Dr. Martens 1460 The Who 8-Eye Boot

Keep The Who 8-Eye Boot as clean as possible with the Dr. Martens Wonder Balsam Shoe Polish !

Dr. Martens History

Starting in 1901, the small company began in Wollaston, Northamptonshire in the English Midlands. They were at the location of the epicenter of the English shoe industry and for six decades the footwear earned a solid reputation as sturdy, durable work boots.

In 1945,  a 25-year-old soldier, while trying to heal from a broken foot, created a unique air-cushioned sole, opposed from traditional rough leather sole, to aid his recovery. Using a salvaged cobbler’s last and a needle, he made a prototype shoe and revealed it to an old university friend and mechanical engineer.

Both then became great business partners by using disused military supplies and began producing their shoes with unique soles. By 1947 they began formal production and within a decade they had a great going business, despite mainly selling to older women. In 1959, they decided it was time to advertise their revolutionary footwear invention in overseas magazines.

While he was scanning the pages of a shoe trade magazine, his eye was caught by the manufacture advertisement for their revolutionary air- cushioned sole.

Several different licenses were acquired and a few characteristic changes were made, including an altered heel, a bulbous but simple upper, a distinctive yellow welt stitch, a two tone grooved sole edge and a unique sole pattern. The new boots were now branded as ‘Airwair’ and came distinctly with a black and yellow heel loop representing the brand name and the slogan “With Bouncing Soles” which was printed based on the manufacturer’s own handwriting. With its name being created off the date they were first created, April 1st, 1960, the eight-eyed 1460 Dr. Martens boot had mad its first arrival.

The decade in which the Dr. Martens boot was created, there was an eccentric wave of change, new ideas, cultural explosion and eventually social revolution. This radical era also witnessed flamboyant and often exotic fashions and styles, an odd period of time for the birth of such a functional work-boot.

First worn by postmen and factory workers, Dr. Martens’ initial years of existence was very much that of a simple work-wear boot, selling solid quantities to Britain’s working classes. Then and incredible shift occurred.

Without any insight as to why or how, Dr. Martens were suddenly picked up by early multi-cultural, ska-loving skinheads – who proudly championed British working class style. Shortly after, Pete Townshend of The Who became the first high profile individual to wear Dr. Martens as a symbol of his own working class pride and rebellious attitude. Doing so enabled both first generation skinheads and Townshend to alter the course of the brand’s history, which in turn changed the classic work-wear boot into a subcultural essential.

While Britain was constantly pursed by anti-government riots and social resentment, youth culture managed to rise up from the streets with yet more highly visual and individual tribes such as psychobilly, grebo and scooter boys.

Constant sales of smaller men’s size boots also induced Dr. Martens to create a street trend for girls, who would buy then customize with florals, the simple 8-hole boot. Meanwhile, US Hardcore musicians touring the UK began to take pairs of DM’s back to the west coast, thus starting American subculture’s adoption of the brand.

Without music, Dr Martens would have remained a workwear boot. The music of tribes who wear Dr. Martens has become inseparable from the brand itself.