The secret history of Dr. Martensfrom @fineasjackson

Transcript

This boot worst $180 This one worst 240. Same shape. Same air cushioned sole. Same strip of rubber wrapping the base. No, how does the same boot become two completely different things? This is episode 71 of Chasing Beauty and today, we're looking at Doc Martens. In 1881, five workers in a village called Williston, deep in Northamptonshire, England's old shoemaking heartland formed a cooperative. The Northamptonshire Productive Society, NPS. And they made better. Army boots, government boots, boots for the National Health Services, boots for the worst office. Anyone in England who spent all day on their feet. Eighty years later in 1960, a businessman named Bill Griggs licensed a German technology. An air cushion sole originally designed by a doctor who'd hurt his ankle skiing. And Griggs needed someone in England who could actually build it. So he went to NPS. The boot they produced was sold under a new name, Better. Martin's. But if you looked closely, there was a second name on it, Doctor. Martin's by Soul of Tier, a contraction of the phrase Soul of Air. NPS named the line after the technology itself. For roughly thirty five years, every pair of Doctor. Martens came out of that factory in Wollaston. Then in the mid nineties, the contract ended. Doctor. Martens kept the name and NPS kept the factory. What happened next defined two different philosophies of what a boot is really for. Better. Martin's was acquired by private equity. By 2003, a thousand English jobs were cut and production moved overseas. The boot became a global rank, more recognized and much cheaper to produce. NPS almost vanished. By 2006, the cooperative that still owned the factory was ready to sell the building to a property developer. A local man named Iver Tilley, already in the footwear components trade, stepped in to save the company. He refused to see the craft he loved die. He got a building, a worse, and a way of making things. Around a 140 steps per shoe. So what do the differences actually look like on the inside? The Better. Martens has no shank. No rigid support between the heel and the ball of the foot. The midsole is a thin strip of foam. For the first week, it feels fine. But around the hundred hour mark, the arch flattens. The foam compresses and the boots start to feel dead underfoot. The sole of Air has a wooden shank and a full length felted midsole. Day one, it's stiff. But by month two, it's shaped itself to your foot. The leather tells the same story. The Better. Martin's hide is thinner with a glossy topcoat over a loose fiber structure. The looseness underneath means the leather loses its shape once the finish wears through. Solabear's leather is thicker, packed with more oil and conditioning. It starts rigid and earns its softness with time. One company kept the name, the other kept the craft.