![]() ![]() It denies that the leather is thinner, and says shoe construction remains the same as on 1 April 1960, the day the 1460 boot was named and first made. The materials suppliers have not changed for decades and there is stringent quality control, the company says. The chief operating officer, Geert Peeters, says the shoes are still all welted, the leather has not changed and production standards have not slipped. In these cases we work very hard to understand what happened and learn from it.”ĭr Martens chief executive Kenny Wilson at its head office in Camden, London. “While we produce around 11m pairs of shoes a year and have a very low rate of defects (0.5% of our total), we accept and acknowledge that we don’t get it right all the time. Not only that but the leather that comprises the tongue is 0.2mm thinner – 1.4mm compared to 1.6mm of the previous pair.”īut Dr Martens’ chief executive, Kenny Wilson, who joined in 2018 from the home furnishing store Cath Kidston, robustly rejects the allegations. The replacement pair has a glued-in flat-foam insole which leaves a gap between it and the inside of the boot. ![]() The previous pair had a moulded insole that could be removed from the boot and fitted perfectly right into the toe of the boot. QBC from London wrote to Dr Martens, alleging: “Your production standards have dropped. Sadly Dr M’s workmanship and quality is not as good as it once was.” Photograph: Evening Standard/Getty ImagesĪnother reader, CH, says: “I purchased cherry red shoes and within eight months the sole was coming away from the shoe. Pete Townshend of the Who lent Dr Martens the sheen of stardom. ![]() Yes, there’s still a “Made in England” label on some Dr Martens – but today only 2% of its shoes are manufactured in England, with everything else moved to Asia. The company’s shift to China, factory closures in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Somerset, and a takeover by private equity, seem symbolic of what has happened to the British economy since then. Much of the response was emotional: from the moment the Who’s Pete Townshend scissor-kicked his way on stage in 1967 wearing eight-eyes boots, through to the height of punk, wearing Dr Martens has been a symbol of British working-class subculture. Why, a reader asked, had her £170 Dr Martens boots fallen apart after just six months? The response was huge, with readers accusing the bootmaker of sacrificing quality, offshoring production and chasing profits under the ownership of a London-based private equity company a long way from its roots in Northamptonshire. If I were to get Docs again, I’d probably cop on Depop or Ebay tbh and skip the breaking-in.I t was just a small question in our regular Consumer Champions column. The leather on the back was SO rigid, it was practically impossible to break in. In all honesty, I wouldn’t get these ever again in any size. Instead, it bent and dug directly into my ankle and I still have scars to this day from them! After this, the low-top Doc Marten shoe phase came into play. Next came the white patent pair and I assumed going true to size would be fine because, in all honesty, it was the last size in stock and I had no problems with my size 5 (if anything, they were a little loose!) I was wrong. I’m a UK size 4.5 and I went for a UK size 5, wore thick socks and didn’t have many problems. The first pair I had were the white floral ones, they weren’t too bad because the leather was quite soft. Don’t get me wrong, my feet bled like crazy and I practically limped everywhere, but hey, I felt stylish AF. Whether it was with denim shorts in the summer or jeans and a jumper in the winter, I wore my DMs everywhere.
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