Doctor Marten's plc

Dr. Martens, also commonly known as Doc Martens, Docs, or DMs, is a British footwear and clothing brand, headquartered in Wollaston in the Wellingborough district of Northamptonshire, England. Although famous for its footwear, Dr. Martens also makes a range of accessories, such as shoe care products, clothing, and bags. The footwear is distinguished by its air-cushioned sole (dubbed Bouncing Soles), upper shape, welted construction, and yellow stitching. 

Dr. Martens' design studio is in Camden Town, London, and the manufacturing is in the UK, China, and Thailand. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Klaus Märtens was a doctor in the army of Nazi Germany during World War II. After he injured his ankle in 1945, he found that his standard-issue army boots were too uncomfortable on his injured foot. While recuperating, he designed improvements to the boots, with soft leather and air-padded soles made of tyres. When the war ended and some Germans recovered valuables from their own cities, Märtens took leather from a cobbler's shop. With that leather, he made himself a pair of boots with air-cushioned soles. 

Märtens did not have much success selling his shoes until he met up with an old university friend, Herbert Funck, a Luxembourger, in Munich in 1947. Funck was intrigued by the new shoe design, and the two went into business that year in Seeshaupt, Germany, using discarded rubber shaped by moulds. The comfortable soles were a big hit with housewives, with 80% of sales in the first decade to women over the age of 40. Sales had grown so much by 1952 that they opened a factory in Munich. 

In 1959, the company had grown large enough that Märtens and Funck looked at marketing the footwear internationally. Almost immediately, British shoe manufacturer R. Griggs Group bought patent rights to manufacture the shoes in the United Kingdom. Griggs anglicised the name to "Dr. Martens", slightly re-shaped the heel to make them fit better, added the trademark yellow stitching, and trademarked the soles as AirWair. 

The first Dr. Martens boots in the UK, with an eight-eyelet cherry-red coloured smooth leather design known as style 1460 and still in production today, although in many variations, were introduced on 1 April 1960. The three-eyelet shoe arrived exactly one year later with style number 1461 (1/4/61). 

Dr. Martens boots were made in their Cobbs Lane factory in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, where they continued to be made, in addition to production elsewhere, until at least 2018. In 1989, Accent Group became the first manufacturer of Dr. Martens outside the UK, obtaining the rights to make them in Dunedin, New Zealand, which they did for several years. In the 2000s, Dr. Martens were sold exclusively under the AirWair name in dozens of different styles, including conventional black shoes, sandals, and steel-toed boots. 

AirWair International Ltd's revenue fell from US$412 million in 1999 to $127 million in 2006. In 2004, a new range of Dr. Martens was launched in an attempt to appeal to a wider market, especially young people. The shoes and boots were intended to be more comfortable, and easier to break in, and included some new design elements. Dr. Martens also began producing footwear again at the Cobbs Lane Factory in Wollaston, England in 2004 as part of the "Vintage" line, which the company advertises as being made to the original specifications. 

In 2018, ten million pairs of Dr. Martens shoes were produced, only one percent in the UK. Annual revenue in 2019 was £454 million, six times more than in 2013. The most popular model remained the 1460 boots. In 2019, Dr. Martens announced plans to double the production of shoes and boots in the UK, to 165,000 pairs annually in 2020. Dr. Martens' design studio is in Camden Town, London.

According to their website their mission is to "empower rebellious self-expression".

The company considers it to be its responsibility to act as brand custodian. Its aim is to deliver long-term value for the business.