![]() Five factories and two shops were closed in the UK, and more than 1,000 of the firm's employees lost their jobs. On 1 April that year, under pressure from declining sales, the company ceased making shoes in the UK, and moved all production to China and Thailand. Martens company came close to bankruptcy. AirWair International Ltd revenue fell from US$412 million in 1999 to $127 million in 2006. Martens were sold exclusively under the AirWair name in dozens of different styles, including conventional black shoes, sandals and steel-toed boots. The brand filed a number of lawsuits in 2016 based primarily on trademark law. Martens were also the principal sponsors of Premier League club, West Ham United F.C., renaming the upgraded west stand 'The Dr Martens Stand'. A new main stand was built at Nene Park in 2001, named the Airwair Stand. Diamonds approached owner and local businessman Max Griggs to request sponsorship from his company. Martens sponsored Rushden & Diamonds F.C. Griggs company employed 2,700 people, expected to earn annual revenue of £170 million, and could produce up to 10 million pairs of shoes per year. ![]() Martens department store was opened in Covent Garden in London which also sold food, belts, and watches. The boots and shoes became popular in the 1990s as grunge fashion arose. Martens outside the UK, obtaining the rights to make them in Dunedin, New Zealand, which they did for several years. In 1989 Accent Group became the first manufacturer of Dr. #Black doc martens tvMartens' Boots" in a 1982 episode of the British TV comedy The Young Ones. The shoes' popularity among politically right-wing skinheads led to the brand gaining an association with violence. By the later 1960s, skinheads started to wear them, "Docs" or "DMs" being the usual naming, and by the late 1970s, they were popular among scooter riders, punks, some new wave musicians, and members of other youth subcultures. The boots were popular among workers such as postmen, police officers and factory workers. In addition, a number of shoe manufacturers in the Northamptonshire area and further afield produced the boots under licence, as long as they passed quality standards. 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. The three-eyelet shoe arrived exactly one year later with the style number 1461 (1/4/61). 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. Martens", slightly re-shaped the heel to make them fit better, added the trademark yellow stitching, and trademarked the soles as AirWair. ![]() Griggs Group bought patent rights to manufacture the shoes in the United Kingdom. Almost immediately, British shoe manufacturer R. In 1959, the company had grown large enough that Märtens and Funck looked at marketing the footwear internationally. Sales had grown so much by 1952 that they opened a factory in Munich. The comfortable soles were a big hit with housewives, with 80% of sales in the first decade to women over the age of 40. ![]() 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. 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. Martens boots, with distinctive yellow stitching around the sole A pair of classic black leather Griggs' Dr. ![]()
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