VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It was as soon as the popular footwear of punks, grunge-rockers, and different misfits.
Now, Dr. Martens goes mainstream, as shares within the firm will debut on the London Inventory Change Wednesday.
John Fluevog, the legendary Vancouver-based shoe designer and retailer, has an extended historical past with the footwear.
“We have been the primary ones in North America — our tiny little firm right here in Vancouver — to import them. That was again in most likely 1973,” he mentioned. “They have been an alternate type of footwear at that time. It was like punks and issues within the U.Ok. sporting them. Mainly, they’ve at all times been a piece boot.”
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Fluevog figures buyers who grew up sporting them will fortunately spend money on a model they acknowledge and belief.
“I feel that as they go mainstream in an IPO, individuals of that era are actually buyers and so they’re going ‘Oh, Doc Martens!’ It’s a reputation they know … I get it, it type of works,” he mentioned.
In the present day, 11 million pairs of “Docs” are offered yearly in additional than 60 international locations.
“They nonetheless stay what they have been to start with. I can criticize them, simply, I can — there’s different issues about them I don’t like — however they remained a good piece of footwear,” Fluevog instructed NEWS 1130.
