skinheads for life’ types. However, Dr. Martens have been a constant for me for the best part of 46 years. Through a sense of style or just for working in (I left school and, much to my dad’s dismay, became a bricklayer too). I don’t know what I’d have done without them. Back when I first ‘borrowed’ my dad’s Astronauts, at that time my best mate had a pair of TUF Big T boots. What if I’d have got a pair of those instead of Dr. Martens? Life could’ve… no… would’ve been so different.’