Ch. 1 - Overview of Marketing (Brief History and Mission Statement)

While Dr. Martens are known as a distinctly British boot, the original doctor was German. Dr. Klaus Maertens invented the shoe's signature air-cushioned sole with the hope of improving Germany's standard-issue WW II army boot. Maertens sold his patent to a British shoe manufacturer in 1959. One year later, on April 1, 1960, after the addition the classic yellow stitching and trademark AirWair tag to the back of the boot, the first pair of Dr. Martens hit High Street. The cherry-red, eight-eyelet boot became a fast favorite of blue collar Brits, adorning the feet of factory workers, postmen and police officers.
By the early 1970s, Dr. Martens had become a trademark of Britain's burgeoning punk-music movement. And now it seems that Doc's are making a fashionable comeback to our generation; so this is your chance to take out those docs from the back of your closet and start wearing those bad boys!

*The inventors of the Dr. Martens air-cushioned sole understood their key to success was knowing teenagers will always have a primal urge to be different.