I like Dr. Marten boots. In particular, I like my oxblood 12-hole Dr. Marten boots. They're comfortable as hell, seem to last forever, and have seen me through many years of good times and bad. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about this great brand of boots; if you look around, you can probably spot a pair of Dr. Martens right now … I'm sure somebody's wearing a pair close to you (if not you!). They are a major part of today's culture, both underground and mainstream, and to think it all started because of a sore foot.

In 1945 in the Bavarian Alps, near a small town called Seeshaupt (near Munich), the athlete and avid skier Klaus Maerten takes a foot-wrenching fall while skiing on the mountain. He is laid up in bed for weeks, and of course, every time he tries to walk he gets a horrible pain in his injured foot. This plants the spark in his mind: "Why not invent a shoe with a revolutionary air-cushioned sole to provide extra comfort and support?" (Or, since he was, after all, German: "Warum man nicht einen Schuh mit einer revolutionäre Luft gepolsterten Sohle erfindet, um Extrakomfort zur Verfügung zu stellen und zu unterstützen?").

Dr. Maerten teams up with an old college buddy who is also an engineer, Dr. Herbert Funck. The two of them, hoping to ease the pain of sore feet, turn their idea into the first pair of air-cushioned sole shoes in 1945. The shoes are quite comfortable and durable, so Dr. Funck suggests selling the shoes to all their German friends. The shoes and boots with the new comfy sole are a big hit by the late 1950s, and were selling under the name Dr. Maertens.

The Dr. Maerten footwear company wanted to increase sales a bit, so they began placing ads in various trade magazines around Europe. It was in 1958 that the chairman of an English footwear manufacturer, Bill Griggs, spots one of the ads. It seems Bill is keen on feet and recognizes the strange sole as something new and extraordinary in footwear. His family acquires global rights to produce the soles at their factory in the village of Wollaston-Northamptonshire, England, where the footwear is still produced to this day. The first pair rolled off the factory line, with its famous yellow stitch and unique sole, on April 1, 1960. (This accounts for their subculture name: 1460s.)

During the middle to late-'60s, the emerging skinhead youth movement was one of the first to adopt Dr. Martens as their boot of choice. This was probably because of the trusty steel-toe cap that was used quite often during fights. Eventually, after this style of boot were classified as offensive weapons, the company stopped producing the steel toes. According to the company, the eight-eyelet brown boot was the most popular during this time period. The black-style boots didn't become trendy till around 1970.

Around 1973, with the release of the movie Quadrophenia, the English mod subculture adopted cherry red 1460s as their boot of choice. These remained bestsellers for five or six years, before blacks and greens started taking off with the punk movement.

A growing number of workers were beginning to wear the boots as well. Because of the sturdiness of the uppers, and the oil and acid resistant sole, they were perfect for work in factories. They were also adopted by English policemen because of their comfortableness during long patrols on the street.

During the 1980s the boots stayed underground in the United States, until the '90s grunge explosion steered mainstream culture into a head-on collision with punk fashion. This was great for the Dr. Marten company, which began producing boots in numbers never before seen. Now you could find these shoes not only in punk fashion boutiques, but also in Burdines stores and malls around the country.

While everyone and their brothers now have a pair of Docs, the boots are still favorites of workers and underground culturalists alike. The heavy-duty, comfy soles and long wearing uppers really make for excellent footwear that really lasts. I still remember the time I got my first pair in the mail from London, what a day that was! And while the price hasn't changed much, the boots haven't either. I think we should all take a moment to thank a skiing accident in the Bavarian Alps for these great boots.

( early in the story you notice the name change of the boots from Maerten to Marten, we cannot find a reference to why this happened but it was probably to make the boots sounds more english as heavy anti-german feelings ran high after wwII )