Doc Martens

In 1945, a German doctor named Klaus Märtens injured his ankle skiing and, during his recovery, designed a boot with an air-cushioned sole. He partnered with Herbert Funck in Seeshaupt, Germany, in 1947, and they built soles from discarded rubber — salvage materials that somehow created something better than what anyone was making new.

In 1959, the British shoemaker R. Griggs Group bought the rights, anglicized the name to Dr. Martens, and added the signature yellow stitching. The classic eight-eyelet cherry-red 1460 boot launched on April 1, 1960 — the style number literally comes from that date, 1/4/60 — with the three-eyelet 1461 shoe following a year later. They were workwear first: postmen, police, factory workers, people who needed something that would last. Then came the subcultures.

Skinheads claimed the boot in the late 1960s, punks in the late 1970s, and by the 1990s grunge kids were scuffing them up and wearing them with flannel and babydoll dresses as the uniform of angsty authenticity. The Docs said: I don't care about fashion — which, of course, made them fashion. Per the BBC, the company still makes more than half its revenue from those two original models, the 1460 and the 1461.

By 2003 the brand was nearly bankrupt; that year production moved to China and Thailand and five UK factories closed. But a "Vintage" line resumed English production in 2004, and in the 2010s Docs roared back as the look became cool all over again. Some things endure.