Talk:Dr. Martens

Spelling

• The official page spells the name as Maertens, but I suspect the actual spelling is Märtens, as the German umlaut ä is often transcribed as ae. Can anyone confirm?

• Note: while British English does not use a full stop after abbreviated titles such as "Dr", the label on the pair on the photograph and the company website do; hence the use of "Dr." here.

Ä and AE are absolutely the same! The difference is only in writing. wihni (Berlin)

British English (up till the late 1980s) used to punctuate abbreviations with a full stop (period), but does no longer. The label is using the "classic" look.

Nuttyskin 00:47, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

British English can indeed punctuate abbreviated titles such as "Dr." with a full stop. Some people do, some people don't, both are acceptable. --81.132.227.254 (talk) 11:14, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Skinhead violence

[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg -->|thumb|165px|right|Skinheads in 1960s]] I'm offended by your statement that skinheads word red docs to hide victims blood. There may have been a small minority that were like this. Skins are what kept doc martens alive and kicking for years. Doc martens own book on their history plays much more lip service to the skins and also gives a more truth based overview of the skinhead subculture.

It sickens my heart each and everytime someone mentions skinheads and feels that they must make no mention of what skins are and were, instead they feel the need to jab the knife deeper into a group of people who have been cast aside as racist thugs. The majority of skins are infact not racist. Skinheads of all races and nationalities are living in most countries of the world and are proud of their working class roots. Please do more research on skins before rudely implying that they are all criminals.

Besides which, the allegation is based on a factual error: dried blood is brown, not red.

Nuttyskin 05:02, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, as an American, the mentioning of Dr. Martens with skinheads twice in this article struck me as odd. You see, in my opinion, it seems that in America, Skinhead means "Neo Nazi." Our dictionaries tend to support this. Connecting that subculture with a German-founded company was an easy connection and I got a little confused. Now that I actually read the Skinhead article on Wikipedia and see that outside of my country, the movement had a different meaning, I come back here and ask someone more knowledgeable about the subject to straighten out this article somehow so that it is clear that you are not saying "These boots were made popular by racist kids wanting to wear improved versions of WWII German boots." CSZero (talk) 00:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Who owns the brand these days?

Some info about who owns the brand would be welcome. --moof 08:36, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Still "R.Griggs", as far as I know --Vugluskr

Seems true. They have a lot at www.ipo.gov.uk like trade marks for the brand. Doubt the process is covered by patent. A similar question: I saw a legal report about Griggs v Blundell in Australia. I think it said that the Funck / Maertens Trade Mark and Patent Association had written the licences to factories up until about '85, which Griggs bought the rights and tried to end the licences. This seems to contradict the Wiki article but I can't find the reference. All I've seen since is something about watches licenced by Funck / Maertens Trade Mark and Patent Association. Veganline (talk) 10:39, 4 September 2009 revised 21.02.14 (UTC)

Madness' Single

Specifically, which single was it, by Madness, that had the Dr. Martens as cover art?

Vegetarian Doc Martens before 2000

Hi. In the article it's stated that Doc Martens started making vegetarian/vegan models from January 2000. Actually, I can recall seeing those as early as 1997. I couldn't tell which year the actual production started though, but I'm almost 100% sure the different pairs I saw back then were Dr Martens and vegetarian. If anyone has some info on this I'd be very interested! Thanks. --Cheekychico 11:31, 3 November 2007 (UTC)Cheekychico

An anecdotal account isn't enough to justify adding it to the article. There are no reliable references that support your claim.--Metalhead94 (talk) 20:44, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Are you talking to me? I don't want to add this to the article I'm asking for people's infos so it can be added to the article —Preceding Cheekychico comment added by Special:Contributions/Cheekychico (talk) 10:22, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

You could get info from the Vegetarian Shoes web site or write Mr Robin Webb a letter. He was the first person to sell veggie DMs. Veganline (talk) 10:41, 4 September 2009 (UTC)

After all these years I've finally found information that confirmed my personal experience. Dr Martens produced non-leather vegetarian/vegan versions of their shoes including the classic 1460 boot to the company Vegetarian Shoes of Brighton, UK from circa 1992~93. This was confirmed to me by the owner and founder of Vegetarian Shoes, Mr Robin Webb himself, via personal communication. There are also plenty of newspaper cuttings from the 90s in which you can see the vegetarian Dr Martens he sold, here: http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/images/uploaded/press/bbcvegetarian.gif http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/images/uploaded/press/timesmay1994.gif http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/images/uploaded/press/thetimesmar1993.gif http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/images/uploaded/press/footweardigest.gif http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/images/uploaded/press/dailyexpressjune1996.gif

As such, I've edited the article. Cheekychico15:46, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I found, August 15 2012, a website that claims to sell Dr. Marten's vegan line of shoes at Zappos: http://www.zappos.com/dr-martens-1461-vegan-3-eye-gibson-cherry-red#prdInfo

• Enjoy the classic styling and quality of Dr. Martens®, with the friendly nature of the Vegan Gibson.
• Part of the Vegan Collection.
• Vegan-friendly.
• Upper is made from a non-leather, synthetic

As such, this would imply that it IS possible to find newly-made vegan-friendly Doc Marten's shoes in the USA.

• MaynardClark (talk)

Off the subject a bit, Tredair which was an over-lapping brand with DMs until about 1985 produced their first batch of vegan boots in 1998. I might still have the receipt somewhere. John Robertson , Veganline.com selling vegan shoes online since 19985.66.78.19 (talk) 13:47, 21 February 2014 (UTC)

Laces

How are you supposed to lace these up? The laces are very long and leave large dangling bows. Are you supposed to wrap the laces around your ankle before tying them? Danceswithzerglings (talk) 18:12, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Trust me, it's harder with the 20 eye ones, but at least my pants [and coat, really] cover it up... I guess you could just slide them under the tongue of it and hope it doesn't come out? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.81.136.71 (talk) 23:40, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

I think you're supposed to tuck the extra length of lace inside. Danceswithzerglings (talk) 19:45, 17 December 2009 (UTC)