To chart the beginnings of the Dr. Martens brand, we must travel back in time to 1945. The scene is a little German town called Seeshaupt, near Munich, where a German medical doctor named Klaus Maertens injured his foot while skiing in the Bavarian Alps.

As he was convalescing, Dr. Maertens hit upon the idea of developing a shoe with a revolutionary air cushioned sole to provide extra comfort and support. He teamed up with an old college engineering friend and they began to develop the idea further, soon unveiling the world's first heat-sealed air cushioned sole.

By the late fifties, shoes featuring the revolutionary sole were selling well in Germany under the brand name Dr. Maertens, but the two men were keen to explore new opportunities and find new markets. They placed ads in trade magazines, and the keen-eyed chairman of an English footwear manufacturer called R. Griggs & Co. spotted one of them.

Bill Griggs' company had a footwear pedigree stretching back to the start of the century, but he was on the lookout for something new. Recognizing the potential of the revolutionary soles, Bill acquired the global rights to the air-cushioned sole and set to work on developing a range of footwear to complement it. The result, including a slight name change, was Dr. Martens, commonly called Doc Martens today.